My stem and forks seem to be one?!

just got my self a realy cheep fixed bike want to no how it all works..
i have taken out the bolt at the top of my stem ( i dont no what stem it is, quill etc )
lossend evrything up gone to pull out my stem and the it wont budge !
i put the frame down on my table and the stem drops down and so do the forks. . when i pull the stem up the forks come up

if you no what i mean it is like the forks are attached to the stem?

am i missing something or.. .? PLEASE HELP !

do the large headset bolts up, put back the long thing one that goes down the middle, and wack the top of bolt with a large hammer

ill give it a go now

cheers x

What is the 'realy cheep fixed bike'

If it looks like this, start off gently with that hammer.

put the bolt back in the stem dont screw it in just put it down the hole then take a hammer or mallet and give it a tap that should knock the wedge out of the bottom of the stem.
make sure you get the wedge out of the steerer when your done.

haha didnt read 31trum's post

ta

ah its not a unipak i was looking at those befour i read about em !
erm yeah ive hit it hard and hard agian. .
it aint moving. . it looks like the stem is going into some sort of threaded thing could that be stopping it?

Sounds like a quill stem to me.

Turn it upside down and whack the underside of the stem with a hammer.

it's not the threaded thing, there is a bung in the bottom of the stem, it is more than likely stuck in the fork steerer tube.......whack it again!! until the stem pushes down/releases itself.......go on!

A picture would help our diagnosis?

yeah i did think about pics
but i dont have a divice to take it with . .
ill just keep trying and tell you if i have luck. .
this suxxx ass ah
thannks evryone x

if the fork moves up with the stem, then it's ahead. a threaded fork/quill is fixed to the headset. did he loosen the headset (if it is a quill type)?

if the stem's got more than one bolt (usually, one on top and two on the side), it's an a-head stem. loosen all bolts, top one should come completely off.

Try un-doing your breaks clamping the handlebars and twisting the forks 360.
Also stupid question perhaps but does your stem look like
this:or this:

it looks like the the first one
the stem has one bolt on the top and i can pull it out completely..
then i lostend the headsetand relized i had a problem. .

the fork screws into the headset, but is also attached to the stem by the expander bolt which is the threaded thing you can see....do the headset back up...then continue the hammer thing....actually mallet is better to save your bolt, or use a piece of wood as a drift.

keep the headset tight, pop a wheel on, stand over the wheel (holding it between your legs), wd40 around the stem/headset, tap on the side of the stem (as if to turn it) with a hammer. careful now.

thanks to everyone for the wonderful spelling in this thread, it's been truly exceptional.

Depending on how old/cheap it is, it may turn out that the stem has fused to the forks - happens a lot with aluminium stems and steel forks, especially if the bike's been left outside or ridden in really crappy conditions, and they haven't greased or copper-slipped the stem before putting it in.

I've heard people mention caustic soda in the past, but I think that's a last resort (i.e. it'll melt your stem). I had a similar problem about a year ago and ended up hacksawing the stem off. When I got a closer look at the forks it was well and truly fused.

I've had this problem before, basically the bottom of the stem has probably rusted itself to the steerer tube, the way i resolved it was to turn the bike upside down remove the front wheel and spray in a shit load of something like wd40 in the bottom of the fork. leave it to work for a while then replace the front wheel,

make sure the expander bolt is gone and then brace the wheel between your knees, grip the bars and try and twist them back and forth, after a while and some sweat and elbow grease you should be able to twist the bars round, now just keep going until you can slowly move the bars up.

if it doesnt work for a while give up and spply more oil and then try again a bit later.

the wedge at the bottom of the stem may be jammed?

try putting the bolt back in till about 1 cm of it sticks above the top, then wack it with a mallet/hammer to loosen the wedge. remember to hold onto the bars to keep from marring the underside of the stem though.

I used a varient of the techniques described above (spotting a trend here?), turned the bike upside down, sprayed in loads of motor-cycle chain lube (first thing to hand) then left it for 24 hours.
Front wheel back in, bike the other way up.
Undo the bolt slightly so it is standing proud, then put a bit of wood on the top of the bolt and wang it with a Birmingham screwdriver a few times.
Mix that with twisting the bars and it will come out in time.

ah. birmingham screwdriver. my old man always called it a manchester screwdriver. ha! <_< that sounds dodgy.

Mooks when your cut you stem were you able to recover the forks, and just get a new stem. . and other bits? or. . .was it a bad thing cutting the stem?
x

You should be able to seperate the stem from the forks after you have sawed through the stem. Make sure you cut close to the top however as to avoid killing the steerer. I would try a bit of oil and time first before sawing the stem first though.

If your only seperating them to "see how it works" it may be better just to leave them.

Forks and stems fuse like this because as the steel in the steerer and the aluminum corrode they create a dead hard alloy. It seems to happen on bikes from the 70's onwards due to the materials used. If you do manage to seperate them get a bit of anti-seaze to stop it from happening again.