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(IMG:http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/uploads/steerbearing/bearing26.jpg)
The VFR has roller bearings in the steering head as factory installed items. While providing super feel and ease of control they leave a bit to be desired in the durability category. They are asked to pretty much support the weight of the bike and rider while being able to move from side to side effortlessly with no drag.
Ball bearings are point contact devices.
That is, they touch the bearing race in a very small area that can be considered almost a point contact and all that weight pounding away at those points eventually takes its toll. Notches develop and weaving with headshake appears.
The replacement taper rollers have a much larger contact area and prevent the above condition from happening.
The job consists of
Taking off the steering stem and punching out the original bearing races. Honda made that easy by molding small notches in the seats of the races both top and bottom. You no longer have to struggle with long punches that can and will slip or even worst, using a chisel to break the race in its seat ---- dangerous. Now they almost fall out by tapping the exposed bottom of the race with anything you got hanging around. I used a 3/8 inch socket extension bar and a well-placed hammer.
My dealer clued me into a bearing kit for the VFR. Instead of buying Honda bearings that are big bucks, I got a complete do it yourself kit from acompany called ----
Now I am not goofing on you people ----
ALL BALLS
All Balls Bearings
The kit consisted of both top and bottom bearings, races and seals. The ALL BALL part number is 221020 and it goes for about $35.95 plus tax.
The fit on the top bearing's collar over the steering stem should be a drop on but not at all sloppy. This is so the bearing torque adjustment is not
influenced by the position of the top bearing on the steering head. It finds its own position when things are put back together and tightened up. I had to fine sand the steering head to take off some microscopic high spots
to get this fit. The bearing was too tight right out of the box. No biggie on using sanding to make the fit.
Removing the old bearing
The old bottom bearing has to be hammered off the steering stem. That one is a machine fit. Don't try to save the dust seal. I took a Benz-O torch to the bearing to expand the collar and carefully hammered it off with an
old screwdriver. You have to constantly hammer at different positions to be sure you don't jamm it on the shaft. That is a scary part of this job. It takes some pretty good shots to get it to go. I held the stem in a vise using the pipe jaws to keep it from moving. There are better ways of doing this. One is a bearing clamp tool. Not a bearing puller. You can't get the arms of a bearing puller under the bearing and even if you did, you'd stand a good chance of damaging the threaded end of the stem with the pressure that would be needed. The crude hammer and chisel method works if
you are careful not to damage the stem.
Installing the new bearing
The new dust seal goes on first and after applying a thin layer of grease, you can hammer the new bottom bearing on with a proper diameter pipe. The pipe must not touch bearings or the bearing housing but should only contact the bearing collar. It has to be internally wide enough to fit over the
machined part of the stem but narrow enough not to destroy the bearings or their housing. I got the pipe I used at Home Depot in the shelving section. I took the steering stem with me and tried different diameter pipes throughout the store until I came up with one that fit. It was a little
thinner walled than I would like to have used but it was strong enough to do the job. I heated the collar a little and fine sanded the machined portion of the stem that the collar fit over with 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper to make sure all burrs were off before hammering the bearing on. This too is a
scary phase but with ALL BALLS I pushed on.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Stem.jpg
You can see the white pipe I used to seat the bearing.
Now using the best EP (extreme pressure) bearing grease you can get. I used Amsoil synthetic with moly fortification; force the grease into the bearing with freshly washed hands. No grit allowed. Do the same to the top bearing.
This next procedure may take some creativity on your part. Seating the new races has to be done using a device that contacts the top of the race only. You can't let it slip on to the surface that the ball bearings ride on or damage will be done. The trick is to keep the race parallel to the seat walls as it goes in. Don't let it skew over to one side.
I happen to have a very large metric set of sockets. A 34 mm fit the top race and a 41mm the bottom. Both races sit in a stepped machined hole in the steering head and there is a small clearance between the outer diameter of the race and the wall of the machined section they go in. This hole is
stepped to a smaller diameter further inside to make the machine fit that holds the race. The race seats lower than flush with the surface.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Race.jpg
(IMG:http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Stem.jpg)
Any device you use to seat the race has to not only make good contact with the diameter of the race itself but has to be thin walled enough to fit into the hole the race seats into to allow complete recessed seating of the race.
