"79 Steering Stem Adjustment

[Crossrodes]

In the Clymer manual it says to adjust the steering stem adjustment nut by hand.  This seems a little odd to me.  I would think that there needs to be some more torque on the steering stem adjustment nut than what you can do by hand.  I have tried a strap wrench on this but it just slips.

First question...how does anyone with a '79 (note that it is important that you have experience with a '79 - other years have different adjustment set ups from what I can see) adjust their steering stem nut?  If you do use a tool, what do you use and how tight do you make the steering stem.

Right now my front wheel will just flip from side to side with hardly any pressure on it.  Does this seem a bit loose to you?

[Barry]

First question...how does anyone with a '79 (note that it is important that you have experience with a '79 - other years have different adjustment set ups from what I can see) adjust their steering stem nut?If you do use a tool, what do you use and how tight do you make the steering stem.

Right now my front wheel will just flip from side to side with hardly any pressure on it.Does this seem a bit loose to you?

Mike

Mine is a 79 and I guess you mean the knurled adjustment nut is hard to get a grip of. I couldn't adjust mine by hand either so I used a pair of pipe pliers. Yours does sound a bit loose. There needs to be some pre-load of the bearing. You should be able to feel a very slight amount of drag in the bearings which should be just enough to slow the fall from side to side a little.

Other things to bear in mind:-

The top triple clamp pinch bolts need to be loosened to allow for movement when the bearing is adjusted. I use a couple of hardwood wedges in the gaps to loosen the grip on the stanchions.

Torquing up the cap screw changes the pre-load so you need to experiment a few times to get it right. It's a few years since I did this and I'm trying to remember in which direction the pre-load is changed. Logically tightening the cap screw should take up any play in the threads so that means torquing up will increase the pre-load. So set the adjustment a touch loose and then torque the cap screw.

[Crossrodes]

Thanks for your suggestions Barry.  I had forgotten about loosening the pinch bolts and using wedges.  That will probably make a difference.  I have never seen pipe gripping pliers like that before.  I'll take a look at some tool stores and see what I can find.

[montmil]

As to the so--called proper preload of the steering stem bearings...

With the bike on the center stand and the front wheel off the ground, center the front wheel. With just a gentle nudge on the hand grip, the front wheel should fall away but not so hard as to slam into the steering stop. Try this check in both directions. A fairly quiet "thunk" is what you're looking for.

You may want to use a hard rubber or leather hammer to lightly tap the upper triple clamp down into its new position prior to tightening up all the bolts.

Then, test again to confirm your bearing adjustments have not gone to far out of preload.

[Crossrodes]

Guys thank you for all your tips.  I couldn't find the tool around here Barry but after loosening the upper bolts on the triple tree and wedging it I was able to make some adjustments.  And giving it a few taps with a rubber mallet helped also Monte.

It may be a little tighter than it should be now but I'll ride it a little and see what happens over time.

Thanks again.