Steering head races stuck, Any tips

Ok, few problems here, changing the bearings on the fazer. Did a quick
google but didn't find exactly what i want.

1) The inner race on the lower bearing is stuck to the top of the bottom
yoke, there are no obvious notches to get it out, tried briefly with a
hammer + screwdriver but no luck. Would a hacksaw be more successfull? I
dont have a dremmel or angle grinder.

2) The Outer race on the lower bearing is stuck in the headstock, but i
got it shifting a bit now by tapping each side down a bit with a bent
screwdriver, (although oneside has gone down a good bit further than the
other), Gonna go to B&Q and get a long chisel thing so i can hammer it
properly. Hopefully that should work, anything i should be aware of?

3) The outer race on the top bearing is stuck in the top of the
headstock, no obvious notches to tap it out with (didn't look too hard
though). What can be done here, any ideas to get it out?

Spent ages on it it yesterday, getting nowhere, starting to piss me off
bigtime.

Thanks in advance for any help,

 

You won't even scratch it with a hacksaw. Races are as hard as the
hobs of hell by design as they have to be, otherwise they would wear
out very quickly.

This is a fine excuse to buy an angle grinder. The DIY sheds or likes
of Screwfix and Machine Mart do small ones that start at about a
tenner. Wear gloves (welding gauntlets are ideal) and FFS eye
protection as a minimum, a face shield is better.

Get a cutting disc in it and (after a bit of practice elsewhere if
you've not used one before) approach the race carefully - you do not
want to cut into the yoke - not even a little bit. What you want is a
couple of notches in the race at about 180 degrees from each other.
Cut 2/3 of the way through the race and the remainder should split
with a tap from a chisel.

I'd get in the bottom and tap it back level again, tbh. Then continue
as you were. It won't be all that tight, so a foad chisel and
sledgehammer is not actually required. If you had it moving, repeat
until it pops out - but keep the tapping even across it so it doesn't
skew again.

IME these usually come out quite easily. Often levering across it
with a big old screwdriver will dislodge it. If that fails, stuff the
big old screwdriver up the tube, find a lip and tap the bugger out.
It should move quite easily.

Don't let the bastard grind you down. Go buy (or borrow) a new toy
and grind the bastard down instead.

May the farce be with you.

 

Hi John, replies in line....

Bearings are made of about the hardest steel you can find - the hacksaw
blade would last about 5 or 6 strokes before it reached "blunt as ****"
without even marking the bearing - you might have some success with one of
those emery-coated blades for cutting ceramics? Files are the same, ruined
in a few strokes on case-hardened steel ( Never lend files to the
mechanically unsympathetic!

One of the best tools in this case is heat - applied to the bearing race
with wet rags on the steering stem to keep that cool - a borrowed plumbers
torch should do the trick, or her indoors' oven, followed by the wet rags to
shrink the steering stem, then drift off with a chisel/punch and hammer

Keep it square! if it goes appreciably out of square, you risk ovalising the
steering head and the new bearing won't be as securely held, so very very
careful!
If you can, get a piece of sturdy steel, round the ends so that'll drop in
place across the bearing inside the steering head, and pound on that so the
load is spread - if you can drill a small dimple in the middle to locate the
punch in, all the better.

As above....

HTH

Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

 

<snip bearing woes>

As PiP says Angle Grinder.

Local hire shop will sort you one out and the correct wheel and protection
for a small amount.


--


--
Robbo
1500GL 1988 Goldwing (Halfway rebuilt)
BMW K100 RS 1984
"Fairly Quick" status. Silver level
BotaFOF #19. E.O.S.M 2001/2002/2003.
B.O.S.M 2003, 2004 .FURSWB#1 KotL..YTC449
PM#7
..

 

<snip usefull stuff>

Cheers to all who replied, will get an angle grinder and do the biz

 

Go gently with that disc, Eugene. Seriously - if you cut into the
stem it's fucked - if you lop a finger off, that fixes for free.

--
Pip - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of exhaust hangers.

WS* DFWAG#0 IbW#27* DIAABTCOD#15 GP#0 EKP FUB#4 MKA+E#3
ANORAK#8 MIRTTH#15 BOTAFOT/F#47/34a BONY#13 KotMIB# <space>
UKRMRM#14 TWA#2 BOMB#0

 

Saw a cheapo 800w 112mm at wickes for 17.99, so ill go for that. Its a
metal cutting disk, not a grinding disk right? I'll have a few practice
goes on some other things before i go near the stem, last thing i need
is a knackered set of forks, or a lopped off finger.

 

Yep. Cutting disc is yer lad for this job - 1.5 - 2mm thick, see.
Knife through butter.

Oh, the sparks, the scream of tortured steel, the stench of hot metal
and disc dust catching in yer throat. Have fun.

 

Pip wrote

Bloody safety nazi's

I cut a dirty great hole in a tile on Sunday with my angle grinder
without any hand or eye protection, in sandals and shorts.

How does that suit you then, huh, huh ?

Cheers,

Paul.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Heh.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

(Zymurgy) struggled to ejaculate:

Would you recommend somebody else (who has never used one before,
perhaps) to emulate you?

Specs or contacts?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Zymurgy

You should have a chat with my mate Pete. Or "one-eyed Pete" as we call
him. Spun an AG up to see whether the disk was OK.

It wasn't.

However, it's your eyesight, so you carry on.
--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL)
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Course not, but it was a quick hole and I couldn't be assed finding my
gauntlets and goggles, so I couldn't advoicate safety gear in every
case.

This being said when cutting metal I do. Hot sparks hurt whereas tile
dust doens't (mostly)

Ah good point, I was wearing very dusty glasses afterwards

Cheers,

Paul.

 

(Zymurgy) struggled to ejaculate:

Having done just what you did, I can tell you that speeding, red hot
tile chips and fragments of cutting disc _do_ fucking hurt when they
get you up the delicate bit of the inside of your forearm. I quite
like the feeling of hot sparks gliding off the outside of the forearm
- when you aim the stream just right. They fucking hurt down the boot
or the back of the neck, though.

Aha! You _were_ wearing eye protection, after all. Cutting metal
wearing specs is dodgy, as I expect you know. The tiny fragments of
steel won't come off/out of the lens, rip your cleaning cloth to bits
and rust like bastards.

I had the door mirror of a car get in the way when grinding spot welds
back in a hurry once. Made a right mess of the glass, it was covered
in tiny sharpasfuck fragments which rusted overnight and looked
fucking terrible. I have seen the results of grinder spatter hitting
a laminated windscreen, too - that wasn't a laughing matter.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Nigel Eaton

Same as my mate 'OneFingerPhil'; who decided to check the integrity of a
rolling mill by putting himself through it.

One finger was all we found.

We take the finger out for the evening and show it a good time
occasionally. It's a nice thing to do, don't you think?

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

LOL

 

Pip wrote

heh

Hm, worst I had was a shard of tile glaze in the eye when I was
stripping off old bathroom tiles. That hurt for a week before it came
out. (Or went in :-/)

Last metal I cut was the cast iron soil pipe from the bog. I had
goggles, gloves, disposable overalls and a mask on for that one. 40
year old shit flying around. Ugh.

Cheers,

Paul.