I have heard of large tick washers being used or just "stuff" laying around the house that luckily fit the hole. I have also heard of the job being done with a punch but if you use one you best be super careful. Again very dangerous.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Seating.jpg
(IMG:http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Seating.jpg)
Once the races are in you are ready to put everything together and torque the bearings to proper spec.
Insert the steering stem into the head and put the top bearing in place. Install the dust seal and the first of two nuts that determine the final adjustment. This is called the adjusting nut. It is attached to the dust seal cover plate. Assuming most of us do not have the exact special socket to grip this spanner nut use the next best thing, a very large pair of channel lock pliers, or anything you can come up with that takes a positive grip on the nut. Even a screwdriver in one of the notches and a hammer to tap it works ok but pliers are better to get a good feel on the nut.
Tighten the nut to seat the bearing and squeeze the grease out from between the bearing contact points and the races. This torque should be about one knuckle white. If your teeth start to grit you are going too tight. Remember, this is just to seat the bearing, not to finalize the adjustment. Now back off the nut until it is loose and then with your fingers start tightening it again. It get tight very fast, nothing like the slow steady feeling you get with a wrench when you are working a nut and bolt combination. You will feel it hit a wall almost instantly when the bearings seat. From this point go 1/16 to 1/8 of a revolution more. That's it!!!!!
The proper torque on a taper roller steering head bearing is about 2-4 foot pounds. If overdone the bike will "swim" back and forth when braking and
may do the same when trying to maintain a straight line while riding plus put undo strain on the bearing itself. You don't want to over-tighten and under-tightening causes the steering head to be loose and clunk when theforks are flexed or when you are riding. I would not trust a standard torque wrench to make a proper adjustment even if you had the special socket to go over it and I would NEVER trust a mechanic to set the proper torque while in a hurry to make the time allotted for the job. This is a good seat of the pants method that I have used many times before that has worked many miles gone by.
Install the locking tab over the adjustment nut and making absolutely sure it does not move, screw on the locking nut. I've discussed different methods of how this nut should be tightened. One is make it just touch the locking tab and bend the tab in place into the slots on nut. If the nut is not at a slot position, back it off after contact with the lock tab until the first slot then bend the tab into that slot. This would actually have the adjustment nut and lock nut fractionally separated and being held by the tab only. Honda recommends tightening the lock nut no more than 90 degrees after contact is made.
The locking tab holds the adjustment on the first nut (adjusting nut) because the lock nut is held fast by the pressure the top fork clamp and top nut puts on it. I decided to use Honda's method and my lock nut fell short of 90 degrees movement when the slots lined up. That is the way I wanted it to work. The concept is to maintain the adjustment you first made and be sure that any slack in the threads or flexing of the adjusting nut as top nut pressure is applied does not change anything. The new bearing's torque adjustment is slight and it wouldn't take much to disturb it.
Now to get the top fork bridge in proper position. Slide the fork tubes in and set them to the correct height. Snug up the steering stem pinch bolts (36 ft /lbs) and put the tire and axle back in place. Tighten up the axle nut but not the axle pinch bolts yet. Put the fork bridge on and snug up the pinch bolts on it. This aligns the bridge into the proper relative position to the forks with no chance of accidental spring forces being introduced laterally. Tighten the top nut to spec (76 ft / lbs) and loosen the fork bridge pinch bolts to be sure that tightening of the top nut did not spring the fork bridge vertically then tighten them back to spec. (17 ft/ lbs).
While holding the brake, bounce the front wheel a few times and with as little movement as possible, get off the bike and tighten the axle pinch bolts to spec. (16 ft/lbs). This removes any spring that may have developed in the lower forks by letting them seek their own position on the axle.
Put the rest of the bike together and give it a try. If you had steering issues, they now should be gone for good. If you want to avoid possible steering issues at about 30-40K do the job now.
