W
Warchild
Guest
Alright, then.... since the forks were already off the bike for other work, I decided to replace the aging (72K+ miles) stock ball bearings with some nice, tight tapered steering stem bearings, which are a significant improvement over stock. Installing the tapered steering stem bearings proved to be a piece of cake. You need three items to does this: 1) a 10? steel or brass drift 2) a 5lb mallet or heavy-duty hammer 3) a foot-long section of 1 ?? I.D. steel pipe
Using a nice 10" hardened steel drift and 5lb mallet, I popped the old races out easy as could be. As you look down the steering neck opening, you will see there are two large opposing notches near the bearing races. These notches provide an ample perch oportunity for your drift. You'll be able to place a large section of the drift directly on the bearing race you?re driving out. The two races popped out with no issues.
Below are the OEM ball bearings after they are removed. The set on the right is the lower bearing; the race on top is what you'll use to drive the new tapered bearings (lower) into place. And the others you'll use to drive the new tapered bearing races into their respective recesses:
Here's the upper stem tapered bearings on a test fit prior to the grease packing job:
And here's the first of many grease-packing strokes (<insert gay-ass joke here>...
) Below, I am using the trusty Mobil One Fully Synthetic Universal Grease to pack these tapered babies:
On the right you see the three main hand tools needed: 10" drift, 5-lb mallet. 1 1/4" I.D pipe approx 12" long. Using the OEM lower race as a drift, here I have just finished driving the new lower tapered bearings onto the bottom of the steering stem.
At this point, the steering stem is wiped free of excess grease, and re-inserted into the frame neck. I am happy to discover the Blackbird takes the exact same steering torque tool that my old ST1100 did, so I am blessed with already having the correct tool for the job. The upper brace is torqued the 25 Nm, then worked from stop-to-stop several times, then retorqued to the same setting again. A lock-tab washer is inserted before the final locknut is snugged up and locking tabs aligned.
Here is that spendy-ass Honda Steering Stem Socket p/n: 07916-3710101 seen here sitting atop the steering stem just before I moved it to install the upper triple-tree:
All done!
Using a nice 10" hardened steel drift and 5lb mallet, I popped the old races out easy as could be. As you look down the steering neck opening, you will see there are two large opposing notches near the bearing races. These notches provide an ample perch oportunity for your drift. You'll be able to place a large section of the drift directly on the bearing race you?re driving out. The two races popped out with no issues.
Below are the OEM ball bearings after they are removed. The set on the right is the lower bearing; the race on top is what you'll use to drive the new tapered bearings (lower) into place. And the others you'll use to drive the new tapered bearing races into their respective recesses:
Here's the upper stem tapered bearings on a test fit prior to the grease packing job:
And here's the first of many grease-packing strokes (<insert gay-ass joke here>...
) Below, I am using the trusty Mobil One Fully Synthetic Universal Grease to pack these tapered babies:
On the right you see the three main hand tools needed: 10" drift, 5-lb mallet. 1 1/4" I.D pipe approx 12" long. Using the OEM lower race as a drift, here I have just finished driving the new lower tapered bearings onto the bottom of the steering stem.
At this point, the steering stem is wiped free of excess grease, and re-inserted into the frame neck. I am happy to discover the Blackbird takes the exact same steering torque tool that my old ST1100 did, so I am blessed with already having the correct tool for the job. The upper brace is torqued the 25 Nm, then worked from stop-to-stop several times, then retorqued to the same setting again. A lock-tab washer is inserted before the final locknut is snugged up and locking tabs aligned.
Here is that spendy-ass Honda Steering Stem Socket p/n: 07916-3710101 seen here sitting atop the steering stem just before I moved it to install the upper triple-tree:
All done!