Steering Head Bearings Replaced and Wobble Gone

[Gtista]

I replaced the old marginal front wheel brake rotors on my 2005 Anniversary Edition Vmax and installed EBC HH sintered pads. Bike then stopped like it meant it.

But then, once the front end was actually loaded when stopping, the wobble started. Bike had developed a mind of its own and kept trying to wobble back and forth in the lane, no matter whether at 70 mph or a little over walking speed. Quite a challenge to keep the Vmax on the course I chose.

A quick look at the steering stem ring nuts under the top triple clamp showed someone in the past had cut off the fingers on the ring nut retainer and went after the lower ring nut with what looked to be a hammer and chisel. Not really the way to try and fix a wobble!

So, complete front end disassembly was in order. Once stuff like front wheel, forks, headlight and handlebars were out of the way, moving the triple tree back and forth resembled what a ratcheting end wrench feels like. Dropping the triple tree showed the most abused set of tapered roller bearings I have ever seen. Outer and inner races displayed a very nice pattern of being basically crushed where the rollers reside in the cage. Also, someone in the past had fit the wrong lower seal below the inner race step, which of course interfered with trying to get the inner race off the stem.

I just turned the steering stem over to my machinist friend who got the old inner race and roller cage off the stem. He then pressed on the new inner race and roller cage along with the correct grease seal. See pics.

The upper bearing outer race came out easily with an $18 Amazon "bearing basher" tool. See pic. But the lower bearing outer race was the traditional Vmax nightmare. The lip internal to the frame steering head sticks out past the inner side of the bearing race. So, there is nothing to grab on. And Yamaha saw fit not to provide a pair of reliefs in the steering head so a drift could be used to bash out the race.

The only option for me without a welder was to cut the race out of the steering head. Started with a dremel tool. But I would have died of old age before the race got cut through. Ended up using a carbide burr and my major league die grinder. See pic. Since I was in there, I cut two reliefs in the steering head so if ever this needs to be done again, the usual knock it out with a drift approach can be used. Smacked both new races in with cheap Amazon bearing drivers and fit everything back together.

Reassembled the bike from the pile of parts on my garage floor, torquing as I went along.

Fired it up for first ride Friday morning. Voila! Wobble gone and I have front brakes that can be used like they are meant to be to seriously stop the bike.

Not an expensive repair, but very labor intensive. I am now intimately familiar with how my Vmax front end goes together from the wheel to fork removal to the wiring inside the headlight nacelle, to how the bars mate up to the triple tree, etc., etc.

If you are going to try this, I suggest lots of pictures of where lines (brake, throttle, clutch, electrical, etc.) are routed before you start disassembling. I ended up referring to mine a number of times. Also, all of the safety niceties like safety glasses, etc. are highly recommended. My biggest whoopsie was while torquing up the steering stem top nut having the front of the bike come off of the jack stands I had under the case guards. What could have been a very expensive crunch was no biggie because I had also positioned a floor jack under the engine just in case. Redundancy is a really good idea when you have hundreds of pounds of motorcycle apart and up off of the ground.

Anyway that's my tale. I am not a mechanic and this writeup is just for entertainment, not a how to do it.

 

[Gtista]

Oops. Forgot the pic of the cheap driver tool that worked for removing the upper outer race from the steering head

 

[Fire-medic]

A good reference on the use of safety glasses, or a shield. You need to always protect your eyes when cutting, welding or grinding.

Pit Posse makes decent motorcycle tools, I have some, and have not been disappointed in their use. Pit Posse I bet if you do your own work, you can find something you can use in here.

