Changed out my head bearings Friday night

[Blaine]

Friday night I changed out the head bearings because a *@$#%^) shop, (that I use to trust), said I needed them changed after I had then change a front tire for me.

As soon as I paid for the tire and started riding home I felt a problem with the front end, but they were closing as I left so the next day I went back for them to check it out. Their version was they had checked and lubed my head bearings when I had them change the front tire (WHY?) and found that the head bearings needed to be change, (BUT they forgot to mention this until I came back the next day?!?!?!).

Anyway, they quoted me somewhere around $600+ to change them out. WTF??? So I came back home and searched the site for others who had done this and found lots of how to's with pictures and stuff to watch out for. So I decided to do it myself. I order the All-Balls bearings and seals #341-6245, plus the $60+ Stearing Stem Socket, part # 07916-3710101 for the Steering Stem Adjusting nut and a few other tools at Harbor Freight and I was all set to do it myself.

As soon as I got home from work on Friday I got all the tools set out and jacked up the front of the bike, Break out the digital camera and take pictures of everything that I'm going to take off or move. Then I got the front brakes out of the way and took the fender and tire and horn off. I undo the clip-ons and move them aside and use a 12mm allen socket to take the Stem Nut Cap off and then losen the allen bolts holding the top Bridge of the triple tree and take it off. Then undo the lock washer tabs and the locking washer and lock nut come off easy.

I click the special expensive Steering Stem Socket onto my handy dandy torque wrench and just for the heck of it set it to the torque of 18 ft lbs that it's suppose to be. Humm torque wrench clicks and it still won't budge. I keep cranking it up and finally I max it out at 150 ft lbs and still click and it doesn't move. I had to put my full weight into it and cranking for all I was worth I finally got it to budge. I have no idea what specs they torqued it, but DAMN!!! I am so glad I had that special socket, because if I had tried to undo that steering stem nut with a punch or what ever, I'd have beat the damn thing to death before I was able to get it to move, being that it was torqued down at 200 ft lbs or so.

Now I'm pissed at that shop and if I had someone with me to witness the torque settings I'd have been at that shop early Saturday morning with the shop manager in a head lock. No wonder my front end was turning hard, rough and jerky. They cranked down the bearings until they messed them up big time. All that work to replace the bearings just because they wanted to drum up some business and charge me for some thing they caused. AAAAARRRRGGGGGGG!!!!

OK a little venting and I'm all better now. Man does the front end turn easily. I have to get use to the easy movement all over again. With the new bearings it turns a heck of a lot better than then the stock ever did. Wow you should see the difference of the two bearings. When you compare the OEM bearing with the ALL-BALLS, they are almost 3 times taller and thicker, just all around beefer. They should last for the life of the bike.

I left all the tuperware on my bike when I did this and it saved me a ton of time doing it that way. Now others on the site say you get easier access to the front area and other suggested not to "take it all off" to save time and I went with the time saving way.

You do need a 12" center punch to knock out the upper and lower races and with good lighting and a 12 lb short sledge they came out easy. Even though the upper one causes you to do several yoga moves to twist to see upside down and so you can see the top inside edges of the race to make sure your only trying to pop out the race and not the bike frame. I did buy a cheap 1" drive large socket set at Harbor Freight to use as a race press. Again using the right size socket and the extensions with the 12 lb sledge and they went right in, (oh yea I put the races in the freezer starting at the very beginning of the project and they fit in pretty easy when it was time to install them).

Now taking the inner race and seal off the Stearing Stem shaft is a bear and I had put that into the freezer as well. I think I could have heated the lower race with a torch and it might have expanded enough to slip off, but at the time I didn't want to go find and set up my propane torch. It finally came off after a log of encouragement using a number of different screw drivers and wedge chisles. Then using a 12" 1 1/4" I.D. pipe, the inner race and bearing slipped right on. I lubed just about everything with bearing grease before putting them together and it helped a whole lot for everything to go back together.

Now getting the front legs or forks even is a whole job in itself. I used a digital caliper to make sure they were at the same height and a big framing square to make sure the bottom was even and not one more forward or back then the other.

Well what are you sitting there for, go change your bearings or something!

Ha ha, have a great evening and thanks to all of you that posted your "How To's" here, they were a huge help.

[blackhawkxx]

special expensive Steering Stem Socket

Now you can rent the tool out to us XX'ers who need it and make your money back.

[Pete in PA]

GOD I hate shops!

You took it there to change the front tire and they took it upon themselves to lube the steering head bearings?

How do you lube the bearings without taking the whole thing apart? ( I have heard of drilling and tapping the gooseneck for a grease zerk fitting but that would take a pound of grease to fill that hollow before that would do any good.)

THAT was free, but if you want them to CHANGE out the bearings that'll be $600+ please.

Why is it getting worse instead of better finding good shops?

[Furbird]

I hope no shop is drilling and tapping a bird's steering neck. That would be one hella mess when it comes time to change the bearings!