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DIY? Tightening Steering Head Bearings
Written by goldwingman40 on 1/23/2007 at 01:11 am

Kevin,
I have a three special tools that I made to allow me to reset the
torque on the steering head without pulling EVERYTHING appart.
I made a socket with about a 3/8" slot up the side that fits the
steering stem nut. This allows you to loosen and retighten it without
pulling the turn signal cancel control. I made a hook wrench to
loosen and tighten the perload nut and lock nut without having to
pull the turn signal cancel control from a Progressive Suspension
shock preload spanner #SW-783 heated and the tip radius reshaped to
fit the preload nut. The third tool is a coat hanger and a towel.
Put the towel over the top edge or the windshield to prevent
scratching and bend the coat hanger to hook over the top of the
windshield and hook under the handlebar assembly to hold it up out of
the way as far as the hoses and cables will let.

Now pull the center handlebar cover and the two side covers to get to
the steering head. Remove the bar clamps and hang the bars up out of
the way. Unplug the turn signal cancel control connector. Remove the
steering stem nut and slide it off the wire. Loosen the 4 upper fork
tube lock bolts and slide the upper triple clamp off. You can get to
these from below. If you have allen screws you might need to shorten
a allen wrench on the short side to get it in, the 89 bike has hex
head bolts on the upper which allow you to get in with a box wrench
or small short socket. Bend the lock washer tabs down out of the lock
nut slots and remove the lock nut and lock washer and slide them off
the wire. Now take the hook wrench, which fits a 3/8" square drive,
and torque wrench and loosen the preload nut. Retorque the preload
nut to about 30 pound-feet and rotate theforks from lock to lock
about 10 times. now loosen the preload nut to about 5 or 10 lb-ft and
retorque to 24 to 25 lb-ft and rotate the steering head from loac to
lock about 10 times again and if everything feels good continue to
put it back together. slide the lock washer back over the wire and
down the steering stem itto the grooves in the preload nut. Slide the
lock nut over the wire and screw it on the steering stem, HAND
TIGHTEN IT DOWN TIGHT AGAINST THE LOCK WASHER and adjust it slightly
either way to align the lock mtabs with the slots and bend up the
tabs. Slip the upper fork tripple clamp over the wire, steering stem
and fork tubes. Slip the steering stem nut over the wire and snug it
down lightly. Tighten the 4 fork tube upper lock bolts and now torque
the lock nuy to 76 lb-ft. Plug in the turn signal control connector
reinstall the bars and covers.

Now take a ride.

Fred

--- In ipcrc@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin" <kevin@...> wrote:
>
> I think my steering head bearings may be loose. I have the All Balls
> tapered bearings but the front-end wobble is back and the steering
is
> feeling and acting loose again (when unweighted the steering "flops
> over" from center very fast).
>
> What do I need to check the torque on the bearings?
>
> How do I properly tighten them?
>
> What tools do I need?
>
> How much plastic do I need to remove?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Kevin
> ---
> 1996 PC800 (Red Dwarf) || 60,000+ miles
> <http://www.quosig.com/pc800/>
> ---
> Uni-go Trailer (Starbug I)
> <http://www.quosig.com/pc800/uni-go/>
> ---
> Monday, January 22, 2007 || 7:40 AM
>