Steering bearings

Hey Missy, We did mine at Eric's house during our weekend there. I know for sure that it's something that you could do in a relatively short time.

It is kind of important to repack them at the specified intervals so that there is sufficient amount of lubrication. This will cut down on wear and tear causing sloppy steering. We actually changed mine over to tapered bearings, but if your not replacing the bearings, it's an easy deal.

With the bike on the centerstand, you can prop an old paint can under the exhaust headers. (Learned that one from Eric)

You can then remove the calipers and bungee them out of the way, followed by the front wheel.

Undo your handlebars and with a rag over your windscreen you can bungee them up as a complete unit.

Once thats finished, undo your fork tubes and remove them, being careful not to scratch anything.

With that done just undo the center nut on the top triple and remove it. underneath you'll see a hold down washer. Remove it and remove the top nut with a spanner wrench or equivalent. Next remove the rubber washer. Then the second nut can be removed.

At this point you'll be needing to keep a hold of the lower triple. Once both the nuts are off just remove the cover and bring the whole assembly out of the bottom. You'll see the bearings at this time.

I'm not sure if the ball bearings are held in the crown or not so be careful that you don't have any fall out. Also, if the lower bearings are press fit unto the stem just leave them be as you can pack them in place. Once they are out you can clean them up with a "lint free" cloth or shop towel. Clean out the fork neck as well so everything is clean.

I used bearing grease with lithium to pack my bearings. Just put a wad of grease in the palm of your hand and press the bearings down into the grease, turning the race as you go. Keep going until you see the grease work up through the bearings and starts seeping through.

If the lowers are pressed on lower tree, just put the grease between your thumb and forefinger and pack it that way. If they come off the stem, even better.

Once everything is relubed, just assemble everything opposite of how you removed them. The big cover goes on first. On my bike (GenI), you tighten the lower ring nut to 38ft. lbs. first, then turn the tree lock to lock, loosen the nut and then retorque to 159in. lbs. or 18N*m. Now install the rubber washer and upper nut. The upper nut goes on finger tight and with the slots aligned with the lower nut. Then the metal washer locks everything from turning.

The top triple goes on and then the washer. Next is the main nut. I didn't tighten that one fully until the forks were back on the bike along with the front wheel and calipers. This way you can be sure that everything is aligned properly.

Ultimately you should check your manual for proper torque specs. Maybe someone else can check on those numbers for you.

I know it looks like alot of work but it's really just a whole lot of writing. All these steps go rather quickly. Good luck and you know if there's any snags, you can check in here!
 
THIS IS AWESOME! :) I was wondering if since I'm pulling this stuff all apart already, should I go ahead and do front fork oil? Would it be easier since I'm already pullin stuff off? I can't print this off right now, but I will tommorow at work...you guys have NO idea how valuable you are! I'm sure I'll run into something when I go to do this, and it's great I can freak out, post here, and get an answer. :) I may take a stab at this this weekend.
On a side note, I ordered a CD rom repair manual off of eBay, hopefully it will be helpful, since as ling as I have some kind of instruction, or diagram, I'm not afraid to pull things apart myself. I actually dig it. Is that weird? :)
 
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