Taper Steering Head Bearings

[brewsy]

Hi All,
just putting my front end back together again and decided to replace the roller bearings in the head stem with tapers.
The old ones were pretty knackered and it looked like the balls werent rotating in the cage, instead they were sliding on the race!
The standard specs from the manual call for 14 lbs-ft of torque but obviosuly these are a different kind of bearing.

Did any of you install these? If so did you go with stock torque or did you go looser?
Also did you buy/borrow the special tool or did you use a screwdriver and hammer?

Cheers,
Marc

[jaysun0ne]

i removed my old ones with screw driver and hammer, simple.

havent put the new ones in so thats all the input i have for you.

[brewsy]

Cheers Jay,
Thats exactly what I did...
I'm at the reassembly stage now...

[cb0y1]

Make sure you pack them in grease first, they only come in a shipping oil. Make sure you drive in the races all the way. tighten them down tight and rotate the handle bars a few time to squeeze down the bearings a bit then back it off. tighten to factory specs.

[MrDude_1]

Make sure you pack them in grease first, they only come in a shipping oil. Make sure you drive in the races all the way. tighten them down tight and rotate the handle bars a few time to squeeze down the bearings a bit then back it off. tighten to factory specs.

yea, the bearings need to be rolled around and re-tightened.
when you initially tighten them, the grease hydraulicly "locks" it into a false tight.. by rolling around the bearings, it redistributes the grease, and you can then correctly torque the bearings.

same thing applies to automotive wheel bearings or any other tapered bearings like that...

[brewsy]

Cheers all.
I was worried about the 'correct' torque to use as I dont have the castelated spanner thing to be able to use my torque wrench.
However after reading this months RoadRacing World 'track day special' and them having a feature on head bearings and simply adjust til free play is gone using a good old hammer and scredriver thats good enough for me!!
I'm off to the garage tonight and will get her buttoned up!!