Headset jam nut removal

[expjawa]

OK, here's what should be an easy one - How do you break the jam nut from a threaded headset free when it doesn't want to?

I've done this job a zillion times, and this is the first time I've run across this problem. I've got Schwinn Hollywood middleweight that I picked up a while back. I completely disassembled the bike to clean and regrease it, with the exception of the fork. I cannot get the headset jam nut to break free, although it doesn't appear to be rusted in place or anything. I started with the normal procedure of putting a wrench on the nut and holding the fork. That didn't work. So, I put a 3' wooden driveway stake through the fork to brace it against the frame, so I could put both hands on the wrench. Then I tried an extension handle on the wrench. Lastly, I turned the frame upside down and clamped the nut in the bench vice, and tried turning the fork with a bar between the legs, just up under the crowd. That only succeeded in turning the vice in its clamp. All of this came after repeated soaking the nut with PB Blaster over several days. Frankly, I've never had a piece of hardware not come free after using the PB.

Ideas? I might have to heat it, or possible try to split the nut at this point...

 

[Bill in Houston]

Did you whack it with a hammer some? Tap on the top of it, spray the PB, tap, every 20 minutes for a week.

 

[jerrykr]

I had a Schwinn Colligiate girls that I never did break free. Dis-similar metals. All I can do is wish you luck. :wink:

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Use a die grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut a section out. It'll release the tenstion on it and come off. Don't go crazy grinding the head tube threads, but if ya grind em just file that section clean. Sometimes the only way you'll get a nut off.

 

[expjawa]

That's what I was thinking by splitting it. I can get in there with a small cutoff on the Dremel readily enough, I think. It'll have to wait till next weekend, though. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

[Crassly]

I bought a socket that fits the nut and used my air impact. Sometimes on a tough one I have to tighten and loosen several times to get it moving, but it hasn't failed me yet.

 

[expjawa]

A good thought, thanks.