Steering Head Bearings

[MichiganMike]

General Maint Qustion? On "Notches" in steering head bearings on bikes with telescopic forks. Which bearing normally shows more wear, top or bottom? Are they always replaced in pairs?
Is it wear, age, or failure to lubricate according to schedule that generally creates this condition? TIA

[lorazepam]

Is it wear, age, or failure to lubricate according to schedule that generally creates this condition?

Yes, yes and yes. All three will cause the bearing to fail. You should replace both at once, while you are there anyway.

[deilenberger]

Originally posted by lorazepam
Is it wear, age, or failure to lubricate according to schedule that generally creates this condition?

Yes, yes and yes. All three will cause the bearing to fail. You should replace both at once, while you are there anyway.

Actually - the most common cause of failure is neglecting to adjust the steering head bearings. This leaves the bearing loose and it tends to hammer whenever the bike hits a bump.

The adjustment is covered in all the K bike service manuals I know of, and really is usually not a difficult job.

Once notched - the bearings are trash and both upper and lower must be replaced. If they are kept adjusted - seeing 100k miles on the original bearings is not unusual. If they aren't kept adjusted - failure at 30k is not unusual.

It is VITAL to the long-life of the bearings that they be readjusted at about 600 miles after replacement. No matter how well you install the new ones - some additional seating of the bearing races will take place with use and impact loads, leaving them loose.

Best,

[bmwmick]

Michigan Mike,
You 'may' just have old dried grease causing the notchiness. When you tear into it to clean/repack them, look at the races. If you can see/feel the indents of the rollers in the outer races, replace 'em.

Anton has an excellent write-up here for adjusting the late model K1100 style steering head bearings: http://www.largiader.com/bearings/


Mick