[silverhead]

If you suspect your bearings are bad for any reason, you should probably jump on a set of tapered steering bearings to solve the problem. When I got my bike it just felt weird, like you were constantly fighting the front end. I just assumed it was the wide tire and frame geometry of the TW200 until I noticed that the steering head bearings were indexed. This means that the bearing races had 'dents' in them and the bearings themselves may have been egg shaped. This can happen when you bash the front end on a hard jump, or you weigh 500 pounds or whatever.. Who knows, the previous owner did it, not me.



Anyway, here's a video I made to show you how badly my front bearings wanted to live in one place and one place only.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNxoKca8DyE





If you tried to ride the bike no handed, it immediately veered left. Riding on gravel, the bike constantly felt like it was going to slide out from under me or go into the ditch.



This conversion made riding the bike a night and day difference from being somewhat scary to being a hooligan machine that makes me act like a 16 year old kid now.



I didn't read any tutorials or anything.. The TW is simple enough that it didn't scare me. The wiring was easy enough to remember as well. Everything up front has to come apart. Front wheel, forks, speedo, ignition, cables, yada yada.. The job took me two hours start to finish and I took my time, cleaning up everything as I went (cleaned the brake drum out, cleaned all the electrical contacts, changed fork oil, etc...)



Heads up about the All Balls kit. The top bearing is taller than OEM. The bottom probably is as well. This means that the spanner nut that holds the tree together BARELY gets any threads to tighten down with. This is a problem, but not a show stopper. Just be aware of it. Second issue is that the bottom race just slipped into place with my fingers. This is probably another no-no, but whatever. If it starts to knock around I'll do something about it later. It fits tightly, but obviously, it's not press fit into place. The top race needed to be drifted into place carefully.





Here's some photos I took.. Not really good enough as a write-up. Just me stopping to take notes.



First: Remove everything.. Light, gagues, ignition, handlebars, forks, front tire.. it all has to come off.

Keep removing stuff..

OK, you can stop removing stuff...

I had the same problem both high and low. Index marks in the races.

Knock those old races out with a drift.. They came out easily.



Use a chisel or something to carefully remove the lower race from the bottom of the tree. Then seat the new dust seal and lower bearing.. I used a plastic shop vacuum tube and a rubber mallet to carefully send it home. The dust seal will be loose because the bearing sits up from the bottom a bit.

Pack it with a lot of grease.



Use a bearing drift or whatever to -carefully- seat the top race. It only goes down this far. Not ideal, but what ya gonna do?

And, oddly enough, I was able to seat the lower race with my fingers.. That's right, it wasn't a press fit. It's close, but no... This is probably not ideal, but what ya gonna do?

Last step: torque down the tree with the spanner nut.. back off it until it feels good and then reassemble the whole bike... Easy peezy..

 

[old white truck]

Silverhead,



I will be installing new steering bearings soon - thanks for the writeup!!

Heads up about the All Balls kit. The top bearing is taller than OEM. The bottom probably is as well. This means that the spanner nut that holds the tree together BARELY gets any threads to tighten down with.

...

Second issue is that the bottom race just slipped into place with my fingers.

The part about the bearings being taller has been mentioned by others in the past. Thanks for highlighting it.

This has always worried me and I am leaning toward going with regular bearings rather than All Balls for this reason only.



My bike and my life are riding on my forks and steering and it seems a little scary to have it held together with "BARELY any threads".



I would be interested in hearing what others have to say about this?



Thanks again for your informative post. I am giving you a green +1. I know there is a sticky on this (Rainman did an EXCELLENT job) but it is always good to hear from multiple people.



Thanks

 

[old mad max]

Well done dude.................



Not to highjack your thread here but I've got to say something. A lot of guys show photos of the garage they are working in, has anyone else notice how many cycles the owner seems to have........ "REALLY" that is so cool.. It really shows how much dub owners love cycles... It's great stuff.. I own 5 bikes. Has anyone ever started a thread on how many cycles we own??????? OMM.

 

[Rainman]

I'm glad you got your bike fixed up. My TW was indexed just as bad as yours so I replaced mine as well. I kind of liked the indexing (well, actually got used to it) but I knew it was bad. The All Balls kit is excellent and not really hard to install. I didn't know anything of races and bearings before I did mine, but I did some research, watched some videos and finally tackled them. I did my dad's TW and it took me half a day. I did mine the next week in a few hours.



@ Old White Truck-go with the All Balls. They are an excellent product. The upper race does stick up, but the tree is held on by a ring nut and top bolt (don't remember the technical term for it, but its the bolt that goes through the top triple clamp). The triple clamp isn't going anywhere. If you make it up into my neck of the woods, stop by and I'll help you...heck I'd do them for ya.



