Quill Steerer not going into steerer....

Trying to fit a 1" quill stem into my fork steerer tube.

The new stem is shorter, but the quill is significantly longer than the old one. It slides in but is still too high / much left not in.

There's enough fork steerer length to accomodate the quill, but it stops a couple of inches from being fully in....

I think it's due to the inside of the steerer having some rust / other cack on the inside from being thown up from the front wheel.....

Have already tried cleaning the inside with degreaser / WD40 to try and lift the cack off, some success but still not quite enough.

Do I:
Take a round file and clear the inside of the steerer?
Use a round wire brush on a drill or similar dremel type tool and clean the inside of the steerer?
Take a hack saw to the quill part of the stem?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Advice on what not to do?

The fork's a manitou mach v sx from about 1996....steel steerer I believe.

Cheers M.

Are you sure there isn't a wedge from a previous stem still in there?
I'd try turning the bike upside down and seeing if you can push out from below.

Sounds similar to a problem I had when extending a steerer tube.
The problem was the internal bore of the steerer tapered, being a thicker wall at the fork end.
Might be worth a check, you might be pushing the quill into the taper.

This can happen with shorter steerers - Had exactly the same problem with my Wilier when I got it. Only solution was a different stem.

Cut the quill so it is the same length as the old stem - just make sure the bolt has enough thread on it to allow the shortening.

Cheers!

There's no stuck wedge in the steerer - I took the forks off the bike and tried cleaning the inside to remove the caked on mud etc, but there still seems to be a fair bit of debri / rust in the lower couple of inches.

Didn't realise the steerer could be tapered - will measure the internal diameters of the steerer, (top & bottom), but it may be that I need to cut the stem's quill down & maybe also the bolt.....

Anybody else got similar forks to compare against or have a service manual?

Ta M.