STEERING STEM BEARING Replacement - Any Pointers?

[cbrfrenzie]

This has always driven me crazy.  Now, I just press the stem off and press it back on and then press the bearing and seal on, remember the seal before the bearing.  Heat if you don't have access to a press.

This is typically what I do as well.   However, on my 2003 KX5 the stem and lower triple clamp are welded together.... What year(s) of the KX500 came with pressed in stems vs welded?

[alward25]

None of them came welded that I know of.  My 01 was not.

[don46]

This has always driven me crazy.  Now, I just press the stem off and press it back on and then press the bearing and seal on, remember the seal before the bearing.  Heat if you don't have access to a press.

This is typically what I do as well.   However, on my 2003 KX5 the stem and lower triple clamp are welded together.... What year(s) of the KX500 came with pressed in stems vs welded?

That is correct, none came welded in place. They are all removeable from the factory.

[TheGDog]

BIG THANK YOU!!! To all of you who very thoughtfully took your time and weighed-in on this plea for help with your tips.

I tried to post this thank you maybe 2-3 weeks ago, but the site was down for a bit.

As it stands right now, I all all races and bearing removed. The bottom triple tree and stem in the freezer did the trick for removing the bottom inner bearing race. The approx 3/5ths of the edge of that race which is exposed on the backside of the bottom triple tree I just held a punch to the edge of the race and tapped at intervals around the curve and back again and it went fairly quickly.

I wanted to share that for removing the outer bearing races stuck in the steering head... I had purchased a specialized tool fom RockyMountainAtv. Has 4 flange tips that fan outward in a spring-like fashion. The idea is you place those 4 flanges just under the rim of the bearing cups stuck in the stem then strike the other end which is a steel insert specifically for striking it.  

I did something very stupid and I want to share it so that nobody else puts themselves thru this frustration.  

When I enthusiactially first went to use this brand-new tool I figured I'd attempt to knockout the top one first, since I figured it'd be slightly trickier to do, then do the bottom one since I figured with gravity helping that'd be a cakewalk (which the bottom one was).

HERE IS WHERE I DID SOMETHING VERY DUMB... my work area doesn't have a lot of room at the moment... I inserted the 4-flange tool in thru the bottom hole... pushed it upward until it stopped... ASSUMED it was stopped because it was up against that upper bearing cup..... WRONG!!!!  The upper part of the steering stem tube where the upper bearing cup gets pressed in... that hole is beefed-up internally, with a concentric circle (inner-lip) of steel to sort of neck-down the upper opening in the steering stem tube to A) become the narrower size that the upper bearings are and B) most likely to strengthen that top side since it has the spanner nut that tightens down against it.

Soo... unknowingly... like a frickin' idiot... I was beating the ever-lovin' snot outta this new tool, striking it upward with an 8 Lbs sledge.  And since I had not peered inside the steering stem to verify WHERE that 4 flanges were stopped against... like an idiot I was basically blasting this brand-new tool into that immovable inner lip of steel which was part of the frame itself.. rather than the bearing cup.  

Thank goodness I was wise enough to batten-down the bike to the center stand by running a tie-down thru/around the footpegs on both sides of the center-stand, otherwise I'd be cryin' a whole 'nother kinda blues too.  

So with the massive beating I gave this tool it essentially rendered it useless since introduced some kinkage (word?) to the flanges. Just imagine your fingers extended out straight, then pressed against a flat surface... they "buckle" at the knuckles. Something like that happened to my new spiffy tool. (Lovely!)

So ended-up just finding a long-enough center punch, and hooking it's edge on the lip of the bearing-cup and on like the 2nd hit it popped right out. (This... after mistakenly hammering for a very long time against that inner frame lip before. Grrr!)

I used the 4 flange tool to pop out the bottom one in the steering stem just fine. It wouldn't work for the top one now though... I tried slowly feeding that tool in from the top until I felt it "click" into place just under the bearing cup. Even visually verified it too. But by then I think the punishment I gave it, and the resultant change/bend it gave the flange "fingers" made them unable to get enough of a binding hold on that edge. Every time I tried to strike upwards against it in this correct position... by now that tool just laughed at me and popped-up and out the top of the steering stem.

I'm only bothering to mention all this cr@p because I actually think it's a neat tool that would have worked fine if I hadn't mistakenly beaten the $h!t out of it into that inner frame lip in the top steering stem opening.

Maybe tomorrow I will try to put the new bearings on. I also purchased a specific tool for doing that task. It's basically an aluminum pipe (with a steel insert for striking at the top of it) with a coupling attachment and 2 different end attachements... of which... these 2 end attachments can be flipped over until you find one of the 4 different sizes this offers you until you find the right one for the current application you're attending to.

Once again... I really want to thank you all for your help.  And I jus tknow there have to be others who are reading this thread and learning something from it along with me.

[TheGDog]

Putting it back on is tons easier!

For the nut that requires the spanner wrench and tightens down onto the upper bearing... about how snug should I be tightening this one down?  I figure once the leverage of the handlebars is on I'm less likely to notice the friction I can notice with just my hands moving the fork-clamps back-and-forth? I figure going too tight to begin with is probably harsh on the bearings??... and I'm figuring this is one of those areas I'll have to re-visit everytime after the first maybe 3 rides until everything seats down all the way?  Does that sound right? Or... should it be that I should not need to come back here at all after initial installation? What are the Torque specs on the top nut that affixes the top triple tree to the stem?

[bjohn07]

so what bearings did you end up going with?   anyone know any skf or national part numbers.   , ive done this a bunch of times on street bikes, same concept. usually i just use a spanner and crank it down to get a good seat.  back it off and then put it snug enough to where there is no binding when moving the triple from stop to stop.   screw driver and hammer work good but you got to be careful.   the top 6 point nut is the one that should be torque set. and the setting im not sure. 

[TheGDog]

Thank you all. The Beast is back up and fully operational as of today.

(SIGH... now I gotta put on the new rotor for that KDX200 and install new Front Brake Master-Cylinder Rebuild kit. And I probably have to get a caliper rebuild kit for it too. Another story for another thread ;-} )