Steering Head Bearing Redux

After removing the Maxim's front forks for a rebuild I noticed some "notchiness" in the steering head and figured I'd better change out the bearing while I had the forks off (guess I should have planned to replace them from the beginning). Here's a picture of what the top end bearings looked like... yikes.

I will be installing a set of All Balls tapered roller bearings this weekend, so I appreciate the timely thread on All Balls and the resurrected steering bearing discussiion...

 

I need to do this job as well, so I'll be interested in how it goes. I have heard that the steering head bearing can be a hassle to get seated.

 

those look like Daisy BB's

 

Rick, how many miles are on that bike? Just wondering if I should be looking at mine.

 

The grease is probably 30 years old. They look just like that regardless of miles.

 

Don't worry......it's NOT a difficult job. Take your time and write down everything you take apart, and the order you do it in.

The first time I did this job, I had only been riding a couple years, knew NOTHING about doing that.....and was only able to remove the rear wheel at the time. I did it myself without instruction, so if I could figure it out, you can, too.

Go for it, and if you get stumped or stuck, we'll help you through it.

Dave Fox

 

The bike has 14K miles on it and was sitting in a shed for the last 20 years.

Thanks Dave, one concern I do have is how I am going to get the proper torque on the funky head nuts. I do not have a "special" wrench and used a screwdriver and hammer to get the nuts off.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Chacal has a wrench for it.

Now I'm going to break one of my cardinal rules. You don't really need a wrench or torque wrench. When I went to school they had us do them with a hammer and punch (same set up you used to remove them).

I just did steering bearings on my Venture, which was built with tapered bearings and has torque specs for them. I've got the specs at the shop but bottom line is they are torqued to some moderate value, backed off, then re-torqued to a very small value - essentially finger tight.

The purpose of the initial higher torque is to make sure they aren't floating on a big wad of grease that will work its way out and make them loose. You can accomplish that with a pair of channel lock pliers by snugging it up well, work the bars back and forth a bit, loosen, repeat. Then loosen again and go finger tight, use pliers to snug it up just a hair more. Check for looseness or binding and reassemble everything.

 

Thank Carl; good gauge.

 

At the shop now, saw this and looked up the Venture torque specs for you:

Initial tightening approx. 36 ft-lb.

Loosen completely, re-tighten to 2.2 ft-lb.

 

Just did the all balls bearings about a week ago, super easy job.

 

You'll be glad you did!

Dont forget to put the lower seal on first BEFORE the lower race, otherwise you'll be kicking yourself everytime you think about it

 

I went ahead and did the bearings yesterday; no surprises. It was as previously posted here by Abeja with the lower race on the upper bearing "sticking out" of the steering head even when properly seated. MiCarl's illustration in that previous thread shows clearly why it should be sticking out.

I ended up using a large pipe wrench (rather than the screwdriver/hammer method) to tighten the castle? nuts. I torqued them down until there was a slight drag, backed them off and repeated a few more times. Then, after the last tightening, I backed them off slowly until there was no drag. IMO, to some degree the torquing sequence requires a sort of zen-like "become one with the bearings" thing (chanting optional)...

 

Ummm do you mean the seal goes on the stem or in the neck first? I put my lower race in the neck, then threw the neck in the freezer for an hour or so, put the seal on the stem first then heated my bearing a bit and droped it on my stem. The seal wouldn't make sense going in the neck first, it wouldn't be sealing anything...

I was unable to find blownup pics and videos of people doing these bearings online. And the haynes manual litteraly gives you nothing on them unfortunetly. Iv done then on dirtbikes plenty but that's super simple. Honestly this was the trickiest thing IV done with my XJ.

 

Mitchell, you've got it right. I actually think you and MBC are saying the same thing when you said that you "put the seal on the stem first" and then installed the lower bearing onto the stem.

 

Awesomeness, heart stopped for a bit there...