Oh dear.

[Mulger bill]

I dropped the stem by another spacer on me roadie today, anyways, the bars needed adjusting slightly afterwards to bring the wrists back into line.
Fine until I got a bit heavy on the Allen key

I've stripped a faceplate thread on me beautiful original Deda Zero stem

Can I save it?

Shaun

memo self... don't work on bikes after a hard weeks nightshift.

[Bnej]

I've stripped a faceplate thread on me beautiful original Deda Zero stem

Can I save it?[/size]

Possibly.

If you can find someone with a tap the right size they could chase the threads which might clean it and let you use it again. The Scotts Auto One shop I bought my Thule bike rack from did this to fix the allen bolt that holds the two halves together after I stripped it.

If that doesn't work and there is plenty of material around the bolt, you might be able to retap it for a slightly larger bolt.

But it ought to be possible just to clean the damaged part out of the thread, stem faceplate bolts are decently long so there should be plenty of undamaged thread in there.

[John Lewis]

G'day Mulger Bill,

I wonder if a helicoil can be found in the size you need? I've salvaged things several times with these. If you don't know, its like a spring. You tap the hole oversize with a special tap and wind in the spring like bit to form the new thread.

Maybe a motor bike shop or similar can help. That's where I got my work done.

Hope this helps.

John lewis

[toolonglegs]

I have helicoiled plenty of stem bolts...go to a motorbike shop and ask there?.
Easy repair if it is a removeable face plate and 5 or 6 mm thread.

edit...should of read johns thread first...oh well you will know for sure now

[kukamunga]

If it's an M7 thread, could be a bit trickier. I have an M7 x 1.0 tap at home.... they are available

[sogood]

Time to invest in that torque wrench! For cheap, Ritchey's Torq Key is a good deal with fixed 5Nm setting. Deda's Zero100 uses 8Nm which is just a tiny bit above that. So good enough as a reference. For me, I just tighten it to 5Nm and have found it to hold well enough.

[Mulger bill]

Thanks all, knowing that Toolong trusts helicoils answers all me worries.

I did a bit of digging on the stem, it's Dedas original zero and the faceplate bolts are angled. Gotta do each bolt up a turn at a time or they strip

Off to the moto shop for MB....

Shaun

[kukamunga]

Helicoils/ thread inserts will be a lot, lot stronger than the original cheesy threads. Get both done at same time so any ham-fisted tightening in the future will only result in crushed bars (Hmmm... Ham and cheese...)