front wobble

[scottyhatchi]

i have noticed the clicking noise is from the front of the bike and bike wobbles a bit especially at high speed and even slow in bends my uncle thinks the forks may b loose anyone any idea is it just a case of tightening the casttle bolt ?

[Ckennedy]

It could be a number of things. Head set bearings, wheel bearings, bent axle bar, or as you say a loose head set nut maybe a loose fork clamp on the top or bottom yoke. It would be a good idea to check them all. If anything is loose then tighten it and check it again. I would not ride it until you have sorted the problem. Would not want something snapping or falling off.

[scottyhatchi]

how do i support the bike in order to remove the stem to tighten the castle bolt ? as if i remove bike will collapse forward am i okay to raise back wheel and just support under the engine front

[Ckennedy]

That is one way you could do it. If you have a set of ladders that bend in the middle, put a bar across the ladders creating the 'A' shape and use a strap around each handle bar to lift it off the floor.

[scottyhatchi]

ooooo thats a good idea that like never thought of that nice one cheers that be alot easier and safer lol cheers will have a look tmz see if something is loose

[Ckennedy]

Glad to help

[VTRDark]

Good to hear you got the bike back up and running.

Have you checked to see if the head bearing is a bit loose. Stand next to the bike and while holding the front brake, push up and down of the front suspension to see if there is much wobble, moment backward and forwards. If there is a bit of play then you don't need to jack the front up.

Loosen the big centre nut on the top yolk (IIRC it's a 30mm). Then loosen the clipons with (12mm), then the two bolt that hold the top yolk (12mm) to the fork stanchions. Under no circumstances loosen the bolts on the bottom yolk without the front be jacked up of the ground Once these are loose you can tap the top yolk up slightly or even take it right off if you desire. You then have a locking nut and the big castle type nut (round nut with slots cut out around it) that hold the forks in place. It's the bottom one with the slots in that needs tightening. You can just use a large flat ended screwdriver and a hammer in one of the slots and gentle tighten up if required.

If you have tapered bearing then they can be fiddly to get the required tension.
http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=15681

If it's not the steering head bearing and you want to jack the front of the bike up, I use an Abba stand and pivot it down onto the back wheel and get someone to place a couple of bricks under the sump and lower the bike onto them. This give you just enough room to take the wheel off or even remove the forks. You just need to remove the belly pan and make sure the bricks don't rest on the exhaust pipe.

(:-})