Steering Head Bearing Question ?

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Got my bike MOT'd today. He said there was a problem with a steering head bearing but rather than replace it he's simply given it more 'play'. This has however caused a slightly irritating knocking feel when I go over bumps. Was it really necessary what he did? Is it difficult to alter back again or should I get new bearings? Big job or not? Not done the job before!

[tony.mon]

Undo clip-ons, lift them up a bit on the fork legs. You'll need to have removed the circlips that go round the top of the fork leg.

Then undo the big nut in the middle of the steering stem, the chrome one.
Now tap the top yoke upwards a bit- you don't need to remove it completely.

You can now see the two interlocked nuts with little rectangular cutouts in. They need TWO c-spanners to undo and relock, and the toolkit only has one.
So leave them locked together and tap them round clockwise a few degrees until the knocking can't be felt.

reassemble.


No, not a big job, takes five minutes, including washing your hands afterwards.

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Sounds good. I wonder why they had to increase play for it to pass the MOT?

[Vtrkidda]

Undo clip-ons, lift them up a bit on the fork legs. You'll need to have removed the circlips that go round the top of the fork leg.

Then undo the big nut in the middle of the steering stem, the chrome one.
Now tap the top yoke upwards a bit- you don't need to remove it completely.

You can now see the two interlocked nuts with little rectangular cutouts in. They need TWO c-spanners to undo and relock, and the toolkit only has one.
So leave them locked together and tap them round clockwise a few degrees until the knocking can't be felt.

reassemble.


No, not a big job, takes five minutes, including washing your hands afterwards.

Hello mr mon
Ive fitted race clip ons to my storm I had to ditch the circlips to fit these because if I dropped my forks any lower to fit the clip ons "there wider top to bottom " ,Id have to drop them 20mm ,but the new clip ons have double fixings

What im asking is do I realy need these circlips

[tony.mon]

no.
They're just a guide as to the normal fork position.

As long as you do the top and bottom clamp bolts up tightly you'll be ok.

[VTRDark]

They need TWO c-spanners to undo and relock

Or you could just use an old screwdriver and a hammer to tap them round.

(:-})

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And which way to tighten up the play, clockwise or anticlockwise?

[tony.mon]

Clockwise to tighten.