Steering Head Bearing Question

[supajdogg]

Hi. I'm new here. Yall seem like a nice bunch, and I have some questions. Here's my first one.

My buddy and I went riding this weekend, and he crashed his 95 YZ250 on some whoops. After he got up, his bike was REALLY hard to steer. I took the steering head apart, sure it was a bearing issue, and it is. The crash was the last straw on his severly dry and rusty lower bearing and the cage broke. The problem is, I can't get it off the stem. Is it pressed on, or does it just need a good beating? I tried using a pry bar to work it off, but it isn't budging. The top bearing fits nicely over the stem and slides all the way down to the lower. Any ideas?

 

[76GMC1500]

It's pressed on. A reasonable shop will pop it off for $20 or so. If anybody tries to charge you a full hour's labor, take it somewhere else.

 

[Ol'89r]

Is it pressed on, or does it just need a good beating? Any ideas?

Yes it is pressed on. You can remove it yourself by clamping the stem, up-side-down in a vise. Use aluminum jaws to prevent damage to the stem. Then take a chisel and carefully tap around the race between the race and bottom triple clamp. Be careful not to dig into the aluminum triple clamp. The race will start to move away from its seated position and then you will be able to use a punch to drive it off of its seat.

When you install the new race. Use a piece of pipe just slightly larger in diameter than the stem and a BFH to drive the new race down into position. Make sure the pipe does not hit the bearing cage as it will damage the cage. If the pipe hits the cage, grind the pipe so it only touches the race.

Just my $ .02

 

[76GMC1500]

Heat helps, maybe 200-400 degrees F but not too much more. When heating parts, I put a dab of grease with a high drop point (350-400 degrees) on the part and heat it only until the grease melts. This helps keep me from overheating the part.

 

[Ol'89r]

Heat helps, maybe 200-400 degrees F but not too much more. QUOTE]


DO NOT HEAT IT. :coocoo: Heat will help when reinstalling the race but not to remove it. When you heat the race it also heats the stem. The stem will expand at about the same rate as the race so, heat will not help. On the other hand, it could cause the race to gall to the stem. When you install the new race, it would help to heat the race before seating it.

 

[Okiewan]

Ditto... freeze it.

 

[Jaybird]

LOL...a little liquid nitrogen on the stem, and you can put the new ones on by hand.