How to tighten steering head bearings on a 1999 yamaha r1
HI, CARRY OUT THE CHECK BELOW BEFORE YOU START ADDJUSTING YOUR STEERING.
place the machine on a stand, suport the front of the machine so you
can turn the steering freely from lock to lock and geting a feel for how
tight the bearing is before adjusting or even undoing the top nut,
grasp the forks at the bottom as you kneel in front of the machine
pulling on the forks at the lowest point to feel for free play, normaly detect by a small
amount of movment,or a clicking noise
tightening the steering head bearing on any bike is not difficult, but it does require some level of skill, undo the top nut on the centre of the yoke, below that you will see 2 castleated nuts some models have a locking tab between them so you cant turn 1 without first undoing the other, in this case it is best to remove the top yoke, once you can turn the nuts under the yoke you simply turn clockwise to tighten and anti to slacken,
there is a fine line between tight and slack, a bearing which has been left in a loose state for a prolonged period may require replacing, as so 1 that feels rough or notchy,
in some cases only a small amount of tightening is required, remeber when the top yoke is replaced and tightened this will put more tension on the bearing, so a bearing that feels tight without the top nut tightened will be overtight when yoke centre nut has been tightened, method of satifaction is when the top nut is tight with the steering clear of the ground in a straight ahead position the handlebars must fall from centre left, right with no friction detected, again checking the movment by pulling on the fork lowers.
OVERTIGHT BEARING WILL AFECT THE STABILITY OF THE MACHINE.
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