Steering Head Bearings

[04fizzer]

Originally Posted by JohnP

The service guide shows a special tool to loosen the nut holding the bearings. Did you buy this tool from a Yamaha dealer? If so, how much $?

Thanks,

John

I used a brass drift and a hammer to get the lock nuts off.

I want to get a spanner wrench and do it right, as mine feel as though they're working loose a bit (been 2 years since I replaced mine with the All balls tapered).

The most important part is to make sure you get the races pressed in STRAIGHT.

This is what I used to get my races pressed in. Once they were started, and everything was drawn in as tight as I could get it, I tapped them the rest of the way in with the old races

[mstewar1]

This issue was discussed a few months back. Someone posted that Grainger sells this tool:
Hand Tools > Wrenches > Spanner Wrenches > Spanner Wrench,6 3/8 L : Grainger Industrial Supply

I have a similar tool for working on bicycles. An old bottom bracket wrench. You can get them here:
Bike Tools Etc. - 1000's of bicycle tools and parts for the home mechanic!

I'm not sure if Yamahaha recommends using one or two of these tools. Two may be preferred (not "necessary", mind you) so that once the proper tension is reached on the lower of the two nuts, the lower nut can be held in place while the upper nut is tightened against it, thereby locking them down without changing the tension.

As for the cups, there again, I've got a bicycle headset press that I'm gonna see if I can use. If, for whatever reason, that doesn't work, I'll probably resort to persuading them in with a piece of precision timber...

Personally, I wouldn't really recommend the drift and hammer method of adjustment, as it's just too easy to overload such a set of bearings and pretty much negate your efforts at replacing them, as they'll just eat themselves and the races well ahead of schedule. But of course, YMMV.

I've got a set of the All Balls bearings waiting to be installed. Though mine aren't giving me any grief yet, from the experiences posted here I'd say that around 10k it'll be about time to check 'em and probably replace. Not sure how to mitigate the apparent exposure issue. Perhaps there's a way to fit a seal of some sort to keep the water out -- again, something I've seen and used on bicycles with rather mixed results (for an example, putting a piece of inner tube around the area). With my luck I'd only manage to keep the water in rather than out...

[FZ6-ZN]

Originally Posted by JohnP

The service guide shows a special tool to loosen the nut holding the bearings. Did you buy this tool from a Yamaha dealer? If so, how much $?

Thanks,

John

The steering nut wrench from Yamaha is ridiculously overpriced.

I fabricated my own tool using a piece of 6mm x 100mm flat bar.

FZ6-ZN

[bmccrary]

Originally Posted by 04fizzer

I used a brass drift and a hammer to get the lock nuts off.

I want to get a spanner wrench and do it right, as mine feel as though they're working loose a bit (been 2 years since I replaced mine with the All balls tapered).

The most important part is to make sure you get the races pressed in STRAIGHT.

This is what I used to get my races pressed in. Once they were started, and everything was drawn in as tight as I could get it, I tapped them the rest of the way in with the old races

I just pulled my front end down a few mins ago to change the fork oil. While I was at it I pulled the tripple trees to check those bearings. The inner race up top looks nice. However the race on the bottom not so much. The bearings on the bottom of mine look identical to yours. Tomorrow I am going to spend some time with a dremel and a polishing tip. That and some varsal to clean up the bearings and see where I get. Hopefully that will get them somewhere. We shall see.

-bryan

[SovietRobot]

Originally Posted by JohnP

The service guide shows a special tool to loosen the nut holding the bearings. Did you buy this tool from a Yamaha dealer? If so, how much $?

Thanks,

John

You can use the spanner in the bikes tool kit to loosen those nuts(the ones with notches in them). Or you can use a wrench positioned so you don't strip anything.

Make sure when you are replacing the bearings that you completely remove all the old bearing races. The bottom one can be hard to remove and easy to miss(it looks part of the steering stem). I accidently forgot that, and ruined the lower All Balls bearing trying to install it, so I have the stock bearings on the bottom and the AB's on the top.

[mstewar1]

Originally Posted by SovietRobot

You can use the spanner in the bikes tool kit to loosen those nuts(the ones with notches in them). Or you can use a wrench positioned so you don't strip anything.

I saw this, too. In the service manual they show a different handle on the wrench itself, but the wrench part is the same one you'd use to adjust your shock spring preload.