Steering Towards Stupid - Stop Me! R80gspd

Picking up on what Beemerguru said, is it possible your fork tubes are too high in the lower clamps? That could explain all the space you seem to have in there. There's a measurement for how far out of the lower clamp the tubes should extend; anyone have that on hand?

Edit: tubes should protrude 161mm over lower fork bridge

Let's see, where was I Oh yeah, buying parts and tools! Yep, distracted by a few things including what seems to have been a successful install of Omega 450 thanks to you guys for the good advice.

Now it's back to the front end. I've noticed a direct correlation between steering tightness and temperature. Steering gets stiff and slow when it's cold - like its owner, well maybe not always stiff. I can understand grease thickening somewhat but this seems excessive and now I've committed to parts (plus I need fresh fork boots anyway.)

I've read a few threads as well as repair manual.

High level steps are:

1. Remove tank
2. Remove hand controls & handle bars
3. Remove head lamp assembly
4. Remove front wheel and fender
5. Drop forks and drain oil
6. R&R bearings
7. R&R boots
8. Reverse to re-install

I've got new bearings, top cap, boots, and fork oil.

On order from Cycle Works and hopefully here by Friday:

1 x TRIPLE TREE SEAL RING
1 x STEERING HEAD BEARING PULLER SET - 1970-1995 AIRHEADS

The po had progressive springs installed a couple of years ago so I'm not looking to do a full fork rebuild.

A couple of questions come to mind already - oil volume for refill is based on oem spring displacement. Is my best method to measure fluid drained and replace with equal volume?

I understand the top caps can be a bit fiddly - tricks?

Advice for first timers?

Here's the Omega 450 - done!



Boot split



Most of the parts I need



One of you guys had a slow down with the o-ring on bottom, not planning to touch this. (it's not your drink, photo focus fukus)



Get ready for some stupid questions this weekend - and thanks for you help

Hey,

Thanks for that lead - did check tube protrusion and confirmed at 161mm

I'm still trying to figure out how to end up with working forks. I had it last Winter and then I made a small adjustment on something and it's not right again. I think it requires some innate understanding of what is happening and you know you are doing the right thing. I'll try again when it warms up.

So I'm not going to try and tell you how to do this. But I have one tip;

There is a part usually called the slotted nut. It is directly under the top clamp. It is part #7 in your diagram from the Southerngintelmen. It has a tapered edge on one side and the other side is wider. When you look at it you will notice that one way it bears on a wider area than the other way. Got it? The wide edge goes up to bear on the top clamp. The narrow edge goes down to bear on the inner race of the bearing. Often found installed upside down I do believe the correct way is the way I have described. I have it from several Gurus this is important but I really think it may not matter. Still they say it does so I do it that way.

No drama..... yet

Need some lube!

That photo of the lower bearing race makes it look VERY (what's the proper word?) dimpled.... Head bearings cannot make use of the design of a bearing, which is meant to rotate A LOT, so they tend to press "ridges" into the race. If you run your fingertip lightly around in there and can feel ANY un-evenness or indentations, you should replace the bearing AND races....

It's sort of a pita, but really not hard to do once you are there (the hardest part is getting the old races out)... lots of descriptions of how it has been done. Heat the neck and run an ice cube around on the race; cut very carefully w/ dremel, etc. Same with bottom bearing on the head tube. Heat and cold will do wonders.

I think if you put in new bearings/races and lots of thick sticky grease your problems of tight/loose will go away.

Easy tool -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC0HpJch1Ec

Slightly less simple, but not by much -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdC8IkwfL4

Either way well worth your time and, as Bpeckm said, temperature can be an ally if the races are stubborn.

Bob

Yeah, im with Bob. Get rid of the races. If you've got access to a welder, run a bead around the race to make it expand and contract. Weld in the middle of the race as not to weld it to the frame. Remember to stick the triple in the freezer for a bit to get it smaller. A small group of us may be getting together on the 2nd, so keep your eyes peeled

The photo makes the race look bad indeed - and it will be replaced as new bearings come with. It is mostly optical though. Both top and bottom look the same but I'm unable to detect deformation by feel - perfectly smooth to the touch. Coming out though - shmancy pants race puller came in the mail yesterday - guess I should list it in ATL area tool loaner thread.

Speaking of tools - got to use my new 36mm socket 3 times yesterday - woot!

Going to pile on the wheel bearing grease - I believe the root of bad feel steering was lube lacking and all will be perfect soon - assuming I can reasemble the beast that is.

Fork oil drip drained overnight and I've captured 8ozs in each leg so that's what's going in.

Thanks for the vids - will be pulling races shortly. Been using heat to free things up - needed it on left fork nut.

I read about the welding method but don't trust myself - perfect chance for me to really f things up. Will do on the tree and thanks for heads up on 2/2 - will keep open.

I really like the the puller that cycleworks makes for steering head bearings and it's relatively cheap.

This look seated and proper?

Trip tree bearing puller was very nice. I've received a 'new improved' version of the steering head race puller and believe the CAD needs a bit of reboot. Sent a note to Dan who has been helpful along the way - completely possible I was doing something wrong too.

I solved the 'height issue' for races by repurposing an appropriately sized eye screw with a hack saw. This gave the tension nut the required clearance over the space tube to extract the race.

In a fantastic demonstration of slow thinking confusion, the first race took 90 minutes to extract with the second taking 9.

EZ pleazy



Factory version locked itself up before the job was done - bottomed out against the too tall two nut stack (or space tube to short)



The washer is split and must be squeezed with pressure to splay out and grab the race. Custom

Dayuummmm... you work fast, and do good work! :eek1

If you have G/S and the forks are getting worn, and most will be by now, do yourself a favor and get a Billet top triple.

The $120- ? SJBMW one fits with a bit hacking, and makes a big difference on worn forks.

Add their tubular lower brace and full synthetic 7 1/2 wt suspension fluid and the forks will be much better - mine are better than the F 650 Funduro forks.

But sorting them is one of my next projects-----.

161 mm from here ya think? pic in manual nice blend of grainy and blur.....

Unlikely I get recruited to crew for anyone based on speed or skills - unless there are a lot of bottles to open.

I spent some time tidying wires yesterday - aux lights had a few extra yards of cable I didn't want. Thinking of a name for my electrics shop - 10 Stone Thumbs is in the lead. I added some techflex and most a roll of tape to reinforce 30 years if wear.

Cleaner now! I really do like the retro of these piaa 510s but know I should change out to a more modern led for power savings...

OEM is underwhelming. I'm building a list of long run things, it's not at the top but makes it....