Steering head locks in straight position. Normal?

[mikluha]

Greetings All,

I have a 1980 GS1000G that I was working on during last winter. I was changing the front wheel bearings and one thing that I noticed was that the steeting head has a locking spot in the straight position. It goes smooth everyehere else. First it seemed that the head bearings were worn on that spot from overtightening but it seems kind of unlikely to hapened in the perfectly straight position.
Does anybody else has this spot?

[Steve]

Does it actually LOCK, as in won't turn at all in either direction, or is it merely a detent?

If it's merely a detent, that is somewhat common, but should not be there. You need to change the steering head bearings, especially the lower one.

The detent happens because the bearings were just a bit loose, allowing some momentum to build up when the forks moved just a bit when hitting every bump on the road. This hammers little dents into the bearing races, and the rollers like to sit there. You can tighten the bearings, but because of the slight extra clearance in the straight-ahead position, it will be too tight everywhere else. :shock:

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[mikluha]

It is a slight detent. I couldn't find the right English term for this when posting except "locking".
Thanks for the explanation. I guess it calls for what I was afraid of: changing the steering head bearings ;(

[Steve]

It's not that hard.

1. Remove the front wheel and handlebars. You only need to unclamp the bars from their mounts, you do not need to remove all the hardware attached to them (brake, throttle, mirrors, etc.)
2. Remove the front fender from the fork tubes.
3. Loosen the clamps, slide the fork tubes out of the triple trees.
4. Remove the fastening hardware on the upper triple tree, the steering stem will slide out the bottom.
Now the 'fun' begins.
5. A special bearing puller is called for, but I used my Dremel tool to cut the race so it will have room to move. If you happen to nick the frame or steering stem behind the race, that is not a problem. I cut two grooves about 1/4" apart so I could hammer the wedge out with a screwdriver. When the race is no longer intact, it will fall out of place with no problem.
6. Install the new races with a block of wood and light hammer taps all around the perimeter of the race until it is properly seated.
7. Grease the bearings.
8. Re-assemble the steering stem and fork tubes.
9. Tighten the bearings more than you think should be necessary (my book says 29-36 ft-lbs), rotate the forks from one side to the other to make sure the bearings are fully seated.
10. Loosen the retainer nut to finger-tight, then torque to 26-38 ft-lbs.
11. Install the fender and wheel.
12. Re-check that all fasteners are tight.
13. RIDE. \\/


By the way, here is what your bearing races look like:


Here is the race with the notch I cut out of it:

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