Changing Steering Head Bearings

I have decided it is time.

I finally found a smooth enough section of road to be able to feel the notchyness in the bearings. And I did not like it. This is also likely the reason that the bike feels very unstable in a sweeping turn.

So my first round of questions are;

1. The service manual says to remove the front wheel, fender, brace and fork tubes. Is this really necessary or can this all be removed as an assembly and reinstalled as an assembly? I realize it will be heavy.

2. I plan to replace the stock springs with progressives at the same time. This will allow the front wheel to be on the ground and the suspension to easily compress to get the head apart, I think? Thoughts?

3. I am thinking of drilling and tapping the head for a grease Zerk while I am in there, Yes it takes a lot of grease the first time to fill the neck, but it will make future greasing a LOT easier. Opinions?

4. I do not have a lift nor do I have room for a lift in my little shed. Is it realistic to do this on the center stand?

5. Does anyone know where that nice safe place is that I put my special spanner for torquing the nuts for the bearing preload...............

We did mine at Maint Day at Squidley's.

And yes, your spanner is with the little bag of washers/spacers that I bought for the carb slide needles.

H

That was gonna be my next question;

Is this a realistic project to do at Dons MD?

When you did yours at Squidleys, Did you take the whole front end apart in pieces, or pull it as one big assembly?

You've got to pull the top bridge off anyhow. I suppose you could get the rest off as a unit but probably not on the center stand. I think you'll find that the extra work to remove the forks from the lower tree is much, much less than the hassle of messing with it as an assembly. You also might find you need to get the lower tree on the work bench to get the bearing off, you don't need fork oil running everywhere while you do that. Getting everything back in and started together is a little bit of a juggling act - you won't miss the extra weight when doing that either.

But yes, you can do steering bearings on center stand. Get everything off the forks (calipers, wheel, fender, brace etc.) and pull the fork tubes. Since you're going to pull the fork caps don't forget to break them loose while still clamped in the lower tree.

From here getting the top bridge off and lower tree out is pretty straight forward.

I've found that an air chisel is an excellent tool to drive the inner race off the lower tree.

The outer races will require some force to remove from the head stock. Make sure the bike is well secured.

Forget what Yamaha says for bearing grease. Use the same moly grease you use on the drive splines. That stuff will stay in there so you can skip the zerk fitting. If you do opt for the zerk fitting make sure the head tube isn't open to the frame (some bikes are), you don't want to fill your whole frame with grease.

You've got to pull the top bridge off anyhow. I suppose you could get the rest off as a unit but probably not on the center stand. I think you'll find that the extra work to remove the forks from the lower tree is much, much less than the hassle of messing with it as an assembly. You also might find you need to get the lower tree on the work bench to get the bearing off, you don't need fork oil running everywhere while you do that. Getting everything back in and started together is a little bit of a juggling act - you won't miss the extra weight when doing that either.

 

But yes, you can do steering bearings on center stand. Get everything off the forks (calipers, wheel, fender, brace etc.) and pull the fork tubes. Since you're going to pull the fork caps don't forget to break them loose while still clamped in the lower tree.

 

From here getting the top bridge off and lower tree out is pretty straight forward.

 

I've found that an air chisel is an excellent tool to drive the inner race off the lower tree.

 

It was extremely hard to remove the inner race from the lower tree. I have since found videos on YouTube and most all of them say to carefully cut it with a dremmel.

 

The outer races will require some force to remove from the head stock. Make sure the bike is well secured.

 

Forget what Yamaha says for bearing grease. Use the same moly grease you use on the drive splines. That stuff will stay in there so you can skip the zerk fitting. If you do opt for the zerk fitting make sure the head tube isn't open to the frame (some bikes are), you don't want to fill your whole frame with grease.

That was gonna be my next question;

 

Is this a realistic project to do at Dons MD?

 

When you did yours at Squidleys, Did you take the whole front end apart in pieces, or pull it as one big assembly?

We took it apart in pieces.

Whether or not it's practical to do at Don's MD, I'm certain that he would know.

Well it is to late now. The front of the bike is scattered all over my shed. As soon as all the new parts are here I get to see if i still remember how to put it all together again.

I do intend to do a "How To" writeup on the steering bearings.

Hum.... A how to Write -Up by a guy that cain't remember what goes where?? :think:This should be Great!!

Just kidding Jeff looking forward to it!!

Well it is to late now. The front of the bike is scattered all over my shed. As soon as all the new parts are here I get to see if i still remember how to put it all together again.

