Feels loose in corners

[MongoE9]

Hello all,

My 06 RSV has developed a loose feeling in corners and I am feeling every undulation on the road. Often times unlevel parts of the road will move me in the lane. Also I am getting some vibration in the front. I initially thought it was my suspension, but the Yamaha dealer is saying the front bearings and swing arm bearings probably need to be repacked. He recommended the 16K service.

Any suggestions before I drop $900 on what sounds like a very thorough servicing?

Thanks

Mongo

[playboy]

You could do it yourself the swing arm is a pretty simple. If you can remove the rear wheel you can do it. http://http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=72631 But I doubt that is your problem unless you have a bunch of miles. My guess would be the Steering head bearings and there is probably a thread or two laying around here on that subject. Try a search on those. Bad rear tire will make it wallow in the curves also.

[RSTDdog]

First how are the tires and the tire pressures? If the tires are worn/cupped,low pressure that's the first place to look. If the rear tire is worn in the center, that transition to the side in a corner can be disconcerting if the tire profile isn't round anymore.

 

Steering head bearings may be loose need adjusting/repacking . Getting any clunking/handlebar movement at low speeds entering a parking lot, driveway traverseing speed bumps?

 

Swing arm bearings at 16,000 unlikley unless you ride in the rain ALOT, park the bike outdooors, or use a pressure washer on your bike without paying attention. While the manual says 16000 on the swing arm bearings for repack, mine are tight with no side play and no binding at 24,000. Many others here have inspected and found the swing arm bearings to be in good shape.

 

Check Tires and pressures first, Steering head bearings next, swing arm bearings last.

[wes0778]

Low tire pressure???

[djh3]

As has been suggested tire pressures, wear patterns. What tires are you running? Miles on tires? E-3's are sort of noted for edge feathering when they get higher miles on them and will cause some unsteady feelings in corners if your not ready for them. Also look under the bike at the shock. Is there oil dripping out of the rubber cover? If you can put bike on a lift and just start to take load off and see if you get any movement out of the shock links.

[Brake Pad]

tighten the two bolts holding the seat down. ( its been the culprit for two people )

[MikeWa]

Low tire pressure???

 

 

+1 on low tire pressure

 

Mike

[Jactana]

I experienced loose steering head bearings on my '06, made the bike feel "hinged" and loose over uneven pavement and sqirmy in the corners. We just tightened the steering head bearings a bit, and it's great again. I've had 3 sets off E-3 tires, and if kept in flated to 40+lbs. have experienced no 'feathering" or other unusual wear patterns.

[Seaking]

Hello all,

My 06 RSV has developed a loose feeling in corners and I am feeling every undulation on the road. Often times unlevel parts of the road will move me in the lane. Also I am getting some vibration in the front. I initially thought it was my suspension, but the Yamaha dealer is saying the front bearings and swing arm bearings probably need to be repacked. He recommended the 16K service.

Any suggestions before I drop $900 on what sounds like a very thorough servicing?

Thanks

Mongo

 

What you describe sounds much like the neck bearings are loose.. if you're going around a nice long sweeping curve and you can feel your bars pulsing back and forth (feels like it's wallowing...) while in the turn, this is a good indication of loose neck bearings. This will in turn eventually cause scallopping in your front tires. When coming to a stop with a lot of front brake and you feel the front end choppy, or knocking, this again is another sign it might well be your neck bearings.

 

Best and cheapest way to test to see if your bearings are loose is to lift the front end of the bike up so the front wheel is off the ground. Stand in front of the bike and grasp the front tire and pull - push it forward and backwards. If you feel a knock or thunk, its an indication of your neck bearings being loose. When they are properly tight, you shouldn't feel any movement what so ever. While the bike is up on the hoist or just the front wheel off the ground, the bars shouldn't swing to either side by themselves without a push on the bars. Swing the bars so that they fall to one side making contact with the steering stops. They should bang against the stops with no more than one rebound.. if they bounce accessively, again another sign of loose bearings in the neck..

 

Replacing / repacking the bearings is a tedious task if you do it yourself and expensive if a shop does it for you. I replaced mine not long ago and just had to retighten them the other day..

 

The poor man's way of tightening the neck bearings is simple enough. You have to loosen the top nut on top of the triple tree and with a long screw driver, tap the two lock nuts until the bearings are tight again.. There is a very good article on how to do this in the library.

 

Once the two lock nuts are tightened, and you can't feel that knocking in the front as you pull - push on the front wheel, re-tighten the top nut on the triple tree and take it for a test ride.. you'll be amazed at how sure footed your bike will feel afterwards compared to before.

 

Keep in mind that eventually you should have the bearings replaced / repacked and the inner races inspected for uneven wear.. I've done a few of these for friends and the amount of turning on the lock nuts varied from a couple of inches to a full turn (that one was bad and later required new bearings, but it got him through the riding season until we could get the bike serviced properly with new bearings..)

 

Best of luck.. Go with the easy least expensive checks first to determine the cause of the issues at hand..

