Hi, I have had a knocking noise for a while when compressing my forks under braking. At first I though it was the forks but they are freshly rebuilt and the symptom seems to be a loose head bearing. I changed the head race bearing two years ago or so because the old one was worn (notchy in the middle), so maybe they didn't thighten it enough. How do I tighten it? Is there any special procedure, and should be able to do it in my garage with regular tools? However, I read this here, so if I have aftermarket bearing (which I think I do) maybe I won't be able to adjust them correctly!? Anyways, I'll give a try to adjustments before ordering oem bearing (if I can find any) Am I better to pay a mechanic to do it? I guess I will follow this guideline, but I think the bearings on our FZR are different, and maybe I should grease them too? Thank you
Some update, I just dismantled everything (I had to remove the forks anyway) and it was really easy. I have tapered bearings (at least for the lower one) so it's not OEM stuff for sure, and the lower one seems to be loose. Is it simply pressed there or I can tighten it? I'll try to just tighten the upper bearing and grease everything and see if it's still knocking, otherwise I'll try to order a new lower bearing.
The ring nut tighten both bearings equally, once they are properly installed. Make sure the original lower seal and lower bearing race aren't still there. Inspect the steering shaft for burrs and dings that might be holding the lower bearing. Install the lower and upper head bearings, well-greased. Install the ring nut onto the clean, deburred and greased threads of the steering shaft. Using a ring-nut wrench, tighten the ring nut until the torque reaches 33 lb.ft / 46 Nm - it will jump suddenly as the bearings seat and you start stretching the shaft. Back the ring nut off to finger tight, then re-torque to 0.7lb.ft / 1Nm. If you don't have a ring-nut wrench, you can use a drift and punch, but it's a lot harder to tell when the lower bearing has seated. This is probably what happened - the previous owner didn't fully seat the lower bearing. The bearing drifted in use, and the tension came off the bearings leading to clunks as the steering shaft flapped back and forth under braking. This is very hard on the head bearings, and will quickly lead to damage.
Thanks for the informations about beding, what's frustrating is that it's actually a bike shop that did the job (my steering had a notch in the middle, but that was two years ago and I don't remember much about it) and not the previous owner. I don't have a ring nut wrench so I'll try without it. Otherwise I'll try to get one but they seem to be quite expensive and I probably won't use it more than two or three times in my life.
I can't seem to tighten them correctly, there is always some knoking noise (although it's better than before). Do you know where I can order the OEM loose ball bearings? Or at least the part number. For a 2kr, thank you.
Seems odd that you still have problems with tapered bearings. This is a common mod for a lot of bikes and I have not heard of people having issues. Look for standard 2KR part numbers on page 56 of 95 in this PDF document. The number written on the page is 38 <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://attachments.fzr250.com/FZR250/3HX1_1988_Part_numbers.pdf">http://attachments.fzr250.com/FZR250/3H ... umbers.pdf</a><!-- m -->
I don't know, maybe that I rode them loose for too long and they are damaged... But on a thread here I heard someone complaining about them too, so I'm not alone. And if I tighten it a bit more, the knocking will stop and the bike will still be driveable, but the steering won't feel totally free. But for the rest of the season, I won't touch anything, I rather drive it as is daily than wait 1 month for parts...
