Following the scheduled maintenance recommendations for your motorcycle is a given if you expect to have a reliable, high mileage bike. I’m sure everyone that maintains their own bike does their oil and filter change, tire pressure, air filter and lubricate the cables. What about the neck bearings? Well the...

neck bearing lubrication interval is every 10,000 miles (2,500 miles Springer models) If your fork neck has a grease fitting already installed this is pretty cut and dry. Using a grease gun on the fitting, inject grease until it begins to ooze from the top and bottom of the steering head. Some front ends have a tapped hole in the steering head sealed with a plug. This plug can be removed and a grease fitting installed. Now that leaves us with the last option, your bike has none of the above. This means complete disassembly of the fork stem and bracket assembly just to pack the bearings.  Undertaking this type of repair would require the specific service manual for the year, make and model of the bike you are working on.   

 So your one of the lucky ones and your bike has a grease fitting. Well your not getting off too easy either, depending on the model of bike, your neck bearings and races need to be visually inspected every 10,000 or 20,000 miles. It is important to check the bearing races for pits and grooves. Replace the bearings if they do not move free and smooth. Always replace both races and bearings even if one race and bearing appears good.

 To remove the old races from the steering head a special tool is required, now I’ve seen, and have, at times participated  in taking these out with chisels ,large screwdrivers ,and even a torch. Well that was along time ago ,the race removal tool is the best way to do this job .To remove the old races from the steering head ,the tool has two semi circle drivers and a driver handle ,the two semi circle pieces are placed into the race one at a time ,the driver handle is inserted between the two halves. The halves spread out and grab the inside lip of the race. By striking the driver handle with a hammer the bottom race goes down and the top race goes up .Make sure to inspect  the fork neck race area for burrs or gauges which could keep the races from seating properly. A bearing race installer and hammer are used to install the races, be sure to keep race square with tool and frame while striking.

 The lower triple tree bearing is a press fit; the best way to remove this bearing is to cut the cage with  diagonal cutters and a wedge attachment . Tighten wedge around inner lip and while heating bearing with a heat gun, tap around wedge to remove it evenly . Once the old bearing is off I’ve found the easiest way to install the new bearing to the lower tree is to put the tree in the freezer for ten minutes and heat bearing with a heat gun , by doing this the bearing  practically drops on . When tapping  bearing on be sure not to strike the bearing cage.

 Once you have installed and  lubricated the bearings , your ready to install your triple tree into your neck  .The last thing to do is set the steering head fall away . There are different procedures for performing fall away , depending on the model of bike you are working on . I will cover this in the next article .

 The last  thing I wanted to do this week is ask the members of Short Scoots for feed back, if there is a technical procedure you would like for us to cover, or have a question about an article that has been on the site , feel free to e-mail Dan or Joe with any questions .