Herb,
Are you suffering from French Headset Disease? The French use a steerer that has a flattened portion and lockring with a D shaped hole. Sometimes the lockring slips around and smashes the threads on the steerer next to the flat part. French fork dies are expensive if you can find them. Any mechanics that know what you're talking about are probably retired. One thing you can try is make a thread chaser out of an old adjustable headset race. Cut some grooves perpendicular to the threads and use some cutting oil. You have to find a race with wrench flats though. Many French races are just knurled and they won't work. I tried to chase the threads with a knurled race and got it stuck. I ended up having to use a chain wrench that I had purchased to remove spheres from a Citroen DS21 to get the race off the fork. Good luck.
Leonard Bulger Ann Arbor, MI
I've been asking around and calling around trying to find someone that can repair the threads on the front fork steerer tube of my '77 Motobecane. The threads are damaged about midway down and I can't get my new French headset screwed down far enough. Anyone know anyone that has the proper dies to fix this?
Herb Langston
1979 Benotto (completed restoration)
1977 Motobecane (under restoration)