Bob Ratcliffe Loudon Tenn
The VFR has roller bearings in the steering head as factory installed items. While providing super feel and ease of control they leave a bit to be desired in the durability category. They are asked to pretty much support the weight of the bike and rider while being able to move from side to side effortlessly with no drag.
Ball bearings are point contact devices.
That is, they touch the bearing race in a very small area that can be considered almost a point contact and all that weight pounding away at those points eventually takes its toll. Notches develop and weaving with headshake appears.
The replacement taper rollers have a much larger contact area and prevent the above condition from happening.
The job consists of
Taking off the steering stem and punching out the original bearing races. Honda made that easy by molding small notches in the seats of the races both top and bottom. You no longer have to struggle with long punches that can and will slip or even worst, using a chisel to break the race in its seat ---- dangerous. Now they almost fall out by tapping the exposed bottom of the race with anything you got hanging around. I used a 3/8 inch socket extension bar and a well-placed hammer.
My dealer clued me into a bearing kit for the VFR. Instead of buying Honda bearings that are big bucks, I got a complete do it yourself kit from acompany called ----
Now I am not goofing on you people ----
ALL BALLS
All Balls Bearings
The kit consisted of both top and bottom bearings, races and seals. The ALL BALL part number is 221020 and it goes for about $35.95 plus tax.
The fit on the top bearing's collar over the steering stem should be a drop on but not at all sloppy. This is so the bearing torque adjustment is not
influenced by the position of the top bearing on the steering head. It finds its own position when things are put back together and tightened up. I had to fine sand the steering head to take off some microscopic high spots
to get this fit. The bearing was too tight right out of the box. No biggie on using sanding to make the fit.
Removing the old bearing
The old bottom bearing has to be hammered off the steering stem. That one is a machine fit. Don't try to save the dust seal. I took a Benz-O torch to the bearing to expand the collar and carefully hammered it off with an
old screwdriver. You have to constantly hammer at different positions to be sure you don't jamm it on the shaft. That is a scary part of this job. It takes some pretty good shots to get it to go. I held the stem in a vise using the pipe jaws to keep it from moving. There are better ways of doing this. One is a bearing clamp tool. Not a bearing puller. You can't get the arms of a bearing puller under the bearing and even if you did, you'd stand a good chance of damaging the threaded end of the stem with the pressure that would be needed. The crude hammer and chisel method works if
you are careful not to damage the stem.
Installing the new bearing
The new dust seal goes on first and after applying a thin layer of grease, you can hammer the new bottom bearing on with a proper diameter pipe. The pipe must not touch bearings or the bearing housing but should only contact the bearing collar. It has to be internally wide enough to fit over the
machined part of the stem but narrow enough not to destroy the bearings or their housing. I got the pipe I used at Home Depot in the shelving section. I took the steering stem with me and tried different diameter pipes throughout the store until I came up with one that fit. It was a little
thinner walled than I would like to have used but it was strong enough to do the job. I heated the collar a little and fine sanded the machined portion of the stem that the collar fit over with 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper to make sure all burrs were off before hammering the bearing on. This too is a
scary phase but with ALL BALLS I pushed on.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Stem.jpg
You can see the white pipe I used to seat the bearing.
Now using the best EP (extreme pressure) bearing grease you can get. I used Amsoil synthetic with moly fortification; force the grease into the bearing with freshly washed hands. No grit allowed. Do the same to the top bearing.
This next procedure may take some creativity on your part. Seating the new races has to be done using a device that contacts the top of the race only. You can't let it slip on to the surface that the ball bearings ride on or damage will be done. The trick is to keep the race parallel to the seat walls as it goes in. Don't let it skew over to one side.
I happen to have a very large metric set of sockets. A 34 mm fit the top race and a 41mm the bottom. Both races sit in a stepped machined hole in the steering head and there is a small clearance between the outer diameter of the race and the wall of the machined section they go in. This hole is
stepped to a smaller diameter further inside to make the machine fit that holds the race. The race seats lower than flush with the surface.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Race.jpg
(IMG:http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Stem.jpg)
Any device you use to seat the race has to not only make good contact with the diameter of the race itself but has to be thin walled enough to fit into the hole the race seats into to allow complete recessed seating of the race.
