Head Knocking

[wyowags]

Dang, I thought I was hearing things. My '05' seems to be making the same noise/clunk more than I remember it doing last year. I'll re-torque the steering head setup this weekend and have a look at the rotors also. Good info guys. (And girls!)

 

[Fred W]

connies do have head bearing, they're engineered better and don't wear out in 4K.

Mind pointing me to a single instance where an FJRs head bearings "wore out" in 4k miles? People are changing them from balls to tapers preventively, for the most part.

Just because you feel a clunk in the front end doesn't mean the problem has to be "worn" head bearings.

But I'm sure your Concours is a very nice bike...

...for a Kawasaki.

 

[SPORT]

As advised by several members here I checked the rotors for motion. There is NO motion in either rotor. The calipers are torqued and nothing seems loose down below. I also tried bouncing the forks for and aft with weight on the rear wheel (bike on center stand) and found no cluncking/clicking. The sound seems to be stemming from the upper part of the forks when compressing them. If this is the case, I'm not going to worry about them as it seems to be a 'normal' situation.

I'll keep looking until I've identified for sure what where the sound is eminationg.

 

[BiG DadDy Dan]

connies do have head bearing, they're engineered better and don't wear out in 4K.

Mind pointing me to a single instance where an FJRs head bearings "wore out" in 4k miles? People are changing them from balls to tapers preventively, for the most part.

Just because you feel a clunk in the front end doesn't mean the problem has to be "worn" head bearings.

But I'm sure your Concours is a very nice bike...

...for a Kawasaki.

You guys are great at this forum, you all have a great sense of humor,

just as a note NO one should take anything I say seriously. :dribble:

 

[SkooterG]

Hmmmm................

I have a bit of a clunk, but I just don't worry about it. I think it's always been there to a degree, but I am not even sure about that. While off the ground, I have done the service manual check of trying to move the forks and they felt fine. While at the dealer for valve checks, I had him check and he reported they were fine. I have checked the brake rotors many times in the past - they were fine, but I haven't done it recently and will again.

I think it's fork internals making the noise in my case. Obviously, it can be one of many things, so if you experience the clunk, you need to check various stuff. But I guess my big point is, if you have the clunk and you check the rotors and steering head bearings and they are ok, then who cares about the clunk?

For reference, mine is a 2004 FJR with 146k. Never had the head bearing repacked with grease. Only re-torqued the head bearings once. I did it myself with a borrowed spanner wrench and torqued them to spec. Afterwards, they felt looser than before the re-torque, so I did it again a couple days later and torqued them a little past spec. They have been ok ever since, and that was a LOT of miles ago.

Loose head bearings should eventually result in dimpled bearing races, correct? Which you should be able to feel, right? Well, my steering travel is still smooth.

 

[Fred W]

Loose head bearings should eventually result in dimpled bearing races, correct? Which you should be able to feel, right? Well, my steering travel is still smooth.

I think if they are severely over torqued they will also dimple. Smooth is good...

 

[paulie]

I'm not sure if this is the thread for me or not. I have an '07 with about 1200 miles. I have a clunk too. However mine comes when I slam the gas shut and pull in the clutch in. It is not necessarily prior to a shift out of first It seems to usually happen in traffic when coming to a stop. It only happens in a narrow RPM band - between 2000 and 3500. Sometimes it seems like a double clunk. It seems to be in the steering area. Any ideas out there?

 

[SPORT]

Paulie,

Diagnosing your situation is difficult to determine because you have added other possibilities by mentioning throttle roll-off, "not necessarily prior to a shift out of 1st", "coming to a stop", "happens during a narrow RPM range", and a "double clunk".

Lets narrow it down a bit more. Can you reproduce the clunk in your garage, with the engine off, squeezing the front brake fully and rocking the bike back and forth as hard as you can? Or does it only clunk while the engine is running?

Let us know what you find.

Sport

 

[paulie]

Over the weekend I will spend some more time trying to pin it down, and esp. will do the tests Sport recommends. Look for more on Monday . . .

 

[bem136]

[SIZE=12pt]SPORT,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Not actually seeing your bike I can only guess you have the same problem I did on my 06’ with 17K miles. I could induce the clunk by holding the front break and not pushing down to compress the forks but more forward. I first tried tightening the steering head bearings but found that only lessened the clunk for a short time. I finally decided to replace the bearings [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]https://www.goallballs.com/home.asp[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] and races and the clunk is gone, plus the front end of the bike feels better during cornering. I decided to do the repair myself, as my confidence level in “professional” shop repair is not high and I need some confidence in the front of the bike. The self repair work was no cheaper than having it done at the shop as the tools ([/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]https://www.pitposse.com/pibepubrty.html[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] , [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]https://www.pitposse.com/patosttubein.html[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] , [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt]https://www.pitposse.com/patosttubein.html[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] ) I purchases were not cheap. I might also mention the removal of the factory race on the triple-clamp shaft was a real pain in the *** to remove.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The tools worked great and I could not have completed the project without them, unfortunately they may never be used again except for the 15 minutes I used each of them. They are good quality tools and I would consider a fair offer on them if you’re game.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]I can’t believe the cheap plastic caged plain bearing Yamaha used on this bike, what they hell are they thinking?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Best of luck,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]‘bem136[/SIZE]

 

[bem136]

Sorry I miss copied one tool hot link, https://www.pitposse.com/strapr.html , the race puller.

Regards,

'bem136

 

[EasyRider]

I finally decided to replace the bearings [/size][/font][SIZE=12pt]https://www.goallballs.com/home.asp[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt] and races and the clunk is gone, plus the front end of the bike feels better during cornering. [/SIZE]
I can’t believe the cheap plastic caged plain bearing Yamaha used on this bike, what they hell are they thinking?

 


I'm not an expert on bearings, so I'm not sure what to look for to see a bearing deficiency, or what lingo to use, but was it clear that the stock bearing were loose or had two much play between the parts or something like that? Did you see any parts that were warn or loose due to use of cheep plastic parts?

 


And the new ones you got and had installed have much tighter tolerances between the parts with out use of plastic?

 

[bem136]

No on the first two counts, I simply had the clunking sound everyone is talking about. I could not actually feel or see any movment in the breaing area when the bike was on the centerstand and the front wheel in the air. I looked closely at the old bearings and races but saw no damage or problems.

Tapered bearings simply have much more surface area than a round ball bearing. The OEM units are a two peace bearing that uses (i'm sure a "high-tech") plastic ring to hold the balls in place, however the replacment units are all steel and a single peace. They are inherently a better design on both accounts.

It has eliminated the clunking, including when going over RR tracks or bumps. Hope this helps.

Regards.

bem136