Steering Head Bearings

[V7Goose]

Well, I just got done helping another member replace the worn out steering head bearings in his RSV - what a nasty job! Most of us know that Yamahaha doesn't add much lube to bearings on the initial build, so it is pretty important you get in there and lube them at least once on the specified maintenance interval. But it is a big, nasty, and long job (and expensive if you have the dealer do it). I've seen a few folks suggest that you might as well just ignore it and wait until the bearings are shot around 50,000 miles, then just properly lube the replacements. Well, I'm here to tell you that is a bad plan. Much better to keep them in shape from the beginning.

 

The bike we worked on had a bit over 70,000 miles, and the owner was complaning about lots of head shake and an unsteady feeling when coming off the line. When we first checked it out, the front forks had a LOT of slop when pulled front/back with the wheel off the ground. Using the quick technique to tighten down the bearings, we got a huge amount of movement out of the ring nuts, but even after they were tight enough to almost stop the free motion of the forks (where the tire will turn all the way to the stop under it's own weight), the same slop was still in the bearings. No option at that point except changing the bearings!

 

When we got in there, the wear pattern on the inner race for the top bearing was very heavy at the front only (which explains why they had so much front/back play), and the lower race showed major wear marks in line with each individual roller. This showed that the bearing was so loose for so long that the rollers never actually moved in the race! Most interesting was the actual condition of the roller bearings - although there was not a lot of lube in there, this 03 with 70K+ miles still had some, and the rollers all looked pretty good, no pitting or corrosion at all. The message here is that if they had simply been kept properly adjusted, they would have been just fine even after 70,000 miles without a single service! Too bad.

 

The work needed to change the bearings is pretty much the same as what you have to do just to lube them, but I'll tell ya that you really don't want to have to pull those races from the steering head or get that lower bearing off the shaft - that job ain't no fun! Yamahaha really forked up in the design of how those races fit in the head - virtually no lip exposed at all for a puller to grip. And it took a lot of time with an oxy-acetylene torch to finally get that bottom bearing to expand enough to come loose. I normally wouldn't worry about the torch work, but all I could think about was the horror of seeing that cast aluminum lower tree start melting on me if I got a little careless!! Replacing the bearings added at least three hours to this job. Ugh.

 

Here is a quick note on something we learned about adjusting the bearings - the tech library has an article on how to do a quick and dirty adjustment by sneaking a long screwdriver up under the steering head cover and using a hammer to turn the ring nut and lock nut together. These two nuts are locked together with a tab washer, and I always thought there was a problem trying to get much movement of these ring nuts if you didn't use something to pry the lock tabs out of the slots. You see, every other application I have ever seen using a tab washer like this has a key slot in the shaft that prevents the tab washer from turning with both nuts together. Well, not his bike! That tab washer is not tied to the shaft at all, so you can turn both ring nuts together just as far as you want!

 

If you haven't checked your steering head bearings for proper adjustment, you really need to do it. My 05 had noticeable chatter under heavy front breaking on rough surface by about 8,000 miles, but one adjustment using the quickie method took care of it. Now with over 73,000 miles, those bearings still have no sigh of slop in them. Even if you are not going to go to all the work to lube them, best keep them adjusted!

 

Ride safe,

Goose

[OB-1]

Thanks for the heads-up Goose! I've had to adjust the steering head bearing once, at about 8,000... been fine ever since, but I will certainly stay on top of them now.

[dksmith196958]

mine has lots of play at 43g on the clock cant imagne what mine look like ...can a greese zerk b put in the neck ?

[BuddyRich]

Gotta replace mine and the lower triple tree. The accident I had in 08 sheared off one of the stops. This is gonna be fun cause all that stuff has to come off.

[Marcarl]

To get the race off I used a Dremel tool to cut the race,,, maybe a bit of a danger of slightly cutting through the race, but no danger of melting the aluminum or over heating anything else. It also saved a lot of time by the look of things. The final bit of cutting was done with a cold chisel and a freindly!!! pursuader.

[gibvel]

Goose,

 

Are you saying that you DO NOT have to pry the tabs up to adjust the nuts?

[Thom]

one of our members had his done in Houston and the tech installed a grease fitting in the neck , when i install new bearings i will do it .

Thom

[Seaking]

one of our members had his done in Houston and the tech installed a grease fitting in the neck , when i install new bearings i will do it .

