Topic: '79 CB650 Steering Head Bearings

[Pinhead]

I've got a moderate front whee wobble. When I set the bike up on the center stand and lift the front wheel off the ground, there is a "catch" right on center. It takes slightly more force (very slightly) to get over this catch (same distance from either side of "center") and it wants to "spring back" to center. This makes the wheel want to wobble a little bit, and makes it a bit interesting when going around curves. It's not a catch like it snaps or pops past it, it's more like it's rolling over some hardened grease or something. It's not grindy, loose, or diffocult to turn.

Is there a simple procedure to lube these bearings? I'll eventually have to replace them, but that'll have to wait at least until I graduate college and have enough extra time (and another vehicle to drive). Can I just take off the top nut that holds the tripple clamp and lube them from there? Should I pull it all apart and re-pack the bearings with grease? Is there somewhere that I can install a grease zerk to periodically lube them up? What would be the easiest and cheapest course of action?

[scunny]

apart from trying to spray WD40 or similar into the races, I would think you would need to pull The stearing head apart and clean then grease the balls.
still might not fix that "notchiness"

[joeb]

If you have a notch in the race no amount of grease is going to take it out, while you have it apart replace the head set with a tapered bearing set. You  can order one from almost any motorcycle shop. This will be your best fix.   

[bill440cars]

If you have a notch in the race no amount of grease is going to take it out, while you have it apart replace the head set with a tapered bearing set. You  can order one from almost any motorcycle shop. This will be your best fix.   

            Yeah, this would be a good time to upgrade the bearings. You get them properly greased, installed and adjusted, you should be good for quite sometime.

[Pinhead]

How long does it generally take to replace these bearings? What's the procedure? My Haynes manual gives a very sketchy plan on removal/replacement, it almost seems like the dang thing's written in another language...

Just by looking at it, it looks like I just remove the handlebars, the fusebox, and that big nut on the top of the stem. After that, remove the top tripple clamp and the entire front-end should drop down. Once that's all out, pulling the bearings should be pretty straightforeward, right?

[joeb]

You also need to knock out the old bearing races, you can use a long screwdriver for that then you need to put in the new races, also the steer stem bearing must come off and be driven in place should take about and afternoon.