Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Headset Adjustment?

Ok - now I'm stuck again - in two steps.

Stuck Step One: Apparently the upper and lower bearing races need to be press-fit into the steering neck?

The Haynes manual describes a tool to pull them into place, which looks like this:
[image]http://[/image]

mrt202 - Did you use something like this? Or, did your races just slip into place? I'm thought I had the wrong bearings because they just didn't slip into place.

Stuck Step Two - Apparently that lower race, which is press fit onto the steering neck does need to come off. The Haynes manual describes this process:


The two videos I posted earlier omitted these steps - if they had I would have been better prepared to do this or just grease up the OEM bearings. This website shows the entire job:
http://www.dansmc.com/steering_bearings.htm

You can tap out the old races with some sort of drift (piece of round stock, long screwdriver ,or the like) Just work your way around in a circle and just move it a little at a time until you work them out.

I have a race drift made of aluminum made to drive those type races in place. You can also use a block of wood to carefully drive them in place, carefully being the most important part. You can also use a long bolt with washers to draw them in like in the picture of the tool, just be sure they don't pull on the surface that the rollers ride on.

I had no clue this step was necessary (I'm a little slow). I guess the guys saying it only took a few minutes were just repackign the OEM bearings. My bottom bearing was completely devoid of grease - no wonder I had a wobble!

I'm trying the all-thread/bolt/washer contraption to pull it in. AllBallsRacing did confirm I have the right spec bearing. I put the races in the freezer and fit a lot better this morning.

When I get home, I have to take the bottom tree to the bench and get that old seat off. I'll probably have to carefully cut it off, it's on pretty firm, prying didn't seem to yield much.

Hopefully I can get this buttoned up in the next day or two. The light bar with turnsignals didn't allow me to remove that, so I zip tied it up as much as possible. I ended up pulling the tank to get clearance on the top nuts. Hopefully, my large adjustable wrench will be able to get them in place correctly. The slim levers (2) would make it a lot easier.

This job was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. Hopefully this info helps others down the line.

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You can tap out the old races with some sort of drift (piece of round stock, long screwdriver ,or the like) Just work your way around in a circle and just move it a little at a time until you work them out.

I have a race drift made of aluminum made to drive those type races in place. You can also use a block of wood to carefully drive them in place, carefully being the most important part. You can also use a long bolt with washers to draw them in like in the picture of the tool, just be sure they don't pull on the surface that the rollers ride on.

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I assumed you knew you had to knock the old races out. If i remember correctly, i used a long punch or chisel- through the top of the steering head- to knock the lower race out.The races came out easily enough. I then used the old races in combination with a bushing driver set to install the new races. I don't recall it being very difficult, but then i do this sort of thing nearly every day.
Just like installing new wheel bearings, i overtightened the adjuster nut while turning the forks side to side in order to make sure the races were fully seated, then readjusted to what i felt was proper preload.
Sorry you're having a tough time with it.
In retrospect, i should have taken pics of the process, but i was just in a rush to get it done on Friday night so i could ride Saturday.

No worries, I learn better under stress. You guys have been good putting up with my stupid questions. I have all the items for my homemade press, will try that tonight.

One more. Once I have the races in place, on the bottom race - will that have to be driven onto the steering stem or just slip into place and get pulled up when the top nut is tightened?

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I assumed you knew you had to knock the old races out. If i remember correctly, i used a long punch or chisel- through the top of the steering head- to knock the lower race out.The races came out easily enough. I then used the old races in combination with a bushing driver set to install the new races. I don't recall it being very difficult, but then i do this sort of thing nearly every day.
Just like installing new wheel bearings, i overtightened the adjuster nut while turning the forks side to side in order to make sure the races were fully seated, then readjusted to what i felt was proper preload.
Sorry you're having a tough time with it.
In retrospect, i should have taken pics of the process, but i was just in a rush to get it done on Friday night so i could ride Saturday.

