knotchy head bearing

[Jean]

There are lots of Airheads in the San diego area and there's usually a Tech Day in the area at least once a month.
Bad luck. Nothing's in the area in the latest Airmail issue.
Maybe one of the CA forum folks will speak up now!

[Major Softie]

Chuey's down in that general vicinity. Being in CA isn't enough. Me and a few others are in northern California, but we're 8 - 10 hours away.

[DaveBBR]

I did mine 2 years ago. The Duane's site is very helpful, along with buying the race puller from Ed Korn(?) (I forgot the tool wizard that makes those.)

HUGE help.

I'm in Los Angeles. Feel free to PM

[jagarra]

Yes, the pullers are an absolute necessity. I just did them on my 74 R90/6, even then I had to do some modifications to the puller to get the bottom race out. Got the puller set from Cycle Works, did give him some feedback and he is looking at increasing the diameter of the disk that hooks the race.
My steering was more that knotchy, it barely moved as the bottom bearing was contaminated because the dust cap at the bottom of the stem was never installed. Again help is far away from San Diego, I would try the additional oil lubrication as there is everything to gain and no harm.

[ME 109]

For those with the ability to weld, placing 1 or 2, one inch long beads of weld on the bearing cup will allow the cups to be pulled out with yer fingers.

I use a 2mm diametre electrode for the job.
Shortening the electrode to about 6" long gives added stability for the person welding.

A perfect removal technique when there is little/none bearing lip for a puller.

[DaveBBR]

For those with the ability to weld, placing 1 or 2, one inch long beads of weld on the bearing cup will allow the cups to be pulled out with yer fingers.

I use a 2mm diametre electrode for the job.
Shortening the electrode to about 6" long gives added stability for the person welding.

A perfect removal technique when there is little/none bearing lip for a puller.

Possession of/access to an arc welder is also important for this technique.

[ME 109]

Possession of/access to an arc welder is also important for this technique.

Yes, quite so Dave.
As is an airhead with bearing cups in place waiting to be removed.

[Zombie Master]

For me head bearings make a big difference on how the bike feels. When I buy a new (used) machine I always pull down the steering stem to inspect, and if the bearings (races) show no wear I will grease and reassemble. Your head bearings should be serviced weeks before you leave on a trip. Often they will need re-adjustment after bedding in.

[Rob Frankham]

The bearings don't "detent" from sitting - that would be dried grease. The detents come from repeated pounding in the same spot.

Or overtightening... My feeling is that many notchy head bearings start from overtightening either at install or on adjustment. Once the 'detents' have started, it is impossible to adjust them out without having the steering tight between them, so there will always be a measuer of slogger (looseness) in the bearing. This, in turn, means that the bearing will wear (comparatively) very quickly.

A properly adjusted taper bearing will last almost indefinitely but a badly adjusted one will have a very short life...

Rob

[moosehead]

I use a Dremel cut off wheel to remove races. Just make 1 or 2 cuts across the race (diagonally) and as deep as possible but not through...then...(usually they fall out at this point) good wrap on small cold chisel or screw driver placed in the cut and..bingo...out they come.

I've done a GS and, like every bike with fairings, most of the time is removing and replacing the fairing items and brackets etc.. The actual bearing replacement is pretty straight forward.

Could be just "feeling notched" due to old, whacedk out grease, and inspection may show that, but to get that far, might as well just replace them. My 2p worth.