Front wobble

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rabbidcow55

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Hey guys,

I just bought another vmax after not having one and returning to the dirt for 4 years. Anyway, I picked up a 2003 in cherry shape and have a bunch of plans for her. It does have loose steering bearings that I found out by doing the bounce test. I know the process of tightening them and watched some helpful videos on YouTube. My only question is when it comes down to actually tightening with the spanner wrench, which nut do I tighten? Top or bottom or both at the same time? Any help would be appreciated. Cheers
 
hey man where in MA are you located? its the castelated nuts under the top triple together.

i'm in franklin. i have a tool if you're nearby.

EDIT: just saw you're in hopkinton. I work in hopkinton @ EMC. could give you a hand if needed. feel free to PM or email me direct: morgan(dot)ga(at)gmail(dot)com
 
You tighten the lower nut and whist keeping it in position tighten the upper one sufficiently to allow the indents in the nuts to line up which will allow the fixing plate to be dropped on.

When torquing the top yoke nut be careful not to over-tighten as it is possible to put additional load onto the lower nuts.

Have the front wheel off the ground as you tighten and keep checking that the bars continue to 'flop' over from the centre position at the same rate.

Stop tightening if they start to tighten up before you have reached the recommended torque.

To ensure that the top nut isn't loosening use an indelible marker to put a line down the nut, across the washer and onto the top yoke.
 
hey man where in MA are you located? its the castelated nuts under the top triple together.

i'm in franklin. i have a tool if you're nearby.



EDIT: just saw you're in hopkinton. I work in hopkinton @ EMC. could give you a hand if needed. feel free to PM or email me direct: morgan(dot)ga(at)gmail(dot)com


Thanks for the offer, but I moved out to Utah 3 years ago. Unless you wanna ride all the way out here, I'll make the attempt solo :p
 
Thanks for the offer, but I moved out to Utah 3 years ago. Unless you wanna ride all the way out here, I'll make the attempt solo :p

np man. and yea the tool from dingy is well worth the $$..
 
I think I opened Pandora's box. I rode all last year with loose bearings (front end bounced pretty good as per the bounce test) however I had no pronounced high speed wobble and a little decel wobble around 50-45mph.

Well, now that I have tightened them I have gotten rid of the decel wobble all together. The Bad news: I now have a pretty severe head shake at about 115 and up. It starts getting hairy enough to make me back off around 120ish.

I tightened them with a big screwdriver and a rubber mallet per Sean's video. Is it possible I over tightened and caused this or are there other factors I am overlooking?
 
I think I opened Pandora's box. I rode all last year with loose bearings (front end bounced pretty good as per the bounce test) however I had no pronounced high speed wobble and a little decel wobble around 50-45mph.

Well, now that I have tightened them I have gotten rid of the decel wobble all together. The Bad news: I now have a pretty severe head shake at about 115 and up. It starts getting hairy enough to make me back off around 120ish.

I tightened them with a big screwdriver and a rubber mallet per Sean's video. Is it possible I over tightened and caused this or are there other factors I am overlooking?

wheel bearings, tires, wheel balance.

they might be too tight. try backing off a bit?
 
Well, I tightened the nut on top of the triple tree ( got about an 1/8 turn on it) Double check tire pressure before every ride (33F/36R) Ajust air in front forks (10 PSI measured with front wheel off the ground) and tried the range of all 4 settings on the rear shock preload.

And I STILL have a high speed wobble. It has gotten a little better. Instead of starting to wobble hard at 110mph I got it up to around 125 and it didn't start wanting to tank slap and toss me until I let off. Other runs it still starts wobbling gently, then gets worse at about 115 until I can barely hold on to it.

It does get a little bit better if I get into a tight crouch then shift way weight way forward, almost chin on the speedo.
 
Well, I tightened the nut on top of the triple tree ( got about an 1/8 turn on it) Double check tire pressure before every ride (33F/36R) Ajust air in front forks (10 PSI measured with front wheel off the ground) and tried the range of all 4 settings on the rear shock preload.

And I STILL have a high speed wobble. It has gotten a little better. Instead of starting to wobble hard at 110mph I got it up to around 125 and it didn't start wanting to tank slap and toss me until I let off. Other runs it still starts wobbling gently, then gets worse at about 115 until I can barely hold on to it.

It does get a little bit better if I get into a tight crouch then shift way weight way forward, almost chin on the speedo.

just to make sure we're on the same page, you tightened the castelated nuts right? the big nut on top shoudln't have much to do with the wobbles n such.
 
