Steering Head Maint

[JimLor]

Did the maint, repacked with grease. Put back together (noticed that the fork tubes weren't as high as when I started). Felt like crap when I rotated the steering back and forth so.....took it all apart again. Looked at the lower bearing race and lo and behold there were 3 empty holes absent their ball bearings. Found 2, cleaned them and put them back in, they snap nicely. Looked for an hour and couldn't find the third - I know it's stuck somewhere but I can't find it.

I do not want to replace the lower bearings, so:

A. Anyone know the specs for the ball bearing I need

B. Anyone have one lying around I could have

C. If no to A and B I guess I'll replace the upper and lowers, but I really don't want to!!

BTW, everything looked great, no uneven wear, etc.

Thanks.

Jim

 

[trimmantom]

Hey Jim,Sorry to hear of your dilema.

My 06 has a slight steering head bobble with 20-k + miles on it and I decided to replace the upper and lower bearings with the tapered bearings from ALL Balls racing.

I ordered them from university motors and the price is really good,$22 they are in transit as we speak.

My advice if you end up having to replace is to just go ahead and get the tapered ones.

From all the threads I've read the install isn't to bad.

I'm going to do mine in conjunction with a fork spring change since you've got to take the forks off anyway.

Good luck which ever way you go.

 

[JimLor]

Thanks trimmanton - yup, I decided what the heck I'll go ahead and replace them with the tapered bearings. I didn't know U Motors carried them but I'll give them a call and order them. Probably a good thing here...I'll do my Nautilus Compact Air Horn install while I've got everything apart.

Now as to seating the lower bearing...do I go the seat with a pipe and whack away method (always a favorite when you can use brute force) or the more elegant method - freeze the steering head and heat the bearings (hmm, don't have a torch and could buy a new tool!). Decisions, decisions...

 

[JimLor]

Although the offers of help have been underwhelming, you may belay my last.

Lorie found the lost ball bearing resting by her tire. Amazing how a grease covered bb can roll 6 feet! I'm going to replace the bearings regardless - ordered the tapered bearings from ALL BALLS today. Kind of disconcerting when an attractive sounding woman answers the phone, "All balls!" For those folks, like me, who haven't done this before I'll do my best to take pictures/notes. My first piece of advice, bite the bullet and take the wheel/forks/etc apart and take the lower bracket out so you can see everything and clean it completely. Trying to do a half ass job with with wheel hanging on there is part of what did me in! Heck, now I'll change to fork oil and install my horns.

 

[radman]

Just read this for the first time. I replaced mine with rollers, I still have the balls, er, originals. You can have the whole set if you still wanna go that route, just say the word.

 

[trimmantom]

Jim,I'm sorry to hear you're so underwhelmed, but I think you made a wise decision.

If I can't seat the races,I'll take them to some mechanics I know and have them pressed on.

I think the biggest part of it will be taking all the crap off to get to the sucker,so doing other maintenience items makes sense while you've got the front end exploded.

 

[JimLor]

Rad, thanks for the offer. Lorie found the errant ball bearing yesterday afternoon. I ordered the tapered bearings and will put them on for the experience and because I probably screwed up the existing bearings (lower) trying to stuff them back into the steering head. I've learned from everything I've done on this bike and this is one more opportuinity. Heck, I've got no worries taking the wheel, forks, etc off as I've done that quite a few times when I redid my fork springs. Thanks for your offer, I do appreciate it.

trimmanton - If you haven't taken the wheel and forks off yet it's certainly worth the effort and experience. Just take it one step at a time and it's really not difficult and it actually doesn't take that long. As to seating the lower bearing, I've read a couple of posts here and the methods seem to be:

- Heat the bearings (and perhaps chill the lower bracket) and then there's a fair chance the bearings will slide right on and "cool to fit"

- Slip them on the lower bracked, put your old outer race over the bearings, a pipe to fit over that and whack away!

- As you suggested, take it to a machine shop, or bike shop and have them do it. I'd be willing to bet most half-assed bike shops use the "whack away" method

I may try the heating venue because then I could buy a new tool - nope, I don't have a propane torch! Hmmmm, fire....

Rad - if you have any comments or suggestions I'm sure Mr. T and I would appreciate them.

Jim

 

[BobG]

What I did was tap the top and bottom new races into place, just enough so they don't fall out.

Then I used some all thread, dug up some washers and large sockets, and the original races (reversed them) and just tightened them into place by tightening the nut.

Another thought was to use a large carriage bolt to hold the bottom socket from moving around then tighten it.

I had the all thread laying around and was too cheap to buy a bolt.

Any way I just squeezed mine in slowly with the all thread.

By no means was this a 1 2 3 action, I had to keep a watch on the alignments of the races, and sockets. That's why I was thinking a carriage bolt.

I used a hand grinder to slowly cut the bottom race, and when I was close enough I tapped the race with a chisel and broke it on one side. I was then able to remove it easily.

On this procedure you have to be very careful not to grind it too deep, or send the sparks towards your reloading equipment ( i.e. powder).

Nothing happened, just a lack of a work bench and reloading bench.

Good luck

Bob

 

[JimLor]

Thanks for the input Bob. I like the idea of using the old race and tightening the top nut to seat the bottom race - mechanical advantage, good stuff. As for the top set, when I removed the triple tree they weren't difficult to remove at all. In fact they were lying caddy wampus and I just picked them out with needle nosed pliers. Unless I misunderstand, the tapered bearing are in a metal race and will be more "difficult" to seat? The current setup is ball bearings within a plyable plastic race which probably makes install - removal that much easier. I have to admit that I'm one of those folks who usually has to "see" something before I completely understand it - so I anxiously await the arrival of my new bearing set.

Thanks again for your comments.