| Author | Message | ||
     Guzzidad |
Planning on a ride to a rally in LA in 10 days. My friend from WI is flying in and will ride my Uly. I'll be riding my Guzzi. Today I put new tires on, Michelin PR's, changed oil, Rotella 15/40, and tightened the steering stem. It's been clicking whenever I hit the brakes. Very annoying. I was surprised at how simple this adjustment was. Can't believe I waited this long to cure this aggravation. It's an 09 with almost 30,000 miles. | ||
| Buewulf |
Might want to check the steering head bearings to make sure they are OK. | ||
| Motorbike |
Guzzidad, do you mean it was clicking before you made the adjustment or after? Thanks. | ||
| Ourdee |
Mine clicked. I adjusted it out. It came back. I changed the bearings. | ||
| Hughlysses |
What tends to happen is if the bearings get loose enough to click, the balls (rollers?) eventually dent the races. Then you get notchy steering and the only way to fix it is to replace the bearings. | ||
| Motorbike |
My 08 XT only has 12,500 miles on it but it seems to make just a very light click sometimes during application of the front brake. I did adjust the steering head bearings by the book just as preventive maintenance at about 10,000 miles. I really doubt that my bearings are bad yet, might just be something else flexing and making a click as I hit the brake. What is the best way to tell if the bearings are OK without removing them and pulling out the seals to take a look? When I jack the bike up and turn the bars back and forth, it all seems real smooth. I would think that I would feel any roughness if they were going bad, right? | ||
| Buewulf |
Grab the front forks (with front wheel off the ground) and see if there is any fore/aft play in the bearing. Sometimes they still feel smooth even though they are on their way out. | ||
| Tootal |
If you tightened them and they quit clicking then I'd say you're good. If it starts clicking again then change the bearings. | ||
| Etennuly |
There is a test outlined in the service manual to test the pulling resistance of the bars from turn to turn with the bike jacked up and cables removed. It is a good test for the bearing's condition. Rust is a big cause for them to fail. I adjusted mine at 10,000 miles about five years and 50,000 miles ago.....still feels like it should. | ||
| Tootal |
 Bad ones. You can see the rust. | ||
| Djohnk |
I upgraded my steering head bearings to tapered ones this weekend as preventative maintenance while I was changing my fork oil and seals. My Uly is just about at 50K miles. I was going to change out the front wheel bearings also (had them on hand). But I was too tired after all that, and they still seem good. It may be in my head, but it feels easier to turn the bike now. | ||
| Buelldualsport |
Where would one find the part # for the tapered head bearing? Regards | ||
| Ourdee |
I wanted to put in tapered bearings but, already owned a spare set of OEM bearings. If this set goes, I plan on doing tapered next time. Rust killed the first set. I painted the second pair with silver grease when installing them. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Before you install the new stockers regrease them. The stock grease is wimpy and thin.  I got a little thermal expansion and messiness afterward but they've been fine after that. What's this about tapered rollers? If I can't find a non-HD source for the stockers I'd go that route. | ||
| Arry |
Guzzidad, Did you get to the rally in LA? where were you starting from? How did the two bikes perform? Is the Guzzi a classic or contemporary? I had a '72 Eldorado, years ago. | ||
| Djohnk |
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALL-BALLS-BUELL-ULYSSES-XB 12X-DX-FX-06-09-STEERING-STEM-BEARING-KIT-/1809660 04062 I am pretty sure this is the one I got (I threw the package away after I installed them). It was an All-balls kit that looked exactly like above. It fit perfectly with the seals and all. Make sure you pack the bearings real good with grease before installing. You can hammer the old bearings out with a long screwdriver (or whatever) after heating the steering neck with a heat gun. There are notches that allow the screwdriver tip to access the bearing on each side for both the top and bottom bearings. I threw the new bearings in the freezer for about an hour and heated the steering head before installing them and they tapped right in. It took me about six hours because I did my forks also and you have to take pretty much everything off of the front end of the bike. | ||
| Ourdee |
I scratched my fuel cap and cut a wire when i did mine. Could have used a couple of wire ties to avoid the scratch. And a visual check of the wires on left side prior to tightening the head would have spared the wire. Live and learn. It's all good. Used a bearing puller with a 3 pound slide hammer for removal. Started to think the lower bearing was never going to budge. Had visions of breaking something. Used silver anti-sieze on everything when reassembling. |
