Is it my steerers expansion plug

[andsaw]

I have a supersix evo 105 6 and have had a clicking from the top end for a while and just cant seem to get rid of it, it has a carbon steerer i have had fork out cleaned bearing surfaces in fact everything there is to clean many times but always come back roughly every six miles it comes back so i tighten the top cap with stem bolts undone and tighten up as far as i dare.
After another six miles and it comes back so i stop and redo what i did before and it tightens up a bit more, its as if either the threads are stretching or there is not enough for the top cap to tighten up on the expanding plug which is about 3mm until it the cap hits the stem or the plug is set too deep inside the steerer.
Just to clear it up abit, the clicking is when im on the hoods and its side to side action lifting or pushing and even stationary it will do it, is there something i am doing wrong or is there something wrong with the fork or would doing something to the expanding plug sort it (or get a new one), its doing my head in, please help.

 

[User6179]

If you have spacers below the stem try moving them , if the top cap/bung is coming loose the spacers can be turned by hand while holding the bars straight , if the top cap/bung is doing their job the spacer should only turn with the handlebars .
I had to glue in a bung as it kept sliding and bottoming out with the top cap but that was an alloy steerer not carbon.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I've had a similar issue in the past with both an alloy and carbon steerer. It seems I was just a bit crap at estimating how much torque 5Nm is. I got a little torque key, preset to about 5Nm, turned the bolts to their recommended 5Nm, and it stopped the issue.

 

[Tojo]

Try some carbon assembly paste and tighten to correct torque.....

 

[Smokin Joe]

Remove the bung, take it apart and grease the threads and the cones where they contact the expander (Taking care not to get grease on the outside of the expander), reassemble the bung, tighten it back into the steerer and replace stem, spacers and top cap.

All should be ok.

 

[jonny jeez]

Is it a red Evo, the red ones always click

 

[andsaw]

Should I put the bung in its original position or is there a limit to how it should be set, as in can it come a bit higher up so there is more thread engaging with the bung, and its the grey SS.

 

[gbb]

As per another post recently I had problems with a Bianchi FC fork bung....different symptoms but I was unable to adjust it to rid it of cracking sounds...lbs undid stem etc...banged the front wheel firmly on the ground then did it all back up...problem never returned.

 

[Tojo]

As per another post recently I had problems with a Bianchi FC fork bung....different symptoms but I was unable to adjust it to rid it of cracking sounds...lbs undid stem etc...banged the front wheel firmly on the ground then did it all back up...problem never returned.

Yup..you have to do that or put some down pressure on as there is no weight in these lightweight bikes to settle it down on its own weight and nobody wants too over-tighten.. therefore you get a bit ( very slight ) play... really though now its getting down to so very small tolerance with carbon everything..you need a torque wrench...just to avoid popping something.
I've worked in engineering all my life and even on the high end of torque settings it is important then, when you go down to the torque settings on carbon frame bikes nowadays you have to be very careful as it is miniscule to the point where you could over-tension with a hex key and that is the development of these carbon assembly compounds to stop things slipping on these very low torque settings, but unfortunately some cycle mechanics just use whatever sort of grease they are given to put a bike together, and lo and behold some poor punter gets their new bike and gets on it..whoops the bloody seat stem sinks...oh ill just reset it and give it a wee nip....pop top of the seat tube split, it happened to a mate of mine, luckily he had just left the shop on his new steed and turned round an took it back and the so called mech poped the top of the seat tube.......

 

[andsaw]

I always sit on the top tube so there's always weight on it, i have decided to buy another type of bung, a BBB bap 03 Powerhead bung and see if that cures it, and the only problem with top caps there's no torque setting, so will leave until it comes and see what happens and will report back.

 

[andsaw]

I always sit on the top tube so there's always weight on it, i have decided to buy another type of bung, a BBB bap 03 Powerhead bung and see if that cures it, and the only problem with top caps there's no torque setting, so will leave until it comes and see what happens and will report back.