The All Balls product is robust and should outlive the bike. By looking at the stock ball bearings and race setup, it would be a pain to reinstall them. The All Balls roller bearings are caged so they aren't going anywhere.



You'll need some common hand tools, a long punch (screw driver or socket extension would do), and a hammer to complete the job. Took me longer to remove everything from the front end (tire, forks, speedo etc.) than it did to remove the old bearings and install the new ones.

 

[silverhead]

The spanner nut is what sets the tension of the turning action. The top bolt (big chrome one) is what holds everything together safely. I'm not worried in the least that it's unsafe. Maybe that it'll start knocking around due to that loose lower race, but I doubt it'll happen.





As for bikes, I think I have eight in the garage at the moment. I can like almost any bike you show me for some reason or another. They're all different and I notice those differences. That means I usually cycle through a lot of older, cheaper bikes over time. I will probably always have Italian stuff. Vespas, my Benelli, etc...



I like fixing stuff that other people have let fall apart.

 

[jbfla]

Nicely done, Silverhead.



While everything is apart, it seems this would also be a good time to change the fork oil...another often neglected maintenance item.



Jb

 

[elime]

My friend Darrell complained about "notchy" steering while riding my parts bike on the Sheetiron 150. I have new bearings -- I just have to install them -- hopefully before the second half of the Sheetiron 150.

 

[Omega Man]

Nice job! When I purchased my bike it came with a kit to do the job. Carb first, then this. Between this and the other great write-up on the subject- I should be good to go. Thanks. OM

 

[Trikstr]

I just recently changed mine and we were able to replace them without disconnecting the wiring. Just unbolted everthing and let it hang.

I also added YZ80 upper fork tubes and progressive springs. My lower tubes have the the castings boses for the oil drain screws so I had them modified to accept the YZ fork drain screws.

 

[RuggedMountainTW]

Silverhead,

I will be installing new steering bearings soon - thanks for the writeup!!

The part about the bearings being taller has been mentioned by others in the past. Thanks for highlighting it.

This has always worried me and I am leaning toward going with regular bearings rather than All Balls for this reason only.

My bike and my life are riding on my forks and steering and it seems a little scary to have it held together with "BARELY any threads".

I would be interested in hearing what others have to say about this?

Thanks again for your informative post. I am giving you a green +1. I know there is a sticky on this (Rainman did an EXCELLENT job) but it is always good to hear from multiple people.

Thanks

The spanner nut is what sets the tension of the turning action. The top bolt (big chrome one) is what holds everything together safely. I'm not worried in the least that it's unsafe. Maybe that it'll start knocking around due to that loose lower race, but I doubt it'll happen.

I like fixing stuff that other people have let fall apart.

I'm hoping it is better to find the closest thread possible to ask about something even if it is extremely old than it is to start an all new thread. First I wanted to thank the several members here who posted pictures and information about their steering head service either staying with stock or going to the All Balls. I also wanted to thank the moderators for making stickies and stuff that are so easy to find and to enjoy.

I have the same very slight detent-ed feel in my steering on my 88. As with almost any repair situation or service situation, I naturally gravitated towards getting OEM replacement parts. Then after pricing each individual ball bearing and seal and such I saw the $150+ price point and thought to myself, "There must be something better out there." Hours and hours of searching and reading later I'm at Conundrum Crossroads (which is the place that I end up every time I think too much!)

Here's the thing ... I love the idea of upgrading the loose ball bearings I have to tapered roller bearings, but, I hate the idea of using bearings that are not appropriately sized to the application. It is pretty clear to me that with the All Balls conversion, the top bearing is too tall/too wide and that the bottom bearing is too loose. I do understand that the nut that only threads on part way is there "just" to set the tension of the turning arm but I think that is still a super important aspect of the way the whole assembly assembles and operates afterward. Could you totally take that nut off and safely ride? Isn't that what would happen if/when those last threads shear off on the trail somehow?

I remember reading many posts where people mentioned their original ball bearings were either really dry or really tight or both just because that's how they came off the assembly line. And I also remember reading many posts where people were pretty surprised that some of the lower mileage bikes had this problem prematurely because other much higher mileage ones on average were fine.

This is all making me wonder whether going with the original loose bearings (as expensive as they are) and really paying proper attention to greasing them before assembly and torquing everything totally correctly during assembly is a better solution? I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this and since I'm sort of reviving an old thread maybe there are some longer term opinions on using the All Balls. Thanks as always.

 

[Ken]

I insatalled the All Balls tapered roller bearings on mine. No problems. Yes the top race is a little longer leaving a few less threads. I played around with the old verses new top seals until I came up with the most threads exposed and put it together. As far as coming off going down the road would never happen since the pressure goes from the bottom up. Unless you are a wheelie king forever or jumping 30' jumps. Once the top nut and bars are on nothing is moving. Be careful, it will steer so smooth you may turn too quickly. I have used All Balls on two bikes and my opinion is they are great.

