I’ve always been nervous about tapping the star nut too far down into the fork, but if it’s too shallow, is that why my headset won’t tighten up enough?

The steerer cap bolt should just wind through the star nut – so as long as it’s ‘biting’ it should be low enough.

With the top cap off, how much gap is there between the top of the steerer and the top of the top stem spacer? You want the spacer to be at least 2-3mm higher so the top cap doesn’t bottom out before it clamps down..

Unlikely. Assuming that you have loosened the stem bolts before tightening top cap bolt then most likely cause is you not leaving enough gap between top of steerer and top of stem and the top cap is bottoming out on the steerer before headset play is taken up.

Add a spacer above the stem, another 2-3mm at lleast. The caps bottoming out on the steerer tube.

Is this the 1st time in stw history that 3 posters in a row have all agreed? 🙂

Are you trying to provoke an argument!? 👿 😆

Or lop off a few mill of the steerer 🙂

Yes, of course, doh moment. Will root around the spares box for a slightly taller spacer. Thanks for the global agreement!