Steering stem bearing kicking my ass; need help.

[Joe Garfield]

Hey all,
I hit a stumbling block with my steering stem bearing. When I go to seat the new race, it pinches in 2 places, basically in the front and back. I can't really get the race fully seated against the stop, and when I put the bearing in the race, it contacts in the front and back and wobbles a little side-to-side.

I put ink on the race and tried inserting it. It leaves a full ring of ink inside the steering stem so I know there is 360 degrees of contact. The inside of the stem is pretty beat up from trying to get the old race out (by POs and now myself) so it's hard to get a clear indication of what's going on.

I just got a brake cylinder hone. Unfortunately the 1-1/8" grinding stones are a little long and it doesn't seem to put pressure in the right place to properly hone the inside of the stem. I'll try it again and see if I can find smaller stones, but I don't feel very confident it will work.

This has wrecked all my motivation to get this bike going. Every time I muster up the enthusiasm to work on the bike, I try some other way of dealing with this and fail. I've had the bike for about a year now, have only ridden it twice and never had all 4 cylinders running. Once I get past this obstacle I should be in good shape to get things wrapped up. I would love to get on it this year but the days are getting short.

 

[bwringer]

Ohio is positively crawling with GS-ers. Can someone go take a look?

Sitting here in Indiana with only words to offer and only words in front of me, it's hard to say what the problem could be. I'll toss out a few ideas:

1) A burr in the seat area. Very hard to see since you're upside-down. Very common. You may need to clean things up a bit with a Dremel and a stone. I would avoid using a hone or similar devices that might enlarge the whole seat area.

2) It may be that when you get it fully seated, it will stop wobbling.

3) Harbor Freight has a very nice bearing and seal driver set with aluminum discs I've used to seat many steering stem bearing races. The aluminum can't mar the hardened steel races, yet will transmit a solid thwack from the BFH (Big F***ing Hammer). You could also use the discs and a length of all-thread to firmly press the bearing races into place.
http://www.harborfreight.com/10-piece-bearing-race-and-seal-driver-set-95853.html

 

[Guest]

Sounds like good advice to me.

 

[Fjbj40]

Heat the frame, with heat gun, and chill the race in the deep freeze. You will be surprised how much easier it goes in. That's assuming there are no burrs interfering or it is out of round.

Also a hone will not make a out of round hole round again, it will make maters worse, looser.

 

[Steve]

Joe, you shoulda hollered. You know I'm not that far away. :-\\\

Kinda busy this weekend, maybe some evening next week?

And don't forget that Dogma (Dale) is right around the corner from you.

.

 

[Dogma]

Workin' lotsa hours lately, but I could maybe have a peek on Sunday afternoon.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Thanks guys - I'm pretty tied up until Tuesday at this point but I would love the help.

 

[Dogma]

After Tuesday evening, I'm booked until the following Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.

 

[storm 64]

I take it the triple tree stem bearings are still kicking you ass?
Joe, I have all the special tools needed to make this a easy job. Just let me know, however you're running out of time to get the tools and make the rally... Good luck

 

[Joe Garfield]

Thanks - yeah, this is like round 2, or 3? I got it figured out last time, but the stem I used was bent. This was supposed to be an easy swap with a straight stem but I'm pretty sure the shop I brought it to (to remove the lower bearing) messed it up in a few places.

At this point I'm thinking I'll just put the bent stem back in for the rally - I'm out of time and energy, and the only time things don't go well with this bike is when I'm rushing.

 

[Steve]

Ahh, come on, Joe. Just trailer it to another rally, it'll get worked on in the parking lot (again ). :-\\\

.

 

[Dogma]

I could come over and advise today or tonight, but I can't do much actual work. Let me know. I'll be back on this afternoon to write a long post.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Thanks guys. I've got the bent stem back on the bike and am just buttoning up the wires and hoses. I got the problem with the other stem narrowed down to the lower bearing, or the stem itself. My bet is on the cheap lower bearing that was probably put on wrong :/

 

[Joe Garfield]

I've got a few loose ends hanging around this forum so I figured I'd go back and tie them off. This one is fixed - it was basically operator error, or not using the right tools to seat the bearing.