QUALITY head bearings recommendation

My 99 makes a thunk when hitting bumps or the brakes, plus a little bit of wander on certain roads. The PO mentioned he thinks they need replaced, even tho he did it, he wasn't confident in his work. Therefore, I'd like to know which bearings to buy. Also, tapered, roller, etc. Please let me know.

Additionally, when I tweaked the fork preload, the fork I replaced the seal on made an audible spring tightening noise when I turned the adjuster. Could I have goofed something up on reassembly? I'm 99% certain it went back together just as it came out, however the thunking had me wondering if I screwed that up, as there is zero play in the front tire/forks when I raise the front and try and rock the front assembly, IE, no fore, aft motion, nor any side to side and no binding on the steering.

 

I've used All Balls tapered roller bearings with good results. Before you do that it is worth checking your bearings as they may just need adjusting. I've replaced mine as they had a straight ahead notch from wear.

Preload adjusters bear on the top of the spring and this can make a scrape sound when you turn the adjuster but that is fine. Probably depends whether they've had oil splashed on them recently from riding.


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The wander is usually caused by having the steering head bearings preload set too high. Since you don't feel any movement when you check the forks, I'd check the preload. If it won't fall to the stop with just a little nudge then it's probably too tight.

If you really want quality bearings take your old bearings/races to the local bearing supply house and have them give you some SKF or Timken that aren't make in China. That's if you have tapered bearings already in there. I don't buy OEM most of the time, but I did for the tapered roller bearings when I bought them. Don't care much for the Chinese bearings most of the time.

 

All Balls are just pre-packaged kits that they buy and sell to you at a higher cost. I got the size info and headed to a local bearing supply place and saved some pocket change on a set of tapered bearings. Good quality pieces at a good price. No help on the fork stuff. Never taken any apart myself.

 

If you rule out noise from loose bearings, a clunk on the brakes might come from some play in the left leg linked brake pivot/SMC combination, or even a loose mudguard or horn.

If you are concerned about the fork innards, it is reasonably easy to jack up the front end, unscrew the fork caps and then place a plank under the front wheel and lift it to full travel, which pushes the cap, spacer, washers and spring up and out of the top for some inspection (no oil will be lost). I did this last night so I could swap out fork springs without full disassembly.

You should have the spring, flat washer, spacer, flat washer, cupped washer, locknut and then the fork cap. The locknut and cap should be tight. My SOP is to spin the locknut down the damper rod as far as it will go, then screw the cap on until it bottoms out, then wind the locknut up to meet it. That way, the caps are installed to the same position on both rods, which sounds good but makes no difference to the preload evenness between forks, which is all down to the spacer and washer length plus whatever preload is wound on at the cap.

 

I got OEM honda steering head bearing/set-up, Very happy, bike had 60,000 miles maybe? I could feel the difference just backing the bike out of the driveway. My Ex500 I went with all balls as the original ones where just loose balls, (un-captured?) Worked out well on that bike. eace:

 

Well...

My bad.

Apparently I failed to tighten the bolt on the bottom of the fork correctly and all of my fork oil drained out. I replaced the seals recently over at Duccmann's house and it looks like I didn't get this part right. Thank God it somehow stayed off of my brakes, but I'm still going to hit everything with brake cleaner. Ugh. Could have been very bad!!!

 

Did you maybe forget to put the crush washer on? Or for that matter did the original crush washer come off with the bolt? I've seen these washers stick to the fork leg and if you put on another washer on top of the other, then you might not be getting a proper seal.

 

I didn't check the fork leg for an additional washer, but the washer came off with the bolt. Whether it's a crush washer, I'm not certain. It's a brass washer. I'll look at it again. Off to go buy some fork oil.

This time I'm going to flush the bolt and bolt hole with brake fluid and put some blue Locktite on it.

 

Most likely the washer that came off was the only one so I think you're OK there. Yeah I did the same, cleaned the bolt and the threads and used blue lock-tite.

 

The washer is a copper crush washer. If you look closely you can often see a difference on the two faces, an indentation from the bolt head bearing down on one side, but flat on the other. If you can, put them back the same way. If not, you can sand the faces flat before re-use, or (and I've not done this myself) re-anneal the copper by heating to a red heat, then hammering it flat. Make sure the sealing face in the fork leg is nice and clean too. Or just buy new washers if your dealer carries them; I've not found any common crush-washers at auto-parts stores that fit, as the OD of the part is quite small to fit the recess in the leg.

I now make a point of ensuring the bolt and thread in the damper base are really clean and free of burrs, by using a tap and die, then just a smear of blue loctite during assembly.

 

I can just do this on the bike, can't I? Pull out the innards and then follow procedure to fill the oil to the correct level and reassemble? Any reason I have to pull the fork leg? No oil to drain.

 

Oil height is the preferred method of measuring the oil versus measuring out in ounces/ml and thus is easier when the fork is not on the bike. You can measure on the bike but it is a little more difficult as the angle and ability to collapse the fork tube easily. Not sure how you did this last time but if you did it off the bike it would be best doing it the same way as to keep both forks consistent with each other.

 

I can't see why not Lint. You'll need the axle out so have to support the front end, but you can reach up and get the damper rod bolts easy enough. Just make sure that the oil lock pieces stay on the end of the damper when you reinstall that, maybe a dab of grease to stick it on. You'll need to pump the forks and then the damper rod to make sure you've expelled the air, and then compress the forks fully to set the oil level; if the wheel is back in by that stage, you can lift the wheel up on a plant to fully compress the fork.

I did something like this (but without removing the wheel) when I swapped out fork springs last week and it was easy enough.

 

OK, color me confused. I did have fork oil. When I loosed the top of the fork, it let air in and oil came out.

Check my pix and tell me if I assembled it wrong. I can't figure out where the clunking is coming from. It's only on my left fork.



What is the little spring on the bottom?

 

Ooookay the service manual says I have it together correctly. My fork was properly torqued down too.

 

The spring at the bottom is the top out spring.

 

Ok my friend, the clunk just be what I have, very annoying too. Mine to me sounds more like the forks topping off, but I know that's not what it is. So a look here and there didn't show me anything. I too thougth head bearing, nope. then a couple weeks later while cleaning the white wheels I had my hand on the rim , when I rotated it my other hand was on the back side coming up against the left caliber, then like magic the sound appeared. Wa- la mystery solved, sorta . In my case it is the master cylinder for the rear brake. there is some slop in the piston/plunger so when the tension is off it clunks/ snaps. slaps back at the plunger for the master of sorts. Knowing what it is, I'm a bit more relaxed to the annoyance. but still have it to do the de-link this winter. That'll fix this &^%$!

 

I just reattached my brakes. No test ride yet.

New mystery, that I don't really know how to fix. Bike on centerstand, sitting in front of my bike looking at the front wheel. My fork in the right side is longer than the other by nearly 1/2". WTF??? How do I fix this???