I’m rebuilding my front end – 75K2 – after my little spill a few weeks ago and recounted elsewhere.
This required a new steering stem, kindly donated by Hondaman, along with a set of tapered steering bearings he had had for a while.
Unfortunately the lower bearing was damaged or poorly made; in any case not serviceable, so I had to order another set.
Reading through this post and Scottly’s post, I checked out the thickness of the spacers I have. Scottly says his measured: 0.115” and 0.183” with the shim of the seal being 0.025”
The washers in my 2 ½ kits (only one washer from the set I took out) measure:
0.202” and 0.177” – Hondaman’s
0,174” and 0,155” – Bought
0,000” and 0,151” – In-place
So using the 0,155” spacer and the seal gave me a total of 0,180”
Putting the bottom bearing onto the stem was a real mission, even after leaving the stem in the freezer for half a day; it took some seriously heavy tapping to get it to seat.
Now with the top bridge on and forks in place, there is a gap of about 0,1” between the rubber at the top of the fork ears and the bridge.
Short of removing everything and using a thinner washer or cranking down the bearing cap to see if I can pul everything up, I don’t know what else I can do. As neither option is overly attractive, I’m planning to leave it as is. Thoughts?