Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

i just done it by feel with the weight off the front end. the lower adjustment nut sets the tension, so torquing the top yoke nut should not affect the bearing tightness.

80nm on the top adjuster nut sounds like wildly too much. the top adjuster nut is just nipped up against the bottom nut, to stop that unwinding itself. and the Top Yoke nut is the one that gets properly torqued?

i suspect by trying to get 80nm on the top adjuster nut, your actually tightening the lower adjustment nut also

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

Hey Craigg ok about that nor tensioning top adjuster nut, nor top yoke nut should influence bearing tension, even not at 80Nm I think. But 80Nm effectively sounds too much on a alu nut. Guess there is another error in the wphandbook, just as with the rear-sprocket bolts btw ;-(
But then after torquing the top-yoke steel nut to 90Nm, it even further locks up. So I don't know what's really going on here.
Ripped 1 of the castlenuts; ordering new one at 21.7E :smt107!.
Tx for your advice.

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

your big mistake is using a torque wrench.

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

Ok check that good lesson :(

Do you think the top yoke nut is also overspecced at 90Nm?

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

i personally use the top yoke nut as the final "pressure" setting. its not what the book says but its what works.

tightening headstock bearings is an art that is not easy to master but once you have done a few then it becomes second nature.

to do it properly you must get the front end off the ground without using anything connected to it so the front is "free air".

if you cant do that then a headstock stand is the next best thing.

trying to tighten headstock bearings with the front wheel on the ground is difficult as you cant "rock" the forks back and fourth to feel for the tell tale "click" or smoothness of the bearings in the races.

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

Ok tx Bibio, sucking in information here.

I've made myself an overlock stand to raise the front already some time ago, it works with a 10mm rod that goes in a hole in the engine block. So all my headstock bearing-tensioning is with front wheel removed; I leave the forks in to have some mass/load on the stem to feel what's happening. Though I think maybe better remount frontwheel too to have some more mass? Anyway always when moving the head to the right there is more resistance than to the left; must be caused by wiring&cables still hanging around. Say when moving to the left takes 100g, to the right takes like 500g.
If I get the tension right this time I never never ever disassemble the headstock again.

But so if I understqnd well you just don't torque the top yoke nut to 90Nm, but just stop torqueing when the steering starts "hardening" again?

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

pretty much yes.

if the forks move side to side easily and there is no "click" felt/heard when pushing/pulling on the bottom of the forks straight-left-right then the bearings are set.

when there is too much force on the bearings the forks will move side to side as if there is notches.

you want the bearings to be free enough to let the forks move but not so tight as to let them bind (notchyness) and no physical play when pushing/pulling back/forth on the fork bottoms.

yes keep the front wheel off till bearings are done.

remember that the bearings will "ease off" after about 500 miles if new grease was packed properly into the bearings. the torque setting in the manual are for installing brand new bearings to "seat" them into the races and squeeze out excess grease.

Re: Advice Please: Head stock bearing tightening?
 

Ok got all that. Will continue playing with it next weekend with all the knowledge I learned here.
Looks like I mainly will have to apply considerably reduced forces.

Thanks a lot for help & valuable info gentlemen.