[Guest]

Hello all,

My 06 RSV has developed a loose feeling in corners and I am feeling every undulation on the road. Often times unlevel parts of the road will move me in the lane. Also I am getting some vibration in the front. I initially thought it was my suspension, but the Yamaha dealer is saying the front bearings and swing arm bearings probably need to be repacked. He recommended the 16K service.

Any suggestions before I drop $900 on what sounds like a very thorough servicing?

Thanks

Mongo

 

Go with the tire condition and pressure first. Most RSV tires like to run in the mid 40's range up front to the higher 40's in the rear. Makes a huge difference. Mileage on the bike now? Brand of tire? Do you have access to a lift to raise the bike off the ground? You would need that to check the front steering bearings for looseness. Vibration in front can be from a worn tire. You can also experience vibration from a dry drive shaft. Most of these repairs require at least some amount of mechanical expertise. This place is a great place to learn some. You tend to learn real fast when labor charges add up like yours did.

[GeorgeS]

Also check the bolts holding the forks in the Triple Tree.

And ditto all the other comments,

Don't forget to check the front, and rear, Axel nut Torque, 56lb front, and 110 lb. rear axel.

Also, check the 4 , 13MM nuts holding the rear drive box onto the end of the drive shaft houseing.

 

Also, torque settings, for the Rear Swing Arm. ( each side ) but you need a large torque wrench and some Large , Expensive , Metric sockets for job.

( as I recall, 24 and 26 MM Sockets ) ( They cost a few bucks !! )

 

And of course, the Steering head Torque setting. ( pull that up in the Service Manuel and study how to do it !!!!! )

 

And of course, Tire Pressure, Also, Is your Front Tire " Balanced " ?????

[Yammer Dan]

Tire pressure and Steering head adjust. Takes 10 minutes.

 

Or Trade it for a 1st Gen and do the same thing, only faster......

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Assuming your tire pressures and the tires themselves are good, then I agree with the others here..I think you need to address the neck bearings and the swingarm bearings.

 

On mine, simply tightening them did wonders...they tend to loosen up a bit in the first 30,000 miles or so.

 

Assuming also that you have a lift available:

 

Jack the front end up and tug on the front fork tubes..there should be almost zero flex, and NO looseness or slop.

 

To check the swingarm, jack up the rear, support the tire/wheel with a block or something, then disconnect the lower shock mount. Make sure the bike is steady and can't move or fall. Get down there and try to wiggle the swingarm side to side. IF you feel ANY looseness, the swingarm bearings will need to be tightened.

 

There are writeups on this, and I have added my own in this post from last year:

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showpost.php?p=694012&postcount=18

[Rick Haywood]

Hello all,

My 06 RSV has developed a loose feeling in corners and I am feeling every undulation on the road. Often times unlevel parts of the road will move me in the lane. Also I am getting some vibration in the front. I initially thought it was my suspension, but the Yamaha dealer is saying the front bearings and swing arm bearings probably need to be repacked. He recommended the 16K service.

Any suggestions before I drop $900 on what sounds like a very thorough servicing?

Thanks

Mongo

 

 

Don't let the stealer get your money, I have 92,000 miles on mine and the front wheel bearings are oem, swing bearings are oem, i did have to replace a rear wheel bearing at 65,000 or so and that made it feel squirly in the corners before I replaced it. raise the bike and stick a rod in the wheel and see if it moves. I vote tire pressure or worn tires or or maybe even old tires

[MongoE9]

Thanks all for the great feedback. I have over 43,000 on my bike, run Avon Venoms, brand new rear at 46 psi and front that will need to be replaced within 6 months at 41 psi. I will give it the once over before I take it to the shop next week to see if I can resolve the problem. I have noticed my seat is a little loose and I will check the other suggetions you provided.

Thanks again all.

Mongo

[AKRefugee]

Don't trust the stealership when they say the suspension is fine. What you are describing

also happened to me and it was the rear shock. Feels like the back end is doing the Watusi

in the corners and you will feel every swell in the road. All reports I have read, as well as my

own experience, of the steering bearing being lose showed up at about 30mph not in the

corners at normal cruising speeds.

[friesman]

My 03 RSV was loose when I got it and I felt like it wanted to track everywhere the pavement had a low spot, and corners were a kind of adventure I didn't like much. I found the tire pressures were way low and once I got that fixed up the bike was way better, but there was still a bit squiirly, so I bought the low volume pump from Harley and found one side of the forks had 7 lbs the other tube had no pressure. Now it rides great! Life is good!

 

I hope you get yours fixed with a minimum of effort and expense.

Brian

[Condor]

I ran into the mushies when I bought my '99. Tightened the steering head for 100% inprovement. Freebird has a write up on how to do it on the cheap. And Dingy sells a tool to do the job if you don't want to take the short-cut. I'll probably end up taking the cut on the '07 as well.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=511

[MongoE9]

Thanks again for all of the great info. I will put all of your insight to use.

Mongo