 

[vhortykho]

Other than OEM, is there a better fitting bearing kit out there? Anyone know the flavor of the Procycle kit?

 

[RuggedMountainTW]

Other than OEM, is there a better fitting bearing kit out there? Anyone know the flavor of the Procycle kit?

I wanted to share that I called Procycle and asked them about their kit ... it is indeed All Balls.

I think I'm probably going to go ahead and get the All Balls kit to replace my stock setup. This obviously isn't a high speed rotating situation like a wheel bearing or something so I'm not too terribly worried with the bottom "finger-tight" race spinning and I'm also not too terribly worried anymore (based on everyone else's experience with the All Balls kit) about the top bearing being a bit too tall to allow safe assembly of everything on the front end.

In a perfect world these things would both bother me but the only other really realistic option would be to buy just the OEM races and seals and re-use the original ball bearings as I doubt those are truly damaged at all. Just for the sake of asking about that, has anyone here replaced just the races that hold the original ball bearings in (on the older bikes where the ball bearings aren't captive in that ring thing) and then reused the original ball bearings. If not, any thoughts on that approach? With proper greasing and proper assembly it might be a basically permanent solution that costs much less than anything else. Thanks as always.

 

[admiral]

I wanted to share that I called Procycle and asked them about their kit ... it is indeed All Balls.

I think I'm probably going to go ahead and get the All Balls kit to replace my stock setup. This obviously isn't a high speed rotating situation like a wheel bearing or something so I'm not too terribly worried with the bottom "finger-tight" race spinning and I'm also not too terribly worried anymore (based on everyone else's experience with the All Balls kit) about the top bearing being a bit too tall to allow safe assembly of everything on the front end.

In a perfect world these things would both bother me but the only other really realistic option would be to buy just the OEM races and seals and re-use the original ball bearings as I doubt those are truly damaged at all. Just for the sake of asking about that, has anyone here replaced just the races that hold the original ball bearings in (on the older bikes where the ball bearings aren't captive in that ring thing) and then reused the original ball bearings. If not, any thoughts on that approach? With proper greasing and proper assembly it might be a basically permanent solution that costs much less than anything else. Thanks as always.

I replaced my steering head bearings with All-Balls bearings a couple of years ago. The OEM races and bearings both had either grooves or flat spots. I can't believe I waited so long to replace the old OEM bearings as it had gotten quite a "notchy" feeling.
I bought a kit from either procycle or RockyMtnATV but haven't installed it or looked at it closely.

 

[T-Wrecks]

This is a must do mod on any bike with ball bearings. I just installed Tusk tapered bearings and it was very noticeable. I recall the top race sticking up a bit but not that much? Either way these are much stronger and safer than ball bearings

Tusk Steering Stem Bearing Kit Bearings YAMAHA YZ125 YZ250 YZ80 Big Wheel DT MX | eBay

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[Jim Boggs]

I just finished the All Balls kit installation. What a major difference. Thanks Silverhead for all the info and the write-up. I didn’t realize how worn out and shaky my front end was. The install was simple and I had no snags at all. I didn’t remove as much stuff and just let it carefully hang but followed the rest of the write-up and the project turned out great. Plenty of threads remaining for the steering stem nut to grab onto. Not a bit concerned about that at all. Also, I pulled my original bottom race off the stem by hand. The new bottom bearing wasn’t “finger tight” and I did hafta smack it into place. I have an ‘88 model and it has always been wiggly at the triple tree. Every time I would give it big throttle while going slow in a higher gear the front end would seriously shake. I had just gotten used to it. But now it’s nice and tight with no more bad wiggles and shakes. Fantastic upgrade.

 

[oldworld 124]

I just finished the All Balls kit installation. What a major difference. Thanks Silverhead for all the info and the write-up. I didn’t realize how worn out and shaky my front end was. The install was simple and I had no snags at all. I didn’t remove as much stuff and just let it carefully hang but followed the rest of the write-up and the project turned out great. Plenty of threads remaining for the steering stem nut to grab onto. Not a bit concerned about that at all. I have an ‘88 model and it has always been wiggly at the triple tree. Every time I would give it big throttle while going slow in a higher gear the front end would seriously shake. I had just gotten used to it. But now it’s nice and tight with no more bad wiggles and shakes.

I also recently changed out the steering bearing to all balls. The original race had dents in them. Would also suggest changing your front and rear wheel bearings. Just finished an ATV steel rim rear wheel conversion. Took out the original wheel bearings on the OEM hub to get the center spacer tube out and noted the wheel bearings were as dry as a bone. Rear wheel spins much more freely with new bearings in the custom steel hub. Am planning on changing out the front wheel bearings soon. Bet they are also dry.