Fork steerer too tight

Finally got my Holdsworth back from Mercian last week and it's been nothing but problems since.
Fork crown race was built up by a previous owner to JIS (27.0) and had to be reamed back down to ISO (26.4)and the BB threads where next to useless and had to be re-tapped.

Last night i tried to install the stem and it wont go any further than 2-3 mm inside the fork before it jams!! I tried 3 different stems and none went any further.

Is there some kind of obsolete steerer tube diameter from the 50's that i don't know about? Should i take a file to the inside of the steerer tube?

file the stem ? n'est pas ?

would be easier than filing the inside of the steerer

^ What he said, better to trash a stem thats only gonna cost a tenner to replace rather than the steerer which you could accidentally completely fuck.

file the stem ? n'est pas ?

Was also thinking that but it's clearly the steerer tube which isn't the standard size but i guess i don't want to make it too weak.

you've got a lot of spare aluminium on a stem less so on a fork

stem it is.... any suggestions on what to file it with? I guess a flat file would work but might take a while.

rat tail would take chunks out
flat file will take forever

cucumber, fresh one

Take a look down the fork steer. Dose it look clean or is it dirty / corroded. It may be worth fleeing down the inside of the for steer lightly to remove corrosion.

french stems are thinner, I remember a purge-o i had once had a slightly smaller diameter steerer, but this seems odd for a holdsworth!

you might try some abrasive paper wrapped round a rod to take something off the inside of the steerer, might be paint or general matter. then on the stem. I wouldn't go straight in with a file

Take a look down the fork steer. Dose it look clean or is it dirty / corroded. It may be worth fleeing down the inside of the for steer lightly to remove corrosion.

The steerer looks clean to me.... a few bits of dirt further down but the stem doesn't even go past 4mm