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Hi Guys, am in the process of building up a carbon hardtail xc frame I got for free, nearly finished it but the integrated headset is giving me a bit of trouble. It has a small amount of play in the upper frame cup where the bearing sits into.
I'm preloading it the correct way with the correct amount of space left at the top of the steerer. I've checked the carbon cup in the frame and it's slightly uneven at one side which causes the bearing to not sit correctly.
Now it's not bad enough that I couldn't live with it (free frame and all) but I'd like to try to solve it. I've tried running some sandpaper around the rim but I don't want to remove too much material as it may harm the integrity of the headset.
I was thinking of possibly putting a layer of epoxy (or superglue 🤣) into the cup, tighten the bearing down into it and leaving it sit/harden for a few hours to mould any gaps between the cup and the bearing, am I an idiot? 🤷♂️
Any other ideas?
Does it actually move once you have preloaded it?
I had a similar bit of oddness with a frame, but found that once I had tightened everything up appropriately the headset worked exactly as intended.
There is a small bit of play that I can reduce to near nothing by tightening the top cap too much, but I'd rather have slightly looser steering so I'm trying to figure out a solution.
Too big for retaining compound? Loctite 641?
Was thinking maybe trying loctite 638, that's up to .25mm correct? What's loctites biggest retaining compound?
Rather than epoxy or superglue, I’d use an epoxy putty such as Milliput.
Haven't heard of that stuff, how does it work? Put a layer of putty into the cup, tighten bearing in and leave?
If it were mine, I would try a removable retaining compound first before ramping up to the more permanent epoxy based solutions.
You want to get the bearings out again so dont even go near glues!
Stupid question maybe but definitely headset and not fork legs? Had BOS, fox and Rockshox legs both rock and knock to greater or lesser extents.
With the bearing in i’ve found a little uneveness never an issue. But what does cause significant movement is not fitting headset spacers and collars properly.
My KTM and subsequently Bird headsets have a shim that slides down the steerer into the gap between steerer and bearing.
Get that wrong and only way to stop rocking is tighten to within an inch of its life which is clearly wrong. Something else to check.
If its definitely gap around the outside of the bearing I’d personally do a few wraps of plumbers ptfe tape round the bearing outer. Cheap, no reaction with anything and easy to get bearing back out.
Bodge award goes to silasgreenback 👍🎉🎉 the simple solution actually worked, ran 3 runs of blue electrical tape around the outside and bottom of the bearing, cut away any excess on top and no play in the headset anymore. Might do the same with the bottom bearing but that seems perfect. Thanks 👍
There's still some knocking but that's coming from a combination of the cheap forks
and brakes I'm using which I'm perfectly okay with once the headset is sorted.