I don't have one of these yet, but it looks like a good tool at a reasonable price. Yes it needs an outer race lip to bear against.
https://www.pitposse.com/pit-posse-steering-stem-race-remover-45438.html

• The Pit Posse Steering Race Remover Makes Head Tube Bearing Race Removal Easy
• The Tool Is Pulled Through The Steering Tube Until The Flared Ends Snap-In Behind The Race
• A Blow To The Tool Head Removes The Race
• Tool Fits Most Brands With 35-55 mm Bearing Races

They also sell ones like Gtista uses.

https://www.pitposse.com/pit-posse-steering-bearing-race-remover.html

• This tool is designed to remove the bearing race on a steering stem
• Simply put the tool inside the stem, open the tool up until it is tight against the stem and then from the other end, tap the tool out allowing the lip on the tool to catch the race and pull it through
• With a minimum opening size of 30mm and maximum at 68mm, this tool will work on most all stems

 

[Gtista]

As noted above, I just cured my wobble with new steering head bearings. I did the setup per the Clymer V-max manual, which I suppose cribs off the factory shop manual. So, I thought it might be helpful to go over that and why it makes sense, at least to me.

I will refer to the closeup of the top triple clamp, the two ring nuts (1 and 2), rubber washer (3) and retainer (4). BTW, you can see evidence on the lower ring nut (2) of some prior owner or mechanic’s ham fisted attempt to address a wobble with a hammer and chisel.

First thing I noticed was I read somewhere that the top triple clamp is supposedly a taper fit on the steering stem. Not so, at least on my 2005 Vmax. It is a nice machined fit to slip over the top of the steering stem and sit on top of the ring nut retainer (4).

So, Clymer manual says torque up the lower ring nut (2) to 23 N-m. Then unscrew the ring nut completely and tighten to 3 N-m, which is around 2 ft-lb, that is, essentially finger tight.

Then Clymer says the rubber washer (3) is placed on the stem followed by the upper ring nut (1), which is tightened down onto the rubber washer, probably just by hand, enough so the flats on the top and bottom ring nuts line up so the retainer (4) can be placed on top of the upper ring nut.

Next, the top triple clamp, washer, and top nut are added and torqued all the way to 110 N-m, at least according to the Clymer manual.

Why all this procedure? My best guess is that the idea is to seat the new roller bearings, then back off and retighten the lower ring nut just enough to remove bearing free play. The rest of the setup -- rubber washer, upper ring nut, and retainer -- are to make sure the final lower ring nut setting is not disturbed when the top triple clamp is installed and torqued down and as the steering stem is turned as the bike is ridden.

Just my take on what worked for getting rid of my wobble and what might have been Yamaha’s thinking on the design. I know there are other anti-wobble ideas out there so all these are is the thoughts of a non-mechanic who followed the Clymer manual procedure and it worked for him.

 

[Fire-medic]

When I was trail-riding my Yamaha 360 Enduro (bought new in 1972), my method of straightening the tweaked front forks after an undo was to find a nearby tree, and to whack the side of the front wheel against it, until the handlebars appeared to be aligned again left-to-right. Back onto the trail!

 

[martha lin]

Replacing steering head bearings: You replaced both the inner and outer races, along with the roller cage and seal, using a machinist for assistance. Modifying steering head: As the lower bearing race couldn't be removed traditionally, you carefully cut it out and created reliefs for future removal using a die grinder.

 

[Fire-medic]

Guys w/welders can put a couple thick beads 180 degrees apart on the lower bearing inner surface. and use that w/a chisel or driftpin. The heat & the weld bead will allow an easy removal,

 

[Gtista]

Replacing steering head bearings: You replaced both the inner and outer races, along with the roller cage and seal, using a machinist for assistance. Modifying steering head: As the lower bearing race couldn't be removed traditionally, you carefully cut it out and created reliefs for future removal using a die grinder.

Your summary is accurate. Roller & ball bearings are never replaced piecemeal. Always inner and outer races, roller/ball cages and roller/balls are all replaced. Anything else just mixes warn and new parts with unpredictable but likely bad results.

 

[brian hicks]

After changing fork springs, wheel bearings, fitting frame braces, balancing wheels I have finally fixed my high speed wobble. My bike has 20,000 miles on the clock. Today I tightened the nuts on the front steering head bearings by about 10 degrees and now the wobble has gone. You just need a good c spanner and its an easy job.