Thom

 

Now THERE is a thought.. I've had mine 'tightened' as an interim fix until I can get in there to do the neck up properly, the 06 Midnight has over 50,000 miles on it. Not a job I'd do on my own unfortunately..

 

The shop who tightened it reported that there were NO flat surfaces on the bearings or race so i should be OK just to get them properly greases up at some point.

 

Would MOLY60 be used in there as well?

 

Grease fittings eh?

[RedRider]

Now THERE is a thought.. I've had mine 'tightened' as an interim fix until I can get in there to do the neck up properly, the 06 Midnight has over 50,000 miles on it. Not a job I'd do on my own unfortunately..

 

The shop who tightened it reported that there were NO flat surfaces on the bearings or race so i should be OK just to get them properly greases up at some point.

 

Would MOLY60 be used in there as well?

 

Grease fittings eh?

 

Standard wheel bearing grease will work fine. To clean the current bearings, just wash them with Naptha or gasoline to get the old grease out. Inspect the rollers and races for pits or lines. If you see lines, check to see if you can feel them, or just see the light deflect off them. If you can feel the lines, replace the bearings. If you can't feel the lines, don't worry about it.

 

To grease the bearings properly, put a tsp. of grease in your palm and press the large end of the bearing into it. You are trying to force the grease under the cage and between the rollers from the large end. Do this until you see some grease coming out the small end.

 

There is no real need to fill the chamber with grease. There is so little motion in the steering bearings, the grease never liquifies and will stay in the bearing.

 

After re-installation when re-tightening the bearings, move the wheel back and forth while tightening. This allows the roller to seat against the back rib and align with the race. If you don't do this, you WILL get extra slop in the setup once you tighten everything up and then start moving the wheel.

 

Was in engineering for 7 years at Timken. This is from the Service Manual.

 

RR

[Seaking]

Standard wheel bearing grease will work fine. To clean the current bearings, just wash them with Naptha or gasoline to get the old grease out. Inspect the rollers and races for pits or lines. If you see lines, check to see if you can feel them, or just see the light deflect off them. If you can feel the lines, replace the bearings. If you can't feel the lines, don't worry about it.

 

To grease the bearings properly, put a tsp. of grease in your palm and press the large end of the bearing into it. You are trying to force the grease under the cage and between the rollers from the large end. Do this until you see some grease coming out the small end.

 

There is no real need to fill the chamber with grease. There is so little motion in the steering bearings, the grease never liquifies and will stay in the bearing.

 

After re-installation when re-tightening the bearings, move the wheel back and forth while tightening. This allows the roller to seat against the back rib and align with the race. If you don't do this, you WILL get extra slop in the setup once you tighten everything up and then start moving the wheel.

 

Was in engineering for 7 years at Timken. This is from the Service Manual.

 

RR

 

Hand greasing bearings are easy to do, done them as an aircraft mech.. however, the aspect of the job I was unready for is the dismantling of the front end to get to the bearings.. I'd rather have someone who's done it before help me doing it to make it easier and safer

[V7Goose]

Goose,

 

Are you saying that you DO NOT have to pry the tabs up to adjust the nuts?

Yup, that is exactly what I was saying! Really surprised me that the tab washer is not tied to the center shaft at all. In fact, now that I know that, it is much better to leave the tabs in place and the two ring nuts locked together whil you adjust them from below - here's why: if you pry up the tabs like I did and just turn the bottom ring nut, you are actually moving it further away from the lock nut and reducing the locking effect. This means it is more likely to loosen up again on it's own. If you leave the nuts locked together and move them as one unit, they keep the same locking power.

 

As for the idea of a grease fitting, I can't see it. There is no way to put the fitting in so that the grease would be forced to go through the bearings into the open neck, so the only option is to just try and fill the entire steering neck full of grease untill it was packed tight enought to force itself through the bearings from the inside out. I think that would take over a full tube of grease.

 

Once the bearings are properly greased, and kept properly adjusted, I think they will safely last the life of the bike. These are good roller bearings, not the cheap bicycle ball bearings that Honda uses on the wings. The key here is to regularly check them (like at each tire change when you have the front wheel off the ground) and tighten them if you feel any slop at all when pulling and pushing on the bottom of the forks. The check is quite simple and shown in your owner's manual. As others have already noted in this thread, it is very common for these bikes to have loose steering head bearings before 10,000 miles, but in my experience, once they are properly tightened the first time, they tend to stay that way.

 

Greasing the bearings is a big job that requires two people and many hours, but I strongly recommend you do it at least once in the first 50,000 miles.

Goose