Steering Head Bearings - Replace?

[Mav617]

Hi guys,

With the front wheel in the bike but off the ground I could feel no lateral or front/back movement. With the wheel/forks out and no weight on the front, turning the steering shows a slight notch in the centre, it moves freely enough but feels like there's a bit of a "notch" with the yokes pointing straight forward. No noises when moving and it moves past quite easily, but does this indicate shot bearings in the SH and is worth doing them now whilst I have the forks out, fairing off etc? Bikes covered 45000 miles and I have no real history other than stamped Honda book up to 28000 so no idea when they were last done.

[oorwullie43]

Hi guys,

With the front wheel in the bike but off the ground I could feel no lateral or front/back movement. With the wheel/forks out and no weight on the front, turning the steering shows a slight notch in the centre, it moves freely enough but feels like there's a bit of a "notch" with the yokes pointing straight forward. No noises when moving and it moves past quite easily, but does this indicate shot bearings in the SH and is worth doing them now whilst I have the forks out, fairing off etc? Bikes covered 45000 miles and I have no real history other than stamped Honda book up to 28000 so no idea when they were last done.

Hi, this won't be much help but my bike was the same. I striped the head stock and the bearings were very dry. So I've cleaned them and regreased them and put them back in. I'm waiting on the bars to finish the bar conversion and then I'll take it a run and see if it feels any different. I'll post again after I've gave it a run.

[Mav617]

Cheers Wullie, I'll do the same I reckon. Have to take top yoke off in any case to replace (replacement lockset, ignition still attached to yoke).

[tony.mon]

Replace, if you can feel and centering on the bearings, and replace them with taper roller ones, but don't tighten them up to the torque settings recommended for ball bearing standard ones.
There's a write-up in Workshop section.

Notchiness doesn't stop you riding, but means that you end up with a slight weave instead of being able to ride a straight line, it's really noticeable when filtering between cars on a motorway.

[Pete.L]

Or if you are feeling cheep just rotate the whole bearing assembly clockwise 90 degrees and clean and regrease.
That way you put the notched bearing surface to an area where it doesn't get any real pressure on it and you don't feel it as you are driving along. I've never had to replace a set of stearing bearings in my life
Mind you 45K is a pretty respectable life for a set of head bearings

Pete.l

[mattycoops43]

Or if you are feeling cheep just rotate the whole bearing assembly clockwise 90 degrees and clean and regrease.
That way you put the notched bearing surface to an area where it doesn't get any real pressure on it and you don't feel it as you are driving along. I've never had to replace a set of stearing bearings in my life
Mind you 45K is a pretty respectable life for a set of head bearings

Pete.l

You can't rotate one half of each bearing as they get destroyed when you knock them out?

[Jamoi]

The head bearings can be removed without causing damage, except the lower cup on the bottom yoke perhaps. I think pete meant the bearings/cages.

I'd just change them for tapers, while you have the front end stripped down & the original bearings have covered 45k miles, it would be daft not to wouldn't it??

Sent from my GT-19505 using Telekinesis

[sirch345]

I'd just change them for tapers, while you have the front end stripped down & the original bearings have covered 45k miles, it would be daft not to wouldn't it??

Exactly

If you still have the standard ball bearing type steering head bearings fitted I also personally wouldn't mess about, go for a set of taper roller head bearings as has already been mentioned and be finished with. One of the benefits with taper roller bearings are, they have a much larger surface contact area from the rollers, so will last much longer than traditional ball bearings. Also (as already been stated) don't use the torque settings in the Haynes Workshop Manual for taper roller bearings, those figures will be for the standard ball bearing type bearings.

One thing to note, taper roller bearings will need to be fine adjusted after the initial fitting/set-up. You'll find as you ride the bike they will start to bed in and will need to be readjusted (tightened up slightly each time). Mine took three adjustments in total, but don't let that put you off. You only need to raise the top yoke a little so you can tap the castlellated nuts around a fraction to tighten them up.

You will notice a difference when you fit the new ones

Chris.

[VTRDark]

Here you go...

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... d+bearings

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=15681
We could do with some pictures and a how to to go with this.

(:-})

[Jamoi]

Damn, I just finished doing mine 5 mins ago!



Sent from my GT-19505 using Telekinesis

[Mav617]

All bike related spending has been stopped - so it'll be after Christmas now

[darkember]

Here you go...

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... d+bearings

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=15681
We could do with some pictures and a how to to go with this.

(:-})

Here are a couple of the top & bottom inner races after the deep freeze & fitting:

[lloydie]

All bike related spending has been stopped - so it'll be after Christmas now

Same here :-(

[Pete.L]

The head bearings can be removed without causing damage, except the lower cup on the bottom yoke perhaps. I think pete meant the bearings/cages.

Exactly Most often it's a combination of dirt and a notch(for want of a better description) in the bearing surface at that one centre spot. Most the shocks and bumps of the road are concentrated into into the same spot due to the forks not being completely virtical.

All bike related spending has been stopped - so it'll be after Christmas now

May as well try my way as you got the bike apart, it's completely free, except for your time

Pete.l

[Mav617]

The head bearings can be removed without causing damage, except the lower cup on the bottom yoke perhaps. I think pete meant the bearings/cages.

Exactly Most often it's a combination of dirt and a notch(for want of a better description) in the bearing surface at that one centre spot. Most the shocks and bumps of the road are concentrated into into the same spot due to the forks not being completely virtical.

All bike related spending has been stopped - so it'll be after Christmas now

May as well try my way as you got the bike apart, it's completely free, except for your time

Pete.l

Aye Pete, that'll have to do it for now. Move 'em round, pack with mucho grease. Top bearing race is out, can't see any damage. Repack and button it up then new top yoke is going on.