Yamaha TRX850 Enthusiasts Forum

Greetings everyone,

I have acquired new tapered roller steering-head bearings to replace the originals which are well and truly stuffed after 67,000km. (It seems the price I paid was about the same as for the ones I got for my RZ350 in 1986-ish).

I have had the front end apart several months ago for a bit of a look-see, there are reliefs cut into the seat (in the frame tube) for the lower bearing so that it can easily be removed with a drift, but I couldn't see anything similar for the upper bearing seat (perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough). The upper bearing doesn't appear to overhang its seat in the frame tube and so I am uncertain about how to remove it. I believe there are techniques such as running a bead of weld around the bearing seat so that it shrinks and more or less falls out, or welding a piece of bar across the bearing seat so it can be knocked out with a drift. I don't have an electric welder in the shed so these methods are not available unless I take the bike to a shop - but I'd rather do it myself.

Can anybody who has done this before advise me how they approached this problem?

Thanks,

bazzee

G'day Bazzee,
Yeah, the upper bearing race can be a bit of a pain to remove. When I did mine I didn't have access to a welder either, so couldn't use that method. I tried making different shaped drifts but could not get enough purchase on the race to knock it out.
In the end I carefully took to it with my Dremel and ground/cut through the race in one section and then it can be easily levered out. As long as you are patient and careful you won't damage the headstock/headtube at all.
This may not be the text book way but it did work.

Thanks for that information, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for but now I know what I'm in for and I can be prepared.

Cheers,

bazzee

bazzee wrote:Thanks for that information, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for but now I know what I'm in for and I can be prepared.

Cheers,

bazzee

Maybe hang fire for a bit as others here may come up with a better alternative, my method got the job done with the tools i had at hand, there may be better ways though.