My buddy has a '03 that was the same....decel wobble and wobble @115mph.
We tightened up the bearings and all, lost the decel wobble.
Finally talked him into getting a fork brace.....picked up 20 mph first outing....went about 3lbs over recommended on the tire pressures and progressive springs.
he's now hovering around 140/145.
I truly believe the crappy rear shocks do contribute to the wobble/weave.
 
just to make sure we're on the same page, you tightened the castelated nuts right? the big nut on top shoudln't have much to do with the wobbles n such.

To clarify, Yes, I tightened the castelated nuts IAW Sean's video. After that didn't really fix the problem, I discovered the top nut could still be tighter after my initial adjustment of the castleated nuts.

My buddy has a '03 that was the same....decel wobble and wobble @115mph.
We tightened up the bearings and all, lost the decel wobble.
Finally talked him into getting a fork brace.....picked up 20 mph first outing....went about 3lbs over recommended on the tire pressures and progressive springs.
he's now hovering around 140/145.
I truly believe the crappy rear shocks do contribute to the wobble/weave.

A fork brace is another good option to look at ( and better rear shocks)
I am the 2nd owner of the '01 with 16,000 miles on it (about 12,000 and change when I bought it) So it is quite possible te rear shocks could be on their last legs. I used to weigh around 240 and my wife is not a small girl, so it possible age + carrying a lotta load last season could have done them in.
 
There's so many things that can contribute to high speed wobble, aside from the head bearing adjustment and having good tires, the "fix", if one is ever found, seems to be extremely inconsistent.

People have found a cure to wobbles in....
head bearing adjustment
new front/rear/both tires, or switching brands/tread types
Lowering the front
Progressive fork springs
progressive rear shocks
adding a steering damper
adding frame braces/solid motor mounts
adding a fork brace
re-torquing the swingarm pivot
switching to radial wheels
playing with front fork pressure
playing with rear shock preload
playing with tire pressure
removing the passenger sissy bar

.....it goes on and on. What works for one person may not work for another.

From research I've done the most root cause of speed wobble is slight vibrations/oscillations that start within the sidewalls of the tire. This happens regardless since no tire is 100% absolutely perfect, but shorter/stiffer sidewalls(like radials) are much more resistant. Heavier bikes, by virtue of having more inertia from more mass, and more resistant. The bike's suspension has a lot to do with absorbing/controlling this as well.

It should also be noted the Vmax(and many other 80's bikes) are known to have mis-aligned frames right from the factory, in which case a wobble may be essentially in-curable if the frame is not straightened first(such as with Compu-Trak). People who have have the frame aligned report significant gains in handling and stability.

Mine used to have a really bad speed wobble in that 110+ range. Switching to ME880 tires seemed to help somewhat, it wasn't as pronounced/violent as before. PCW internally lowered the forks and replaced the head bearings with OEM parts. On the drive home I ran it to 140 and it was solid as a rock. At their advice, I removed the soft, cheapo ebay shocks and replaced them with the stockers. Next time I ran it up again, a bit of wobble creeped in around 130. Not horrible, but noticeable.

Since then the problem is "mostly" solved. If I lean forward, and put my feet on the highway pegs, I can run the bike as fast as I like and have no to minimal wobbles. It very rarely is bad enough that I need to back off. That said, I need to run up in fifth, since the 4-5 shift at 130 greatly upsets the bike and causes instant wobbles that don't settle out. Currently the rear shock preload is maxed out, which I have heard can sometimes make the problem worse(and I had NO wobbles when I briefly drove it with the spongy ebay shocks), so next time I'm out I will try turning the preload down to see if that helps.
 
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Since then the problem is "mostly" solved. If I lean forward, and put my feet on the highway pegs, I can run the bike as fast as I like and have no to minimal wobbles. It very rarely is bad enough that I need to back off. That said, I need to run up in fifth, since the 4-5 shift at 130 greatly upsets the bike and causes instant wobbles that don't settle out. Currently the rear shock preload is maxed out, which I have heard can sometimes make the problem worse(and I had NO wobbles when I briefly drove it with the spongy ebay shocks), so next time I'm out I will try turning the preload down to see if that helps.

My experience is not unlike yours. Little changes I am making tweaking air pressure etc make some bit of difference. Other times I notice big changes dependent on body position, Wind conditions, road surface The alignment of Jupiter with Mars, etc.

The consensus I have gathered from the forum is there are a lot of reasons why these beasts get the high speed wobbles and even more combinations of solutions. Your feedback is really helpful, though.
 
Yeah, I wish I could give you a more definite suggestion or pointer but there's just so many things that can cause this it's really a crapshoot.

The single biggest different I've noticed in this is whether my feet are on the regular pegs, or the crash bar pegs. Putting my feet forward makes a HUGE improvement for whatever reason, all else constant.
 
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