Stuck Quill Stem

So, this is what happened.
Bike is a Koga tourer, 1” threaded HT.

Removed old quill stem, SR, had been in there for 3 years at least, well greased and came out easily.
Put in new longer quill stem, 3ttt, tight fit but not impossible. Checked diameter as 22.2mm, same as the SR.
Loosened the bolt and pushed some more, banged it with a hammer and got it in to roughly the minimum insertion point. Plenty of grease used.
Tightened everything and went for a 50k ride, nothing untoward happened.
Today, felt bad about having used hammer. Tried to remove stem of course it’s completely stuck, lots of banging with hammer upwards came to nothing.
Have tried loosening the top of the threaded headset (I don’t know much about headsets), taking the bolt all the way out of the new stem, twisting the bars and wheel opposite directions etc. No effect.
Only other thing I can think of is the old stem had a wedge expander, this one has some hidden mechanism with a slot.

Anyone have suggestions or wants to tell me what I’ve done stupidly?

Stuck right here. Using hammer to try and get it out only moved it 1cm at most.

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Is the bottom of the fork crown open?
Some sort of rod to bash out the stem from underneath?
Plenty of penetrating fluid?

Hidden mechanism with slot? Was there definitely not a wedge expander already wedged in? Would explain the difficulty in installing it.

I would screw the stem bolt back in, so its solidly screwed in but has space below, then give that a gentle tap to try and push the wedge out. This of course assumes its actually a wedge!

I tried this, bike upside down overnight, HT filled with WD40. Big rod bashed underneath of stem this morning, still doesn’t move. Tried spraying extremely cold compressed air to shrink the stem down, no effect. Thanks for ideas still.

It is hidden mechanism with a slot. Don’t remember checking for any kind of expander. Just assumed it was ready to go.

Typically you get a wedge or an expander. If no wedge then I assume expander, with the slot there to allow the stem to be flared out by the expander. If you couldn’t see it that implies it was already wedge in when you installed it and may explain the difficulty installing. I may be wrong and it’s a stem type I’ve not seen.

Try loosening the bolt and giving it a tap downwards to try and shift the expander.

Try loosening the bolt and giving it a tap downwards to try and shift the expander.

This. Using the hammer has basically massively over tightened the stem, forcing it into the steerer tube.

Like this?

Is it possible you inserted the new stem in further (or it was longer) and reached the butting at the bottom of the steerer?

When you back the quill bolt out, does the bolt come up out of the stem or stay in the recess?

If it's coming up out of the stem it implies the wedge/expander etc is not falling down and unwedging/un-expanding as it should. Try and tap the bolt to knock the wedge/expander down. If you need to do more than a gentle tap then stick an allen key in and whack it so as not to deform the head of the bolt.

If the bolt head stays in the recess then the wedge/expander is falling away and the stem itself is stuck in the steerer. Applying percussive persuasion to the underside of the stem extension is going to be your best bet. Use a bit of wood or something to avoid damaging the stem.

In either scenario, inserting something from the bottom of the steerer and hammering on that is only likely to get things more stuck UNLESS you can completely undo the bolt and the wedge/expander falls out the bottom of the steerer. If you hammer anything up that way with the wedge/expander still in there you will only be tightening the stem into the steerer.

I suspect that as @M_V suggests whacking it with the hammer means you've pushed it/the wedge into the butted section at the bottom of the steerer, as shown in the diagram below:

So I'm also wondering if the new stem was longer than the old one?

If you have hammered the stem into the butted section you have to come at it from below, that's the only way that will work. I know because I did exactly the same thing with a quill adapter, and I am stupid. I managed to get mine out by going in from below with a long quill stem bolt and whacking it repeatedly with a hammer.

Thanks everyone.

I soaked it in penetrating fluid overnight upside down, great tip.
Repeated the drill of trying to get it out in several ways. No success.
Took it to Bikefix who got it out fairly easily with the aid of a bench vice and some twisting. Nice guys.

It wasn’t down to the butted section (headtube is long on this frame) but this was very interesting to learn about.

The moral of the story is; don’t use a hammer. I won’t forget this.

if a hammer won't fix it, you probably have an electrical problem...

i'll get me coat