Topic: Tapered Steering Bearings Thread

[Erny]

Just came home from garage, today full disassembly - not surprised what I found, never replaced bearings with 41 years old grease..
Next time assembly hope will make it

[Stev-o]

Here is a link to Scottly's thread on installation tips....


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,160077.msg1330989/topicseen.html#new

[.RJ]

Bumping this thread to the top with a question on adjustment - I've just installed new tapered steering bearings on my 400F, along with rebuilt forks (racetech springs & emulators) and new Ikon shocks.  Its riding pretty nice - but I feel like I'm having some trouble getting the head bearings tight enough - rolling into the garage I can jam the brakes and feel a light 'clunk' as I release them.  I've adjusted them 3 times now in < 200 miles already, and each time I can tighten the adjusting spanner nut by hand.

How tight should the adjusting spanner be?  I'm leery of going too tight and 'indexing' the races - is this a big concern?  At least I'm getting good at propping the top triple up and snugging down the spanner quickly.  I'm tightening them up just enough to take up the preload with the bike on the center stand.

[bryanj]

Sounds like you may not have seated the outer races far enough in

[.RJ]

I thought about that, but I definitely felt the races hit their stops when I tapped them in - used a small pin punch for the bottom race.

[bryanj]

Only other thing is inner race at bottom moving down more

[.RJ]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

[Stev-o]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

I recently had the cluck sound on my front end too, got em "goode n tite" and made sure the bar still rotated nicely.  Dont be afraid to get them tight.

[.RJ]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

I recently had the cluck sound on my front end too, got em "goode n tite" and made sure the bar still rotated nicely.  Dont be afraid to get them tight.

Cool, thanks.  Right now it only gives a light clunk if i am rolling, jam on the brake and then release quickly.  I suspect the bearings are either settling in (likely) or I didnt get the races all the way in (unlikely, but cant rule it out).  The bars are definitely rotating smoothly.  I first set the preload without the forks in and with only the triples in the frame they seemed to want very little preload to not drag, but I was being too cautious - I mostly work on bicycles and it doesnt take much force to index a headset in short order on some of those.

[scottly]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

Did you read my thread that Stev-o linked??

[.RJ]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

Did you read my thread that Stev-o linked??

I did - "pickle jar" is a little different than "crank it down you wont hurt them"

[.RJ]

Of course, its also possible my 'light clunk' is emanating from somewhere other than the head stock, since I had the wheel off and brakes apart.  Will go back and re-check everything - the clunk only comes after a hard jam on the brakes and then a quick release.

The brake arm pivot was rusted and seized into the arm for the caliper, I had to drive that out with a punch and tried to clean it up as best I could but I wonder if that maybe where its coming from, too.  I have an extra one here, but, does anyone know if those arms are unique to the 350/360/400 - or were they shared with bigger bore SOHC bikes?

[scottly]

I expected them to settle in a bit - when settled how tight should the adjusting spanner be?  We talking finger tight, or a couple inch-lbs or..?

Did you read my thread that Stev-o linked??

I did - "pickle jar" is a little different than "crank it down you wont hurt them"

Guess you missed the .7-1.4 ft lbs note.

[steeldoncb550]

Hey all I bought an All Balls steering bearing kit for my 77 550k. I’m long into the project and took out and tossed the old races and ball bearings so I can’t measure to know which spacers to use. Does anyone know which spacers go on the bottom and/or top?

[scottly]

How thick is the washer on the left, next to the lower seal? How thick is the metal shim part of the seal? You should have a total of .155" of spacer under the bearing, including the seal. Do not use the upper seal or spacer; the adjustment nut should go directly on top of the bearing race.

[steeldoncb550]

How thick is the washer on the left, next to the lower seal? How thick is the metal shim part of the seal? You should have a total of .155" of spacer under the bearing, including the seal. Do not use the upper seal or spacer; the adjustment nut should go directly on top of the bearing race.

Washer on the left is 2.65mm (0.104”) and washer on the right is 4.55mm (0.179”)

[scottly]

Looks like you need the washer on the left; .179" is too thick. How thick is the metal part of the seal?

[steeldoncb550]

Looks like you need the washer on the left; .179" is too thick. How thick is the metal part of the seal?

I couldn’t get the caliper in there to measure. It’s pretty thin.

[MacaveliMC]

I have a '78 550 I'm working on, just knocked out the old races from the frame. I measured the bottom ones with a few ball bearings in them and got about 18mm.  Based on another video I saw I think the all balls bearing kit bottom bearing is around 15mm? So you'll wanna use the smaller spacer I believe to get as close as you can.

[steeldoncb550]

I have a '78 550 I'm working on, just knocked out the old races from the frame. I measured the bottom ones with a few ball bearings in them and got about 18mm.  Based on another video I saw I think the all balls bearing kit bottom bearing is around 15mm? So you'll wanna use the smaller spacer I believe to get as close as you can.

That’s the one I was going to just try it with. Same one from the common motor install vid on YouTube

[david 750f]

RJ, you can get a “clunk” if the axle nut hasn’t been tightened properly.

[Erny]

Hi all,
Not long time ago I measured old OEM bearings I removed from my CB550K1 and also CB750K7 (are the same)
Hope it helps

Note: I do not know what thickness had washer I used from all balls kit, but one that remains is 99-1011 (4.7mm thickness). So I used other one that was in the kit (99-1054?)

[alacrity]

Hi all,
Not long time ago I measured old OEM bearings I removed from my CB550K1 and also CB750K7 (are the same)
Hope it helps

Note: I do not know what thickness had washer I used from all balls kit, but one that remains is 99-1011 (4.7mm thickness). So I used other one that was in the kit (99-1054?)

Excellent!

[.RJ]

RJ, you can get a “clunk” if the axle nut hasn’t been tightened properly.

Epilogue - the roller bearings were just fine, although they did need 2-3 adjustments as I rode the bike a bit.

The small clunk was only after heavy brake use & release, and I tracked it down to the brake caliper mount pivot - when I rebuilt the forks I had noticed it was totally seized up, I dont think anyone had ever lubed it since 1975, and in freeing it up and knocking the rust off I think gave it just a hair of play.  I grabbed another mount on ebay, with some grease and new o-rings and all is good.  Bike is riding nice with new racetech bits in the forks & ikon shocks.

[Malovski]

Hey! I'm rebuilding the front forks on my CB550K3 and took the opportunity to disassemble the triple tree to inspect and re-grease what I fought to be the original steering bearings. To my surprise a previous owner have converted to tapered steering bearings! The tapered bearings are probably around 10-20 years old and were VERY nasty, but came out great after a good clean! However, when I inspect the lower bearing race, I notice a gap (pointed out in picture) that I don't recall should be there? Or should it? From what I have read about the installation process the race should be tapped until flush against the corresponding frame-edge, leaving no gap? Has the previous owner done a error here, or should the gap be there? It would be good to know so i can correct it if needed before I regrease and bolt it all back together.
Thanks for advise!