Steering head bearing replacement - advice wanted

[bazzee]

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

[Stu99]

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.

[bazzee]

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

[Stu99]

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.