Crown race gap - am I going to die?

So what did you do?

Smothered the crown in grease and turned out my house mate had a hammer and large screwdriver. I kept tapping away working my way round and after about half and hour it got on, persistence and getting anal about it is the key I think.

Eventually we all die...

Just thought I'd raise that

True, its just a matter of when....

True, its just a matter of when....

Has someone thought about starting a thread or something?

lfgss death pool?

I have the opposite problem; my crown race is too loose - it spins freely around the bottom of the steerer tube. It is the correct size (i.e. 1 inch not 1 1/8 inch) and the gap between race and steerer is probably less than a millimetre.

Has anyone had the same issue and then fixed it? If so, how? I reckon a very narrow Stella can shim might do the trick.

As per the Sheldon Brown link posted by Fatoldbloke above, there are a few different sizes of 1in headset - they end up with the internal race diameters a touch different, and it sounds like you might have a JIS spec headset on an ISO spec fork - 0.6mm different.

Obviously the pukka answer is a new headset. Equally obviously, a coke can shim and maybe some Loctite aren't going to kill you - think you'll probably need about three layers of can though, so it's maybe going to be tricky to get it tight fitting enough to stop movement and wear.

Ah yes. Good observation. Thanks.

In fact looking at that page again, it could even be the 0.1mm(!) difference between a ISO steerer and an Italian headset. Unlikely though. I'll disassemble it properly this evening and have a closer look.

Two very narrow beer can shim seems to have done the job perfectly. Bit fiddly measuring, cutting and then fitting them but I now have a headset with no clunk in it. One of my better bodges. It could, of course, be a matter of time before the aluminium shims disintergrate, but there should be no normal interference between race and steerer, so I'm hopeful.

Hurrah for the beer can shim! (I think it's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that points out beer cans are nearly ideal shim material, especially for clamped interfaces - thin, consistent thickness, easy to cut to size, deformable, and ready-protected from corrosion. But if you have a BMW or a Harley, you won't want such common-as-muck bodging contaminating your precious vehicle, so you'll insist on paying for a specialist branded shim ...)

More to the point, I'd keep an eye on the crown race for movement. There's no clamping force on the shim, and the race/crown is meant to be an interference fit - I doubt that the interface is quite as solid as it actually feels.

(I had in mind that cans were about 0.1mm thick - Wikipedia says 80 microns, so 0.08mm. Assuming you got two complete shims in there, you've filled between 0.36 and 0.4mm of the gap: looking back at the Sheldon link, I'd guess this is a JIS or old Italian race at 27.0mm on an ISO fork which wants a 26.4mm race, so a 0.6mm difference. You'd barely feel a 0.2mm gap, but if there's any looseness at all things might wear a bit oddly.)

Seems this problem has already been discussed and fixed in the beery way: http://www.lfgss.com/thread11318.html

Should have UTFS...

get a 3 inch square of 3/4 ply with a hole the size of the fork steerer drilled in the centre of it,place on top of lower headset part ,then gaffer tape tape the steerer thread (to protect it) then repeatedly drop a foot long piece of scaffolding tube down the steerer on to the wood.it will seat the race cup nice and squarely

I have the opposite problem; my crown race is too loose - it spins freely around the bottom of the steerer tube. It is the correct size (i.e. 1 inch not 1 1/8 inch) and the gap between race and steerer is probably less than a millimetre.

Has anyone had the same issue and then fixed it? If so, how? I reckon a very narrow Stella can shim might do the trick.

As per the Sheldon Brown link posted by Fatoldbloke above, there are a few different sizes of 1in headset - they end up with the internal race diameters a touch different, and it sounds like you might have a JIS spec headset on an ISO spec fork - 0.6mm different.

Obviously the pukka answer is a new headset. Equally obviously, a coke can shim and maybe some Loctite aren't going to kill you - think you'll probably need about three layers of can though, so it's maybe going to be tricky to get it tight fitting enough to stop movement and wear.

This is correct however, shimming it may keep it still but I wouldn't trust it not to oval your head tube over a period of time and large bumps on the road. Headsets need to be sound.