What I've seen most often trashed are the crown race and the lower fixed cup. This comes from my own bikes and my attempts to replace a Record headset by buying some used ones.
Feel in headsets is interesting. A crunchy or notchy feeling can be due to grit inside. It can also be due to old, dried grease that has lost its suspended oil, and is now nothing more than a hardened trail of little dirty mountains, providing obstacles to your bearing balls. "Don't want to touch an old headset" is not wise - it can turn an old good bearing into trash needing replacement.
I haven't really had loose ball replacement result in a bad headset turning good. I do think it's a good idea because it better divides the load, the parts are easier to source, and it might reduce further degradation. It's always a trial and error to find the maximum number of balls that will allow the bearing to seat (then subtract one). You need to do test fittings, in my experience.
Test fittings are also what tell me an old HS is not usable. If it fit well into the frame once, and I re-install (with a press), and if the correct adjsutment point is a matter of which way the fork is turned, I replace the headset. This leads to delays. To clarify, if I can adjust the HS correctly with the fork straight ahead, but it tightens upwhen I turn it 90 degrees, that isn't right, and I haven't found that turning the parts and re-installing it does any good. Reaming and facing might help, but I'm dealing with work parts anyway, so first I replace the HS. This usually gets it. If not, then I have it reamed/faced.
I call this dance "headset hell," especially if have a hard search to find a HS that meets the vintage requirements and the stack height.
I hope this isn't more than you wanted to hear about.
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA
On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 4:19 PM, <KvnMuadib@aol.com> wrote:
> hi all. what in your opinon is most likely part to wear in a trad. threaded
> headset? would pitting in fork crown race be most obvious to" feel" or
> negligible. can crunchiness due to minor pitting of cup or race be
> alleviated by
> loose bearings as oppoced to caged?do you add one more to the total if cage
> is
> removed?if all of this has been discussed before forgive me ,my browser and
> or
> operating system is having more than its share of timeouts freezes etc.so
> my
> comp time is a little reduced .thanks in advance kevin ruberg howell nj
> 07728
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