I recently undertook the replacement of the steering head bearings and races on my 06 TE 610 and I thought I would post some commentary since it is typically a time consuming task at least the first time around. The bearings are easy, it's the races that are hard, so that's what I'll focus on in this post. In the case of the Husky, the challenges are two fold. First, the bearing carrier, the part that holds the race in the steering head, is very beefy and covers most of the bottom surface of the bearing race. There is only about a 3 mm annulus on which to apply a drift at any point along the race. In the first photo, the tool is on the bottom of the race, on the other, it is on the carrier. The second issue is the steering lock. This protrudes well into the steering head to engage a slot in the steering stem. This limits where one can apply a drift to the upper race and precluded the use of my Park Tool for removal of the upper race (more on that later). Here’s a pic of some of the stuff were tried and failed. I didn’t want to take a chance on damaging the bearing carrier so I ordered the Park tool for the job, it is about 30$ door to door. With it, I was able to remove the lower race with about four sharp blows of the hammer. However, when I tried to apply it to the upper race, the steering lock precluded the intended placement on the race. I tried every which way to get it work, but no joy, the tines just skipped right off when I hammered. Back to square one for the upper race. I cut a slot in the copper pipe you see above to get it to seat around the lock, and for the first time, I moved the race about 1mm, but that’s it. As with the lower race, the drifts, screwdrivers, chisels etc. failed to budge the race any further. In frustration I took the Dremel to the race hoping I could score a horizontal cut that I could apply a drift to and spin the race in the carrier thereby loosening it, no soap. So I took a trip to Harbor Freight to shop for ideas, what finally worked was this, a gasket scraper for $ 2.99. What you see in the photo is “worked” version of the tool. I placed the blade in the bench vise length wise with the tool handle parallel to vice jaws, and used a vise grips to bend the blade into a mild three panel fold. From there, I used the peen on the hammer to round it out. It took some doing to shape the tool to match the curvature of the bearing carrier. When I first used the tool, the rubber end piece muted the hammer blows, I was glad when it simply fell off. From there, I inserted the square end of a ½ inch ratchet extension through the bottom of the tool and continued hammering. Here's the tools that worked. A visual testament to how hard I was hammering. I was able to get the race about a third of the way off before the tool starting skipping like the others. A close inspection of the tool revealed it had deformed somewhat, but with some reshaping with the peen and the dremel, and she was back in shape and ready to work again. I found I needed to re shape both the curvature of the tool and dress the top edge to keep it working. I repeated this twice more before the top race eventually came out. Victory is mine! Lessons learned and advice for the next time and for those who follow: One can do a lot of beating and bashing and get absolutely nowhere. Protect your left or minor hand, wear gloves from the beginning. The Dremel is your friend, I used it repeatedly in this task. It was tool selection and modification that worked, not endless bashing. The Park Tool was worth it if only for the bottom race. Highly recommended. Don’t even think about it if you are in a hurry or under a time constraint. See the above comment about not damaging the bearing carrier, I don’t know how one would fix a badly damaged carrier. Hammering without a solid purchase on the race is a waste of time. Instead, invest the time in tool shaping and selection to get that grip that you need, then bash away...productively. If it starts to skip, immediately reshape the tool, this is time well spent. There is another race removal tool, but they are little pricy for a little used mono tasker, and have a beveled edge, so I wasn’t confident they would work with so little of the race exposed in the first place. I’ll leave that for someone else to try and report on. You can find and example of one of those here. http://pitposse.com/ststberare.html Lastly, once you get the races out, consider grinding two grooves in the upper bearing carrier to allow the use of a 1/4 inch drift in the future, but consult someone like George at Uptite before proceeding, particularly as it applies to placement, since the lock precludes placement in the 3 O’ clock position. This thought occurred to me too late, as I had already replaced the races. Ahh well. I hope you found the post worthwhile, and that it might help some of you who are contemplating the task.
