• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

On doing the steering head bearings....

EricV

EricV

Husqvarna
AA Class
Hi Gang-

I'm in the process of doing off-season maintenance on my 630. One of the things I'll be doing, soon, is re-greasing (or, just as likely, replacing) the head set bearings. Dropping the triple clamps is standard stuff, but putting a feel out here for any pointers that may be helpful to know. As far as it looks I can remove the bars and lay them forward, as well as the headlight/instrument cluster and lay all of that forward. Is it that simple, or will I end up having to deal with all of that mess of wires/cable? I'm hoping I can hang it all forward and not have to deal w/ fully removing all of that. Thanks!

Eric
 
Most bikes have enough slack to lay the bars forward like youre describing. Just pay attention to re-assembly that you place the wires/cables in the correct spot as they were before removal, ie, behind the clamps, in front, left or right of the frame, etc. Since youre pulling your forks, I'd suggest some small bungie cords or something to hang the brake caliper from instead of it suspending from the brake line. I normally hook the caliper(s) to the frame via small bungies.
 
Having a proper spanner wrench helps for re seating and re tightening the bearing assembly.
tus_08_hex_axl_too.jpg
 
Thanks guys- very helpful. K5PL5- I'm hoping that I won't have to remove the forks, but I think it's equally (if not more) likely that I will. This info is helpful...just wanted to do a feel out for any info that may make the going smooth as I've not yet pulled the front on a TE.
 
reveille said:
Having a proper spanner wrench helps for re seating and re tightening the bearing assembly.
tus_08_hex_axl_too.jpg
Click to expand...

As well as the proper driver to get the races out.
7223365.jpg




Mine were in there TIGHT. If you don't have a notchy feeling to the bearings, you should be OK just greasing. I replaced min at ~11k miles.
Also, make sure you plug the steering neck top and bottom, and don't run your tank vent into the neck, because there is an opening to the bearings in the side of the neck tube, so any water, grit or fumes that get in there can kill the bearings.

As for the bars, light and such, I just sat a ladder next to the bike and bungee'd it up so it wouldn't stress the wires.
 
RDTCU said:
Also, make sure you plug the steering neck top and bottom, and don't run your tank vent into the neck, because there is an opening to the bearings in the side of the neck tube, so any water, grit or fumes that get in there can kill the bearings.
Click to expand...

This....this is what makes me feel fairly certain that I'll end up doing replacement (as I used to keep the vent hose down the head tube and- on more than once occasion I hate to admit- found grease residue flowing down the back of the front fender.) Ugh. At the time I thought "eh, given the design there is No Way gas overflow can get to the bearings" until I read here about the hole that allows gas/water/grit to find it's way through. Live and learn.
 
If you are replacing the bearings you can also get the old races out using the welding method (as an alternative to the Park Tool). Weld either a complete bead the whole way around the race, or just add some built up areas at 4 or 8 different points around the race to give yourself something to whack them out with by using a drift or cold chisel inserted from the other end of the head tube.

A TIG welder would be preferable, but I did it with a MIG (and I can't weld to save my life).
 
SimpleOne said:
If you are replacing the bearings you can also get the old races out using the welding method (as an alternative to the Park Tool). Weld either a complete bead the whole way around the race, or just add some built up areas at 4 or 8 different points around the race to give yourself something to whack them out with by using a drift or cold chisel inserted from the other end of the head tube.

A TIG welder would be preferable, but I did it with a MIG (and I can't weld to save my life).
Click to expand...


I've never had a set in THAT tight... :thinking:
 
Tis a pretty standard old trick, when you weld the whole bead apparently the races are very easy to remove, to the extent that sometimes they will just fall out. Here's some examples, but there is plenty more info around as well:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/03/04/a-neat-trick-for-removing-bearing-races/
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?20971-Removing-a-bearing-race

As for installing the new races (if you don't have a bearing race driver or similar, or if its a really tight fit) you can whack the new races in the freezer overnight. When it comes time to install them, use a heat gun to warm up the head tube area and grab the races out the freezer; they should go in pretty easily. You can also use your old races (flipped over) to drive the new races in (and if you're worried about getting the old races jammed in the tube with the new one, just cut a thin vertical slot in the old race so that it can be collapsed, makes it pretty easy to get them back out that way).
 
Oh I use the heatgun/torch/freezer trick all the time, from bearings to gun barrels, but I've never had to weld on anything to get it out.
(With the exception of some broken studs/bolts here and there...)
 
it is way EZer to remove the forks so your not dealing with that mass. I do the weld bead on the lower inner race to get it off the stem, EZ and works great. They usually heat up, expand and fall off.
 
Last set I did, I got the lower inner race off by heating it with a MAPP torch gradually, then shot some cold air down the inside of the stem. "tink" and it slid right off.
 
Motosportz said:
it is way EZer to remove the forks so your not dealing with that mass. I do the weld bead on the lower inner race to get it off the stem, EZ and works great. They usually heat up, expand and fall off.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried that but it seems like the inner race would get really tight on the stem when it is welded.:excuseme:
I have welded outer races and steel bushings up to 3-4''+ to get them out.
My favorite way to remove lower steering head bearings is to press the stem out on a press after heating the lower triple clamp, then pushing it back in.
 
Just recently removed lower bearing race - used a long 1/2" drive extension down the steering head. The rounded edge of the 1/2 inch head seats nicely against the flange - no special tool needed. Not sure about the 630 but mine had a washer spacer behind it?
 
BiG DoM said:
Just recently removed lower bearing race - used a long 1/2" drive extension down the steering head. The rounded edge of the 1/2 inch head seats nicely against the flange - no special tool needed. Not sure about the 630 but mine had a washer spacer behind it?
Click to expand...


No washer, and only a small lip to catch on the 630...
 
Xcuvator said:
I haven't tried that but it seems like the inner race would get really tight on the stem when it is welded.:excuseme:
Click to expand...

Nope, a quick bead right on the race makes it grow slightly and usually drops right off. I have done the press thing too.
 
Motosportz said:
Nope, a quick bead right on the race makes it grow slightly and usually drops right off. I have done the press thing too.
Click to expand...
Interesting I'll give that a try sometime. :cheers:
Welding on an outer race causes it to shrink and get loose, so I have thought welding on an inner race would cause it to shrink too and get tighter.:excuseme:
 
Xcuvator said:
Interesting I'll give that a try sometime. :cheers:
Welding on an outer race causes it to shrink and get loose, so I have thought welding on an inner race would cause it to shrink too and get tighter.:excuseme:
Click to expand...


Heating anything doesn't make it shrink...
 
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