I have heard of large tick washers being used or just "stuff" laying around the house that luckily fit the hole. I have also heard of the job being done with a punch but if you use one you best be super careful. Again very dangerous.
http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Seating.jpg
(IMG:http://www.iqonline.net/interceptor/Seating.jpg)
Once the races are in you are ready to put everything together and torque the bearings to proper spec.
Insert the steering stem into the head and put the top bearing in place. Install the dust seal and the first of two nuts that determine the final adjustment. This is called the adjusting nut. It is attached to the dust seal cover plate. Assuming most of us do not have the exact special socket to grip this spanner nut use the next best thing, a very large pair of channel lock pliers, or anything you can come up with that takes a positive grip on the nut. Even a screwdriver in one of the notches and a hammer to tap it works ok but pliers are better to get a good feel on the nut.
Tighten the nut to seat the bearing and squeeze the grease out from between the bearing contact points and the races. This torque should be about one knuckle white. If your teeth start to grit you are going too tight. Remember, this is just to seat the bearing, not to finalize the adjustment. Now back off the nut until it is loose and then with your fingers start tightening it again. It get tight very fast, nothing like the slow steady feeling you get with a wrench when you are working a nut and bolt combination. You will feel it hit a wall almost instantly when the bearings seat. From this point go 1/16 to 1/8 of a revolution more. That's it!!!!!
The proper torque on a taper roller steering head bearing is about 2-4 foot pounds. If overdone the bike will "swim" back and forth when braking and
may do the same when trying to maintain a straight line while riding plus put undo strain on the bearing itself. You don't want to over-tighten and under-tightening causes the steering head to be loose and clunk when theforks are flexed or when you are riding. I would not trust a standard torque wrench to make a proper adjustment even if you had the special socket to go over it and I would NEVER trust a mechanic to set the proper torque while in a hurry to make the time allotted for the job. This is a good seat of the pants method that I have used many times before that has worked many miles gone by.
Install the locking tab over the adjustment nut and making absolutely sure it does not move, screw on the locking nut. I've discussed different methods of how this nut should be tightened. One is make it just touch the locking tab and bend the tab in place into the slots on nut. If the nut is not at a slot position, back it off after contact with the lock tab until the first slot then bend the tab into that slot. This would actually have the adjustment nut and lock nut fractionally separated and being held by the tab only. Honda recommends tightening the lock nut no more than 90 degrees after contact is made.
The locking tab holds the adjustment on the first nut (adjusting nut) because the lock nut is held fast by the pressure the top fork clamp and top nut puts on it. I decided to use Honda's method and my lock nut fell short of 90 degrees movement when the slots lined up. That is the way I wanted it to work. The concept is to maintain the adjustment you first made and be sure that any slack in the threads or flexing of the adjusting nut as top nut pressure is applied does not change anything. The new bearing's torque adjustment is slight and it wouldn't take much to disturb it.
Now to get the top fork bridge in proper position. Slide the fork tubes in and set them to the correct height. Snug up the steering stem pinch bolts (36 ft /lbs) and put the tire and axle back in place. Tighten up the axle nut but not the axle pinch bolts yet. Put the fork bridge on and snug up the pinch bolts on it. This aligns the bridge into the proper relative position to the forks with no chance of accidental spring forces being introduced laterally. Tighten the top nut to spec (76 ft / lbs) and loosen the fork bridge pinch bolts to be sure that tightening of the top nut did not spring the fork bridge vertically then tighten them back to spec. (17 ft/ lbs).
While holding the brake, bounce the front wheel a few times and with as little movement as possible, get off the bike and tighten the axle pinch bolts to spec. (16 ft/lbs). This removes any spring that may have developed in the lower forks by letting them seek their own position on the axle.
Put the rest of the bike together and give it a try. If you had steering issues, they now should be gone for good. If you want to avoid possible steering issues at about 30-40K do the job now.
Bob Ratcliffe Loudon Tenn