Steering bearing adjustment - Pointy

[aesmith]

time for taper roller then.
Following Bibio's succinct advice, I've finally got around to replacing the steering bearings. The job wasn't actually as much of a pain as I'd feared.

The adjustment process in the handbook looks a bit hit and miss .. tighten to the specified torque, then back off by 1/4 - 1/2 a turn. I'm always aware that it's easy to over tighten new bearings, so just wondered whether any on the forum have come up with an improved method for setting the adjustment.

Ta in advance,
Tony S

[Bibio]

the reason for the tightening sequence in the manual is to set the bearing onto the races just in case they were not fully home and to squeeze out the packed grease. ball bearing type require more care that needle roller.

the way i do it is to set at 1/4 turn, lock of then use the top yoke nut to set the final play e.g. swing the front end back and fourth and wiggle the fork legs then if need be nip the top yoke up a little more. dont bother with that stupid pull weight measurement. i'm fortunate to have a pretty good bearing press tool that sets the races tight to begin with so i dont bother with the first torque measurement and instead go straight for the 1/4 turn from 'sound,. i also turn the yokes while doing the initial tightening to get a feel for things.

if you find the bearings come loose after a few months then just take the top yoke off loosen the top castle nut the turn the bottom one up to an 1/8 of a turn depending on how loose the bearings were then repeat the final stage.

[aesmith]

Cheers, it seems OK at the moment so I think what I'll do is recheck at the weekend, which will be around 300 miles.