Steering Head Bearing Replacement

[1st Shirt Maxer]

O.K. Here goes my first attempt at posting a thread to help others if they find themselves wanting or needing to replace the bearings in the steering neck. First off, I did this in my carport in about 6 hours over 2 days. I had to borrow a spanner wrench so I could set the bearings, more on that later.

First you need to remove the front wheel and fender. I left the fork brace attached to make handling the forks easier. Also, make sure you hang the brake calipers so they are not putting any pressure on the lines. You can see the small blue bungees I used hanging on the side of the radiator grill.

next its time to remove the handlebars and the handlebar mounting base. Pretty simple with a 6mm Allen for the clamp bolts and a 14mm socket for the mounting base. All I did here was cover the air box cover and lay the handlebars down on top of the air box cover.

once you remove the center tripple tree nut with a 27mm socket or a large crescent wrench you remove the upper tripple tree/upper fork holder to expose the 2 nuts and the rubber washer holding the upper and lower tripple tree/fork clamps together.

the second picture is a pic of the holder that was keeping the 2 nuts together and aligned, it comes out with your fingers. Unless you have done the Fuber fix, the rubber washer is in between the two nuts and the indexing washer( not sure of the real name of this part) goes on top. Be careful here, once you loosen the two nuts, make sure you are holding the lower fork mount as it will fall out once the two nuts are removed.

this is what my upper bearing looked like when I removed it from the neck, nasty. The upper bearing will come out by hand and the race can be removed with a good drift and a hammer. I had no issues so far with this.

the lower bearing is pressed onto the lower tripple tree so you will either need a puller or what I did was just cut the bearing off. If you decide to cut it off be careful not to damage the shaft. I used a Drexel with a small cutting wheel and just took my time.

this is where the fun began. I had to cut the lower race out of the steering neck. You cannot knock it out like the top race due to the steering neck is tapered in the middle(crappy design) not sure how yamaha says to get it out but again, I used a Drexel and a small cutoff wheel. This was a little more difficult and I accidentally cut into the neck, but not enough to cause any concern. Once the races are removed, I just used a race installer to install the new races and took the lower tripple tree to the hobby shop on base and used their press to press the new bearing in.

here is a pic of the slight damage done to my steering neck. Afterward I just took some corse grit sandpaper and made sure there were no burrs. After I spent some time cleaning up everything, putting a layer of lithium grease on everything it was time to reassemble.

i also took the opportunity to change out my front tire so I now have the Shinko tour masters all around so I can't wait to get it on the road. We have a typhoon developing just east of us so the weather has been crappy for 3 days and it's going to last all weekend long, ugh. Hope this helps someone out there looking to do the same thing. The next few pics are some of the old bearings and races after I was done.

David Justiss
USAF First Sergeant
554 RED HORSE Sq, Guam

 

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Nice writeup.

I was able to keep the handle bars and riser attached to the top triple. I just used a wrench to crack the nut loose on top of the triple and put the whole assembly on the airbox (faux cover removed). Saves a little time.



Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2

 

[1st Shirt Maxer]

Absolutely, I see where that would save some time. While I had the front end apart, I did some other minor work to include reinstalling my HID headlight. I thought the ballast went out so I put my stock light back in but later found out it was just my handlebar switch needed cleaning. Now it's all back together and I have my nice bright headlight again.


David Justiss
USAF First Sergeant
554 RED HORSE Sq, Guam

 

[dannymax]

Nice job on the lower race....I cut a groove into the neck above the race and drove it out from above.

Any way you do it it isn't a lot of fun....like you said...lousy design!

 

[jfeagins]

Nice write up and pictures.

 

[sdt354]

Just did this again too. I used my 110 volt Mig to build a bead, then drove the bottom race right out with a bar on the bead. The heat distorts the race making removal a snap. I took my bars off with calipers, lines and master all attached.
Steve-o

 

[gamorg02]

nice writeup!

next time someone does this i want to see if the tool i made helps at all.

i got one of these:

then ground the 'lips' down to 1mm x 1mm. put it above the bearing and had to brace the inside of the two semi-circles (used a spacer and a chisel to take up the remaining slack), two hits with a drift or BFS (big ******* screwdriver) and it was out.

 

[dannymax]

nice writeup!

next time someone does this i want to see if the tool i made helps at all.

i got one of these:

then ground the 'lips' down to 1mm x 1mm. put it above the bearing and had to brace the inside of the two semi-circles (used a spacer and a chisel to take up the remaining slack), two hits with a drift or BFS (big ******* screwdriver) and it was out.

That's a great idea Garrett! :clapping:

Don't think a BFS is the proper tool tho....believe I'd go with a SBBUFA (we call them 'spoofa's' in the trade) if one is handy. :whistlin:

 

[gamorg02]

That's a great idea Garrett! :clapping:

Don't think a BFS is the proper tool tho....believe I'd go with a SBBUFA (we call them 'spoofa's' in the trade) if one is handy. :whistlin:

gotcha. I picked up a really good size one from my grandfather when he had to downsize his tools. 16" and the shaft is gotta be 1/2" x 1/2".

anyways, just had another thought too, since i've used these wheel bearing removers with incredible results:

what i could have done is used that same size 'spacer' (which i think was a nut) b/c it had like 1mm of clearance then just probably use the driver from the above pack down and out it should come. its can't really slip as the 'chisel' end is only making the tool clamp harder... hmmm

 

[dannymax]

There is a 1mm shoulder to catch the bottom race on? That would open up lots of new options. :clapping:

That tool isn't quite came to mind when you said you used a 'screwdriver' Garrett....that is a far more serious instrument than the run of the mill screwdriver! :biglaugh:

 

[gamorg02]

There is a 1mm shoulder to catch the bottom race on? That would open up lots of new options. :clapping:

That tool isn't quite came to mind when you said you used a 'screwdriver' Garrett....that is a far more serious instrument than the run of the mill screwdriver! :biglaugh:

There was on mine but I've never done any others. And I used a big screwdriver, but in the future that chisel could help.

-garrett