Steering Head bearing INSTALL

[jkorn]

Help..

OK, So I dremelled out the upper and lower races. Beaded and repainted the triple tree and have installed both of the races.

I tried to heat up the lower bearing a bit and then install it. It is stuck about a half inch from the bottom where it should fit.

There are a ton of threads on removal of races and bearings but I could not find one for the installation of the lower bearing.

How in the heck do you install the new lower bearing.

I sure hope I do not have to grind this one off again and start all over.

Jeff

[bikerphil]

lower bearing

Try a piece of pipe if you can find one the right diameter to fit over the stem. Hammer down on that, but just make contact with the inner part of the bearing.

[DiverRay]

If you can get a can of "FREEZE" from a local electronics store, try that to shrink the triple tree tube BEFORE the beatings begin. The bearings ARE a press fit, so you may want to try just a LITTLE heat on the bearing race, and THEN freeze the tube.
Ray

[prometheus578]

I use a section of old fork tube. It's just the right diameter to fit over the tree stem and contact only the inner race of the bearing.

[Bob Falter]

Ray, isn't it the other way around? The race goes in the tube so you want a big expanded (hot) tube and a cold shrunk (forzen) bearing race. Or am I missing something?

I normally use the old race (up-side-down) with a pipe behind it to drive the new one in but, considering the Demel, your old race probably isn't in any shape to use. The new race is probably slightly crooked. Try taping at four points (90 degrees apart) with a brass drift (punch). Hard tapping (as in pounding) but only with brass, otherwise you will ruin the race. See is you can get any movement. If you do, keep going from side to side until the race is setted.

Bob

[prometheus578]

"I want a big, hot, expanded tube, too!"

Nope... freeze the tube.
Bearing doesn't want to slide down the tube. Freeze the tube.. it contracts a little and bearing now has a little more clearance.
The opposite applies when putting the new races up in the steering head. Freeze the races.. they contract and fit up in the steering head easier.

[skids]

Re: "I want a big, hot, expanded tube, too!"

I saw something like that once in a mining shop. A mechanic welded a bead around the inside circumference of a large bearing race. The thing cooled, contracted, and just fell out. The mechanics of the process may have been a bit different...

Originally posted by prometheus578
Nope... freeze the tube.
Bearing doesn't want to slide down the tube. Freeze the tube.. it contracts a little and bearing now has a little more clearance.
The opposite applies when putting the new races up in the steering head. Freeze the races.. they contract and fit up in the steering head easier.

[prometheus578]

Actually, the real tragedy here is.... I just got back from taking Mommy Dearest to the airport.
Kent lies between Olympia and Seattle.
See Jeff... it's your own stinkin' fault. Had you posted this thread yesterday... I could have brought my hot expanded tube tool with me, met up with you and we wouldn't be having this discussion here today.

But, as I'm a kind man... never having a harsh word nor criticism for anyone...never one to make fun of others in distress... Blah, blah, blah...
Jeff... if you can't get the bearing to seat and are home during the day, send me a PM and I'll throw some stuff in a saddle bag and scoot on up there.
(Home during the day, Jeff... I face Seattle rush hour traffic for no man. Especially on a bike)
Oh, and you'd better have coffee, too!

[Bob Falter]

Sorry Ray, I blew that. Thanks for the correction Prom. When Ray said triple tree tube, I ignored (as in ignorance) the triple tree part and just thought tube. So I thought Jeff was trying to put the bearing race into the triple tree mount on the frame which I think of as a tube. Not the bearing cone onto the triple tree stem as bikerphil called it. That is what I call it also (Yamaha calls it a bolt).

Jeff, hope Prom can help you out.

Bob

[jkorn]

Bearing

ME TOO..

jeff

[jkorn]

OK so this story has a happy ending...

Prometheus stop by this morning and he beat the he** out of the bearing and got it to seat. BUT when we went to put the front end back together all did not seem right. Way to big a gap on the headlight ears. After much deep thinking he discovered that I had only beat the lower race in to the depth of the outer tube and not in a bit. So we found the old race and used it to completey seat the new race and then we were off and running.

EXCEPT that when I went to clamp the fork tubes the 10 coats of new paint on the triple tree seems to have worked into the threads. Go figure. After soaking all four bolts with WD40 I was finaly able to get the bolts out, just barely. They were binding pretty good.

Ran up to McLendons, bought a 8mm tap and 4 new bolts. The threads took a beating with the paint and scum from the glass beading. Ran the tap through the T tree and you should have seen all of the paint that come out.

So the moral of the story is if you bead and then paint something. Clean out the threads.

Thanks prometheus for all of the help. Two heads are better than one.

Jeff

[prometheus578]

"Sad news for all local Members..."

I have been spoiled.
(Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've smelled that way for years)
Anyway...
I have just tasted the good life... I have had quality...
My fee for helping others has now risen.
No longer will coffee and cookies suffice.
The price for my assistance is now pizza.
Hourly rates are now by the slice, etc.

You all can blame JKorn and rising market values for the change.

(And that frozen pizza crap ain't gonna cut it, so don't even try)

Nice lookin' bike, he has.

[fredintoon]

There's stuff you can get for that

"I have been spoiled.
(Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've smelled that way for years)"
Hi Prom,
get yourself a tub of hog lard and a mess of fire ashes - - - But wait! These days you can buy soap at the store. Then watch those pretty ladies in the shower on TV who don't actually show you nothin' because the camera cuts away before the suds wash off and you will get an idea of how to use the stuff. You got running water to your place, right?

[prometheus578]

"I've got two streams, Fred..."

...of tears running down my face, everytime I'm forced to read another of your posts!

[fredintoon]

Forced?

Hi Prom,
and who is forcing you? You don't HAVE to read my posts, or indeed, anyone else's posts, no Sir. You CHOOSE to read my posts. What that says about your psyche is for others to judge.