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There should be an interference fit, in other words you shouldn't be able to install the races without some force.

Ok, thanks. I saw on a website a piece of the appropriate size PVC pipe works for that.
Does freezing the bearing help for that as well as the race?

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There should be an interference fit, in other words you shouldn't be able to install the races without some force.

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No harm by freezing the race. It may help a bit.

I would recommend you check it soon. The thing is, if you disassemble it to clean and check it, why not go ahead and upgrade? Tapered bearings have WAY more contact/surface area, and are much better than ball bearings in this application!

I would wait and see hows ssjones turns out

It's a piece of cake from there on out. I would bet money that your headshake and/or tire cupping issues will be gone.

What's the easiest way to inspect the lower bearing? Does everything need to be completely disassembled? This sounds like a potential warranty issue that I'd like to check out, but not if it takes all day.

After taking the top triple clamp off and removing the two adjusting/lock nuts and the top bearing, just jack the bike up and the bottom bearing should become visible.
I didn't take mine all the way apart, just enough to work some grease into the lower bearing.

Well, all done. Just back from the test ride. Smooth as silk.
Could my OEM bearings have been greased and adjusted? Probably.
I couldn't get the two headset nuts to adjust without the special narrow wrench. So, I cut one out of a piece of steel, which worked fine (and suggested earlier in the thread).
Put it all back together, wheel on. Putting the brake caliper back on I discovered that I hadn't routed the brake line correctly under the headlight wire harness. With my tall bars, that extra space is critical. So, off comes the wheel and the left fork. Removed the top shroud cover, rerouted and all is fine. Will have to adjust the headlight one evening.
Very smooth, took her up to 80 mph on the interstate. In addition to headshake, I had some vibration at highway speeds. All that is gone.
Thanks to mrt202 and Dog for the advice.
This job is not for a novice. I've had the top of my motor off twice for a valve job but this tested my mechanical expertise. And you will have to get creative with tools. Now I know what it involves, I could do it again. I guess that was just a challenging learning experience.

Xchoppers posted they now make a wrench for the headset adjustment that has the square hole to put on a torque wrench. Only $10, but $20 shipped. Still beats the factory wrench ($50/set?)
http://xchoppers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1924

I thought Id add my .02 since I just installed the All Balls kit on my America....

First....I did not like the idea of using bering made in China. I ordered the All Balls kit with the intent of returning it after I found a better set of berings. HA!
After seeing the dust shields and comparing them with OEM I knew I needed to use the ones form All Balls.
After having a couple local bering places look up berings and NOT being able to find the right ones and both places telling me the berings in the kit were good I decided to bite it and use the All Balls kit.

Installation went fairly easily but I did want to share a couple of tips in case anyone else tries this....

* I had my upper & lower yokes chromed so I had the steering stem pressed out by my local shop then once they came back I had the stem pressed back in as well. So I did not have to go through the hassle of trying to remove my lower bering race...sorry, no advice here.
* To install the new bering race on the lower yoke I used the old OEM race (upside down and cut) and a pipe (the end of my jack handle worked very well for this) along with a mallet.
- I cut the old OEM bering race with a cutting wheel to allow for easier removal once I got the new race in place. By doing this it gave me a solid edge bering to bering surface as well as a larger lip to set the pipe against.
* I heated up the bering race and stem with a heat gun and it helped. Still not easy but with a few good whacks it went on nicely.

For the races that needed to pressed into the neck...
* I got them in initially by using my mallet and a piece of flat metal to smack them in level.
The needed to go in further so...
* I again used the old OEM races, upside down as described above and a piece flat metal to drive them in the rest of the way.
The OEM races popped out with a large flat head screwdriver once they were driven in completely.

All in all this wasn't so bad but again, I did not have to try and get the old race off myself.
I was pretty focused on getting this done so I didn't get any pictures for you. Maybe when I do Karen's Ill snap some start to finish.