Jobs a good 'un.
Piece of cake in the end. It might be a 98 bike but it is SOOOOO clean it is a joy to work on. Nothing stuck, bodged or otherwise brutalised by previous owners.
Got the old outer races out with a drift- some light scoring and some pitting from the balls where it's been resting, but not appallingly bad. But enough for a notchy feel.
Then pressed in the new outer races with some thick steel discs of the same size minus 0.5mm I had machined up at work. No need for a draw rod, I just tapped them in square and that was it. No real fuss.
Getting the inner race off the bottom of the stem was entertaining though. Took a lot of beasting with the laughing stick and an old screwdriver under the oil seal but eventually off it came. New one drifted back down protected by a conveniently sized aluminium disc and pressed home with a 4 foot piece of scaffold pole tapped up and down.
It all went back together fine and now is nice and smooth and notch free.
But now I can feel a very slight knock from the forks in the first bit of compression. There is no play in the fork tubes / slider and nothing to be felt on pushing or pulling the forks up, down, back or forth. I never noticed this before as the head bearings were masking it. I don't think it's anything to worry about though. Thoughts people?
Also changed the fork oil while I had the front end apart-hahahahahahaha
. The oil looked like something you would pour out of an old lawnmower- filthy smelly metallic black/ brown stuff. That had been there since Japan. Not nice. Put some new stuff in and they now- lo and behold- have some damping!!!
that should make a difference 
