steering head bearing

i am going to change them out soon and have a service manual. i was wondering, are there any special tools that i will need to do this? can you just get them at a auto store? i printed out some info from the other board. is t;his a really hard job? thanks also, do you need to test the pull of your triple tree? or can you just torque them to specs as stated in the "other boards garage"?

Hudi I have never done it. If you do it take pictures for us, and do a little write up on it, for future reference. I thought I remeber reading somewhere that you need to press fir the bearings, could be wrong, could have been for something else, just dont remember.....

Jerry

i will take some pics and document. i teach so i may wait till june to do this or maybe a rainy weekend. i have all the stuff already. i have been doing a lot of research and will be well prepared. soon to come.

Hudi
It is a pretty straight forward deal. The worst part is getting the race out of the bottom of the neck. As I posted on OA the mechanics prybar and a buddy worked really well for getting it out. I saw too that you planned to cut the bottom race and dust seal off the bottom of the stem. I would recommend just using a drift pin punch and driving it off by tapping opposite sides of the stem til it is off. The freezer and low temp oven trick works really well for getting the pieces all together. Just remember to tighten past torque specs to get it to seat then back off and retorque. I just went by feel when doing mine.

Good luck

See you out there
Smokey

Smokey, i got my alls balls in the mail the other day and was looking at them. when you remove the races, do they go back in? there are 2 seals that came wiht it, what do they replace.? The bearing that they sent me dont look like the ones on some articles i read at the garage. the races are built on the bearings? right? the ones on the article, you could see the bearings from the side angle, mine yhou cant. i never thought that this bike would take up so much of my time. but i never regret any mods that i have done so far. i saw on the garage writeup that they used a spreading tool to get the races out. can you buy one of these at an auto parts store or can i just beat them out since i will not be using them? sorry for all the questions but i always go into job prepared. thanks

I dont know that I would beat them out but a little aggressive tapping will be in order to get the races out. The top race in the neck tube comes out pretty easy with a long drift pin punch driving it from the bottom. The bottom race you will need a buddy to drive it out while you hold the mechanics prybar in the little bittly crack at the top of the race. Your inner races are built into the bearings but the outers are the ones that are in the neck tube. As far as buying a bearing puller, I could not get mine to fit in the tight crack at the top of the bottom race, hence the prybar and a buddy trick. I just basically followed the write up in the OA garage. With a few changes to make it work for me. The freezer and oven thing was by far the best as far as getting them to slide together easily. I would also recommend getting a piece of pipe that fits pretty snug over the steering stem to drive on the new bearing and seal.

Good luck

See you out there
Smokey

Its been so long ago since I did them, I cant rember very , I have CRS But the seal is the dust seal on the bottom of thehead pipe. The hardest part is getting the race out of the head, You may have to cut it very carefully, with a drumell tool, if lyou cant get something on it to drive it out, be very carefull not to damage the inside of the tube. The new bearring drive down on the the stem of the triple tree, you will need a pipe llnger the the stem, and the size of the inter race.
I heated mine up and drove it on and packed it after it was on and that was 35,000 miles ago and havent touched them since. I went thro two OEM bearrings in less than 20,000 miles.

I went by feel also when tightening them down.

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mine bearings dont look like this. the bearings have a band on the outside of them. you cant see them like in the picture. do i have the right ones? i got them from HDL. confused??

Can you take a pic of the ones you have? If you are looking at them in the bag then the band you are talking about is the outer race. Just a thought.
See you out there
Smokey

yeah, i didnt take them out of the bag. ok, i think i get it now. the outer bands are the races which you replace wiht th e old ones. thnaks for all the help. it is amazing how people here help each other out like we are long time friends. i am at work now so i cant take any pictures. but i understand now. thanks.

one more quicky. so you are saying that the current races will not be used so i can cut them out if needed?

Hudi wrote:one more quicky. so you are saying that the current races will not be used so i can cut them out if needed?

You can ...... but ...... if you screw up and get into the head pipe it is real ugly fix. Just take your time and get a buddy or hell the wife or girlfriend to do the hammering part. I had my dremel tool sitting there but decided to wait til the next day when I had some help and they came out pretty easy. It just take 4 hands to drive them out.

Good luck

See you out there
Smokey

smokey2255 wrote:

Hudi wrote:one more quicky. so you are saying that the current races will not be used so i can cut them out if needed?

You can ...... but ...... if you screw up and get into the head pipe it is real ugly fix. Just take your time and get a buddy or hell the wife or girlfriend to do the hammering part. I had my dremel tool sitting there but decided to wait til the next day when I had some help and they came out pretty easy. It just take 4 hands to drive them out.

Good luck

See you out there
Smokey

Or just one good pair and a BIGGER HAMMER.

Hudi, heres a link with many handi ideas.

https://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/general-discussion-f6/steering-head-stem-bearings-all-balls-install-t620.htm

Heres one of them.

well got the trifecta done last night. rear and front progressives and alls balls. thanks to all who gave me tips on this mod. one thing to note: i used a 1-11/16" socket for the "special" nut on the stem. it worked great and i could use a torque wrench instead of just guessing wiht channel locks. if any one is thinking of doing these mods, i can give you some pointers because everything is still fresh in my head. it took a descent amount of time but i took my time and if i would have to do it again, it would be some much easier. little things like putting on the top tree with the cables in the wrong position, stupid things like that which set me back a little. but it is done and cant wait to try her out tonight.

Glad to hear you got the deed done Hudi. I too did the dumb cable thing and had to go back and redo it. I was lucky and just did the clutch cable alone so I unhooked it and ran it around to where it needed to be. You didn't happen to take pics as you went did you?

Smokey

i would have taken pics but i left my memory card in my computer at school. i used the "cool runnings" writeup from the other boards garage and the manual. the hardest thing was getting the bottom lower race off the stem. it was a beetch. i also did the pull test and ended up with 12 lb ft of torque to get a pull around 3 lbs with the forks and top tree on. i didnt want to do the test with the tire and brakes on because of the weight difference from each side. i didnt get to test it yet, but today after work i will be testing. i cant wait. i put on the progressive rears last week and i noticed how much better the rear tire gripped on accel. the rear end seems to dip down and grab compared to stock. from what i have heard, the steering bearings and fork spring combo will even be a lot better than the improvement of the rear suspension. we will see. thanks for the tips.

You wont regret doing this, coolrunnings is from OR. about 1 1/2 hr, north of me. I did mine about 1 week after he did and that was 35,000 miles ago. I complained about the frontend to the stealership from day 1 that there was something wrong with the frontend and took it somewhere else and they replaced the first set at 8k and the second set I replaced at about 18k with the tapered, and the second set allready had bad spots in them. Stock bearrings are JUNK.

i finally got to test her out last night wiht the new bearings and fork springs. the springs really make the bike handle great with no more nose diving and so much smoother ride. the front end felt a little loose. you know, seemed to pull from side to side a little. i used cool runnings write up and tried doing the pull test. well i should have pulled something else so took her bakc to the garage, ripped the tree etc apart and tighted to 20#. took her back for a test, and she is solid as a rock now. i should of went by feel from the beginning. o-well. life is good again.

Thanks for the write up Hudi.....it will be a good reference when I get around to doing mine.
Do you have a link to the coolrunnings write up.....

Ride safe
Uncle Jerr

http://tech.vtxoa.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=38&id=172&artlang=en
i was a little intimidated at first but after doing it, it wasnt as hard as i thought. it took a lot of time because i am so careful. do it, you will think, why didnt i do this earlier?