av play in headstock bearings !can anyone tell me the best way to go abt tightening it up without a full stripdown of front end on my 06 dtx ? help !! Doo
For tightening Remove the big top nut and in clamp the top yoke from the forks. You will see two flat notched lock nuts. Seperate them and tighten the lower one to the right tourque. You are supposed to use a c spanner but I just tapped it tight with a punch till I was satisfied it was all good.
To grease you will need help for someone to hold the bike when you take the top yoke of the forks wil seperate. You will have the pants ball bearings as standard I would replace with new tapered bearings cause I would bet good money that's where your problem lies like mines was.
tightened the bearings up n clunkin has gone n handlins back to bein good again now can go into a corner without worrying abt it not tippin in !! thanks slob
-- Edited by hairdoo on Saturday 21st of September 2013 01:31:16 PM
Am thinkin of replacin the bearings in there i mean they are 6 yrs old n took a fair bit of adjustin up n to be honest mite a tad too tight as at low speed it feels stiff/ notchy !!
what do i need n how much ? any idea callum ?
Wemoto to the pair of Japanese tapered bearings for £34,even with the bearing codes it wasn't much cheaper from simply bearings because I checked, probably get the pair for £24, I really wish I wrote down all the codes of these bearings when I had the chance! But I didn't.
It's not the easiest job I found but I did manage it, but I also had the luxury of bare frame when I was doing mine.
The main problem is getting the old outter race out the bottom, there is a special drift that splays out to get them but for us without that luxury I had to cut it with a dremmel as there is nothing to get a punch on, I have heard of people keeping the old race and chucking the new bit but I wouldn't.
The cup where the bearings sits taps out easily from underneath with a long punch.
You will need a dremmel to cut the inner race of the headstock stem.
For getting the new inside race on I used A vice and wood and hit the yoke stem downwards on to it.
Then you will have to drift the new races back in the holes, I used the tapers of the bearings I had knackered ( or my mate knackered to be more precise)
But you will have a nice solid headstock which if maintained will last for ages and ages on road.
Tbh for a garage with all the tools it is probably an easy job so might only take them an hour if you get some quotes and supply them with the Japanese bearings from wemoto, god knows what yamaha charge for the same bearings lol.
The more I remember the more I relize how crap a job it is without good tools, defiantly found this this one of the toughest jobs on the bike and as I say I could flip the frame upside down ect.
The top one on mine came out no problem, but as I say the bottom was a nightmare, could have also been down to corrosion as the remnants of grease was a nice orange colour lol.
