| Author | Message | ||
     Kevinaye |
Hey All, I still stuck in Lima waiting for parts. The good news is they have arrived, but still have to clear customs. They actually got to Lima in 3 days. As I am getting my fork seal replaced. I figured I should get the steering head bearings changed while they are off. The mechanic that is working on the bike doesn't have a tool to put them in though. He is intending to place the old bearing on top of the new and tap them in with a hammer. How bad of an idea is this?? Better to just not bother changing them? I am getting a "click" under hard breaking but I don't feel play in the headset. Cheers. | ||
| Etennuly |
If you have never done it, they could just need re-torqued. Mine did that at about 10,000 miles. I re-torqued and it has been fine, now at 58,000 miles still on the original bearings. I have done the bearing install that way with no problem. Outer race to outer race. I would recommend, as I do with the rear wheel, to heat up the part the bearing is going into, to make it mechanically easier on the parts. I believe a simple bearing press can be made with a length of all thread, nuts, and heavy washers. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Vern's right - allthread, 2 nuts, thick washers that are the size of the OUTER race, and some patience can do it. If they have access to a welder, have them weld a bead around the washer that matches up to the outer bearing race, so you're pushing on the outer and not the inner. | ||
| Xbimmer |
When mine quit responding to adjustments and they froze up one day after giving the bike its annual wash (turned out the grease was now rusty red goop) I changed them out. I don't think it requires the extreme care when replacing wheel bearings. The hardest part was getting it all apart to get to the bearings, and knocking the stem down through rusted inner races. Rusted spots on stem:  The steering head is relieved to allow tapping out the races:  I popped out the seals of the new bearings to see what was in there. No wonder mine rusted up, looks inadequate to me:  Packed them with my favorite:  Added o-rings to help protect the seal contacts and keep out any water:  Cleaned up the rusty stem and treated it like my axles with antiseize:  Since there's no spacer to deal with like the wheels I felt comfortable with tapping the new ones back in. Everything has been fine for over a year the only drawback being last summer ambient temps and engine heat sweat out some of my over grease. No issue to me the steering is fine and I've made no adjustments since. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
I have changed it in a friends bike, i used needle bearings that are much better that ball bearings, the night before installing them i put them in the freezer and at the moment of install it took them out put some grease in where the bearing sit and tap them down using the old bearing outer race and a small hammer, worked great just remember to use some zip ties to hold all the front fairing. | ||
| Kenm123t |
Steeringhead bearings should be tapered roller bearings not ball or Needle bearings! My 96k mile m123t still has the original head bearings and they are open type greaseable. I use Ford wheel bearing grease its a Moly lube the sticky poly lubes are great lube but they cant handle moisture and have no hygroscopic loading ability. Simply they do not stop rusting ! | ||
| Kevinaye |
thanks all for the info. I think i will concentrate on getting the bike running. I am getting that click that has been metioned with worn bearings but they really don't feel bad. Cheers. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
My friend had his bearing shot and still he didn't notice them as a problem, we only saw they were shot when we changed them. | ||
| Kevinaye |
Maybe I am just used to them being shot.....If I can just get my Uly running at this point I will be happy! | ||
| Egobuster1 |
if I'm going to disassembly my front end of my bikes to have my fork tubes powders coated and my fork clamps powder coated also should i replace my head bearings or could i just leave them alone. the bearings have little over 8k on them |
