Here is the thing. I'm building a bike. Just the forks left to fit. I cannot get the lower race to fit properly. It fits inside the cup but will not sit on the bottom of the fork without play. The top race has a split o ring in there but there is not supposed to be one for the crown race. The fork seems to have a seal built in but the race does not fit over it snugly and there is not a seal in the kit. I can't figure out where I am going wrong. Evidently it's an FSA headset. Anybody?
You have a crown race on the fork already. Your crown race is, I think, meant for a loose ball headset. The correct crown race should have a 45 degree or a 36 degree taper on it depending on the type of bearings you have. A few headsets fit with no crown race at all, the bearing just goes onto the bare fork; yours might be one of those.
That fork crown is for an integrated headset and not a traditional style headset. If that is a traditional style crown race you have on the crown it will have to be removed, which will be a job and a half. Job for an LBS that has a crown race puller.
Did that headset not come with a collet to go on the fork? Where did that trad style crown race come from?
Valbrona wrote:That fork crown is for an integrated headset and not a traditional style headset. If that is a traditional style crown race you have on the crown it will have to be removed, which will be a job and a half. Job for an LBS that has a crown race puller.
Thanks for the replies. I'm still a bit confused through. That crown race is a permanent feature of the fork. It as far as I know will not come off. The headset is from my spares box so I have not idea where it came from. The fork is the correct one for the frame. Are we saying that I cannot use this headset? I don't understand the use of the sharp screwdriver.
if the bearing isn't a direct fit to the machined diameter on the fork crown then you will need a tapered crown race (as per my earlier post) maybe one like this;
The crown race you need on the fork isn't actually a crown race, but people use that term. It is just a steel collet, and some of them can be split so as to allow easy fitting/removal.
I've never bought an FSA headset, and I don't know which you have, but I'd assumed that there is a crown race/collet with the headset. I had a quick look at the installation instructions for an integrated headset and a crown race is shown
The 36 x 36 markings in your first photo is the angle of the internal and external chamfer on the sealed bearing that you're holding Make a note of all those numbers and letters, they'll be handy in future should you need to order a new bearing. The 87? is the FSA part number
NB; If you have an FSA headset with ACB #871 and #872 36 degree bearings in it, the #871 bearing is meant to go in the bottom and the #872 bearing (which normally has a dark-coloured inner section) is meant to go in the top. I think the reason for this is that the counterbore is slightly different in the bearing centre, and even if you have the correct crown race etc, the headset may not work correctly with the bearings in the wrong way round.
Reversing the position of the bearings is easily done; the external dimensions are identical and the bearings look as if they will fit OK when they are the wrong way round. There are lots of other headsets with ACBs where they use identical bearings top and bottom but for some reason FSA often use this pairing.
