headstem loose

[geezus18]

hey fellas,
ive been noticing latly that my headstem or whatever its called seems to be jumpin or clicking over something. when i put the fron brakes on and push on the bars you hear it clunk and it moves forwards a bit then you pull back and it does the same thing. Its definatly not the wheel or anything coz i can see it miving. Ive tried tightening the 30mm bolt on top but it still does it.any one got some no how on this???

cheers, michael

 

[pegleg]

underneath the top triple clamp there is a big nut that looks like a fat washer with notches in it, tighten it up and ur all good.
It is best to loosen the 30mm nut on top and also the top clamps by way of allen key bolts on the side of them. after you tighten the one underneath the clamp, tighten down the 30 mm nut and then the triple clamp.
That should fix it up...

 

[daniel40]

take it off put some loctite on and tighten it abit

 

[Flarry]

Yeah it looks like a washer, tighten it with a C spanner and loctite it.

 

[geezus18]

ok cool ill have a captain cook (look) tomorrow and see what i can do! Could it have been damaging anything since its been loose or am i safe?
thanx for that, michael

 

[pegleg]

more than likely no damage was done, getting a flat head screwdriver in there works, but only tighten till it doesn't move anymore as u could damage the bearings in the stem.
good luck..

 

[cass38a]

If it has been loose for a long time your bearings could be stuffed. My bike had stuff all (see pic) grease in the headstem bearings and I advise everyone to actually remove them and pop in some grease as soon as you get the bike. In your case I would clean,check and regrease them anyway.

 

[Divy]

yeah do what pegleg said but dont over tighten the nut with the notches on it that sits on top off the bearing cause if you do your steering will be stiff an hard to turn an you could crush the bearing

 

[geezus18]

ok so im gonna loosen the top 30mm bolt a bit then tighten the BOTTOM nut tight, but not over tight, and then go back to the top and tighten that!

 

[Trashthumpy]

hey cassa my bike had none.....ooops

 

[FULL-ON]

mine does the same thing I have go tighten it up now

 

[avenger_125]

hey geezus18,
i got the same bike with the same problem, pretty sure it dusnt do much harm tho. tightening the bearings reduces the clunk but dusnt fix it. Jus make sure u dont tighten it too much or u will crush the bearings and have to buy new ones like i did.

take it off put some loctite on and tighten it as hard as u can

And daniel40 locitite isnt the fix for everything and tightening it as hard as you can will just make more problems.

 

[mech_eng_matty]

Tapered Roller Bearings

Just a footnote to this post, the bearings used in the headstem are tapered roller bearings. The bearing has a tapered shape (hence the name) which sits in a little cup that is pressed into the headstem housing. The cup is made of solid material and has a taper that matches that of the bearing.

When u pull the locking nut up tight, the bearings won't actually crush unless u use a rediculous ammount of force (i'm talking way more than a standard ring spanner or socket can apply). What will happen is that the rollers on the bearing will push so hard against their cups that the bearing will not freely rotate therefore making your steering hard (stiff) or even clunky. The clunky feeling is very unlikely as it generally means that you've way way way overtightened the bearing and made little divits (pitts) in the bearing cup.

Long and the short of it is, you can tighten the jesus nut real tight without stuffing your bearing, but you'll compromise your steering ability. Tapered rollers, when first installed, should also be "preloaded". This means tighten them up till u basically can't tighten any more, then back the nut off about quarter of a turn. You only need to do this when first installing a new bearing though.

How this solves your problems, well, it doesn't, but at least you'll know all about tapered roller bearings the next time someone asks!!! HHAHAAH

Cheers

Matty

 

[geezus18]

cheers mate, well at least i know now i cant stuff em lol! ill give it a tighten tomorrow and just keep checking how my steering feels!
thanx

 

[daniel40]

thats wat flarry told me to do worked for me bearings are fine but dont over tighten em