 

I do intend to do a "How To" writeup on the steering bearings.

Just got done doing mine from the bottom up. i did my forks also so i did remove my front fender after i removed the forks as a unit, i use a long pointed punch to remove the races in the neck,,,did the dremmel tool with cutoff blade for bottom bearing removal now im asssuming you have done the same so ill jump to a pic of steering head assembly #nut (7) is torqued to 80 lbs

this is a really important watch this video for bearing adjustment

hxxps://youtu.be/CvtI4wEUCwE change xx 2 tt ...the first of the vid is boring

but the way to make sure your steering is not to tight is dead on important, mine were to tight at first so i know

i got plenty of preload on the bearings, then i backed off till i could get it like the vid, its just great now.

As far as bearings go make sure you pack them right your self. i just use the palm of my hand with grease , just keep pushing grease through it till it shows through smaller taper of bearing, grease the race also, these head bearings dont come packed with grease at all.

many time peeps i know and have redone head bearings is lack of packing grease and overtightning

hope this helps

Nice Wil!! I was going to tell Jeff it goes back together exactly the way he thinks it is supposed to!

You are 100% correct about how to "Pack" a bearing, that's how I was taught when I was a teen! And yup, over tighten the nut to disburse the extra grease and properly seat the bearings, then loosen and properly torque!

Thanks Will

That #7 nut that is supposed to be torqued to 80 lb/ft, I removed with no tools, it was about a half turn LOOSER than finger tight.

I made my self a tool to push in the races.

Your link did not work, but I found the vid

I never learned any way other than to get my hands dirty to pack a bearing. Even my 3 daughters learned how to pack a wheel bearing when they were teens. That was my "payment" for helping them do front brakes on their cars. The look on their faces was priceless the first time they had to stick their hand in the tub of grease.

...tell me about it...

Well it is all done and back together.

I went for a short test run and ended up visiting a friend 150 miles away.....................

I should have done this years ago. The bearing replacement its self was not so bad, it was all of the "as long as I'm in there"s that killed me.

The steering has not felt like this since I bought the bike back in 06. I have always felt like I was fighting with it at interstate speeds. Today I hit 90 a few times without even realizing it, and the first clue was that I was wondering why everyone else was going so slow................

There was no wandering, no shimmy, no shaking, and best of all no locking up, just tracked smooth as could be. I will have to attempt to either bend the handlebar back where is belongs or replace them, it feels weird having the bars turned to go straight. I am not even sure which one is straight and which one is bent but there was no combination of splines to get it right.

I also changed the front springs to the progressives, I used the full 1.25 inch spacers that came with the springs and put in 7lbs of air. It raised the front of the bike about 1.5 inches. I have 12.5W oil filled to 5.5 inches from the top, measured very accurately. The ride is softer than the stock springs. Stock springs are 18.2 inches long new with a wear limit of 18 inches, mine measured 17.75 inches. I did leave the Anti Dive unhooked, and am going to hook it back up and try it again. I though the front had more dive than I like, and now has a lot more dive than the stock setup did. But the smoothness of the steering is just amazing, the steering has not moved this free in forever. Yet there is zero slop.

The next thing is to get some better braking power in the front end. AS is not going to be safe pulling a trailer to MD. But that is another thread.

The How to writeup is getting closer. The written part is nearly finished.

I recently installed Progressive fork springs in my '92 and had the opposite results.

My '92 has 30,000 original miles.

The Progressives raised the ride height and are much stiffer.

I did not use the spacer that came with the springs, I reused the aluminum spacer (item 29 below).

I used 10wt fork oil.

Do you weigh more than 250lbs?

I recently installed Progressive fork springs in my '92 and had the opposite results.

My '92 has 30,000 original miles.

The Progressives raised the ride height and are much stiffer.

I did not use the spacer that came with the springs, I reused the aluminum spacer (item 29 below).

I used 10wt fork oil.

Do you weigh more than 250lbs?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]105762[/ATTACH]

Ummmmm

I used the spacer AND the #29 aluminum thing.

As for 250lbs.......................Ummmmmmm ya.............

The How to writeup is getting closer. The written part is nearly finished.

FlyinFool,

Hope all is well. I was wondering if you ever published the write up on how to replace steering bearings. I have spent hours looking for it, and reading up. I have an indent, and I am as you were, always has been there and need to replace the races and bearings, and just an average dyi. Before I ask the Forum, I find lots of this and that information, but no step by step instruction.