Twitchy, erratic steering after tapered bearings*SOLVED*

[shinyribs]

I put my All Balls tapered steering bearings in last night. It cured the front end rump-rump-rump I had but now the bike handles reeeeeally stupid. It does not want to go straight AT ALL below 45 MPH.Above 45MPH it is tolerable,but it is still a chore to drive. It feels like you are riding on a tight rope having to balance it constantly. If you give the handlebars the slightest bit of an accidental bump it wants to go into a pretty bad wobble. A front wheel side-to-side wobble. I hate to think what would have happened if I did not have a stabilizer on the bike because on time it tried to wobble it took a good amount of strength to hold it tight. Slight turns at moderate speeds it feels perfectly normal,but if you try to lay it over any real amount at all it fels as if the bike tries to jump back up straight! It actually feels like the bike has ZERO rake whatsoever.Turning 90 degrees from from a side street on to the main street it feels like the front tire is trying to fold up under the bike in what ever direction you are turning.

I have not pulled it all the way back down to the point of getting the steering stem back off,but I did pop the upper triple clamp off to see if I forgot to tighten the top spanner nut.

When I put the bearings in last night I kept turning and turning and turning the spanner nut and finally the bearing seemed to seat. It took a bit more pressure than I thought it should,but the handle bars felt nice and free with just a touch of resistance,which seemed correct. After riding and feeling what it is doing now I thought I may have over-tightened the spanner nut. I popped the upper triple clamp off to check that and the spanner nut was barely finger tight! I thought"OK,maybe I didn't have the bearing fully seated so I snugged it up a little bit and now it is even worse!!! Plus the bars are pretty tight now.Not extremely tight,looser than what the stabilizer creates at full tension which is where I keep it all the time.

My bike used to feel rock solid,now it is un-rideable. Turns on the 55MPH highway near my house I used to be able totake at 90-100 MPH+ I feel uncomfortable at 55-60 MPH.

I'm gonna strip it down tomorrow,but for now I am completely lost and totally fed up.  HELP!!!!

[ferroussphinx]

what kind of bike is it and if its a seven fifty you can go to honda chopper and get some bearing off low rider tommy thirty five bones  plus shipping

I run em they are great    

[shinyribs]

The bike is a CB750. The bearings should be fine,just trying to figure out what I did wrong.

[rrgunslinger]

I don't understand what you have done.   Did you use new bearings or are these old.  Did you replace the race?  Replacing the ball bearings with tapered is the way to go and ins straight forward  meaning if the races are seated all the way in and the bottom baring is all the way down you should not be using the head nut to pull it together just to hold it together.  If you are still using the balls I would suggest you go with the tapered.  well worth the trouble.

[TOOLS1]

The nut behind the handle bars is loose. I don't think, you have your races seated all the way in.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Problem solved! Tools,thanks for answering today! My truck is on a job site and I am relying on my bike for transportation til Wednesday.You saved the day.

I hate to tell on myself,but I put the washer/spacer in the wrong place and tightened the stem too much.Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill!

Note: When someone is nice enough to post a detailed how-to on something...pay attention to it.
All I needed to know was in the POW-MIA build thread.

[sgtslag]

Welcome to being Human, Shiny.    Glad to know you are one of us, and not them...  

[LukeM]

Nicely done, and nicely fixed.  Don't blame yourself: if you made a mistake, own it.  We're all human, and we've all been there.
I remember when I parked my minivan on the side of a gas station, with the engine running, so I could get a can of pop for the drive to work.  Sadly, I didn't have enough change in my pocket, so I went inside to break a dollar.  As I walked out, I saw my van driving itself down the alley, and around the corner.  Funny, if it were a runaway, how is it turning?
Turns out, I didn't see the guy sitting just around the corner. He hopped in, and drove off.  I lost a couple of Nintendo GameBoy machines and about 20 games, and an acoustic guitar I bought new in 1978. We got the van back a couple of days later after they ran it out of gas...in Cleveland (150 miles away).

So yeah...that may have been the stupidest thing I've done.  Yet.
Luke M

[shinyribs]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I mess up sometimes but mistakes is where you gain experience.

Luke, that was not a case of you doing something stupid, but a case of a rotten person. A man oughta be able to find his car where HE left it. Sorry to hear about the guitar. That stinks.

[LukeM]

To quote Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:  "And so it goes."
About losing the guitar: I'd owned it for 20 years, such a good instrument, played so well.  I was mad, but only for about 30 minutes.  Then I just turned it around and said, "OK, it's gone somewhere.  Pawn shop, someone's basement, who knows.  I just hope they have as much fun with it as I did." No regrets.

Y'know, they're just tools. Tools to make music, to fix things, to make things, to help others do things. Just like motorcycles: they are transportation tools to get you from A to B. Everything else is just gravy, or icing on the cupcakes if you will.

*ending philosophical discussion*

By the way, I found a pair of Sportster slip on mufflers on EBay, which I'm going to put on my Shadow to replace the "hole saw" modified stock exhaust.  It's an experiment to see what it'll do to the exhaust note, and to see if it stops the popping on deceleration (due to increased back pressure).  I figure $25 for the mufflers, maybe another $10-15 for brackets, gaskets, hardware, and a couple hours time, might be a fun project.

Luke M

[rrgunslinger]

rrgunslinger wrote

I don't understand what you have done.   Did you use new bearings or are these old.  Did you replace the race?  Replacing the ball bearings with tapered is the way to go and ins straight forward  meaning if the races are seated all the way in and the bottom baring is all the way down you should not be using the head nut to pull it together just to hold it together.  If you are still using the balls I would suggest you go with the tapered.  well worth the trouble.

Guess I got to be more straight forwarded .

[shinyribs]

C'mon gunslinger,get it together man!

Luke,do you mind posting a pic of those Sporty muff you got? I am looking for a pair of duals that I can fit in a tight area. If I recall correctly,Sporty muffs are usually pretty slim.