Hmmm...well, alright. So, not as to sound negative towards all your hard effort. The actual way to take a race out is with a welder. If any of you attempt this yourself that don't have a welder, you can surely ask around and find someone that does. You simply stick weld in whatever pattern you like on the bearing surface of the race, all the way around. After it cools, it shrinks the race. You can then knock out the races with a stick of wood.
That's a new one Thanks for the input. I never heard of using a welder to remove the races via shrinkage, but it makes sense if the shrinkage is sufficient and there is no damage elsewhere. That method didn't show up when I researched the topic on the web. So, it would appear to make a good post the next time you undertake it. It might help someone get out of a pickle with a particularly difficult race.
I just changed mine and all that was needed was a long tappered punch and a hammer. Guess I was lucky.
Often the welding trick only needs to be a couple of good spots opposite each other. Sometimes 4 spots.
Old thread I'm bringing up...could use some help with this. Where's the best place to get a lower race? Mine is grooved and makes the stem stick on center. At least it's not off-center. How many of all those parts should I replace? Both races and bearing? Where is the best place to get these parts? TE630 lower stem head bearing.
I have never personally seen anybody replace just the outer race. Since the inner race is part of the bearing assembly, that always has to be replaced as one piece. The concern I would have with replacing just the outer race, is that probably the inner race is pitted or worn as well. You would have to take the outer race to a bearing warehouse and get it matched up with your stock race (or I suppose you could just write the numbers down),if you really were going to replace just the outer one only.
Always replace as a pair - they come that way and are matched and does not make sense to do one without the other. Also do top and bottom while about it. Trick that has always worked for me is to heat the stem with a hot air paint stripper gun before tapping out. Also place races and bearings and steering head in freezer as needed to allow easy fitting of relevant part due to cold shrinkage.
I have a 30" piece of 3/8" High strength steel shafting that I got at a machine shop. It makes a fabulous punch for removing steering stem and wheel bearing races and doesn't mushroom under duress (hammer pounding). Nowadays a long cheap chinese made drift or punch is probably easier and cheaper to get. Cam.
Got a bearing set from Malcolms yesterday for $20. Took a couple of hours to change it out today. There is not much lip of the race showing to catch with a blade to knock it out. Took awhile, used a large screwdriver than a prybar and it popped right out. Kind of tricky though. Froze the new race, then tapped it in with the old race. Pretty deep notches in the old race, made the steering really notchy as well. Should have done it last year, been putting it off. Was getting hard to control the bike at low speed. Nice and smooth now....SUCCESS! WHOOT!! Was a good opportunity to clean up the dust seals on the forks too. Should have changed the oil in them.
I didn't bother with it this time - there wasn't any debris inside the stem this time. The first time I took it apart there was but not this time. I added a grease lip to catch any, the grease from last time was clean. Even a piece of duct tape would have been a good idea though, now that I think about it. My steering is tight and smooth now. Gotta love it.
I've checked my bearings and races. First of all: the handlebar turns smoothly and, moving the fork back and forth, I haven't noticed any play. I've found the bearings in this condition: And here are the races, before and after having wiped the grease off: upper: lower-passing my fingernail over the race, I don't feel any notch: In this video I stress a little the upper bearing; the lower "reacts" in the same way: Should I replace those bearings and races or can I just clean them and re-grease them?
Looks like they are good to go to me. The races look OK too after you have wiped them. What is the grit from on the lower bearing on the steering stem in the second picture? just repack with some good waterproof grease and reassemble.
I think that it comes from the slot in the stem they talk about here: http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/630-steering-stem-fix.31769/ This is my (dirty) slot: But there was no grit on the races and on the bearings. Can I use kerosene to remove the old grease from the bearings and the seals?
Yes that's fine, or any other solvent. Spray Brake cleaner is fine too with a bit of compressed air to dry, then repack with some good waterproof grease. Again use brake cleaner or wipe the grit out of your (dirty) slot. That's what can happen to your slot if you like having fun in the sand. LOL
Ok, thanks for the advice. I think that I'll plug that slot somehow, because I like to have fun in the sand, once in a while!
