Recently I noticed my scoot requiring a touch more effort in slow speed manuevers and then when applied it moved suddenly like the front end was hanging up a little. I put her on a lift and checked the forks for movement. I could feel a slight movement and the steering seemed to be pretty smooth, but as long as I was here I dropped the front end and proceeded to clean and repack the bearings. I was a bit dissappointed to find the upper bearing a little rusty and it was very difficult to turn by hand. The lower bearing cleanded up easily and moved freely and looked very good. I used some WD 40 and sprayed the upper bearing liberally and let it sit. Then I took compressed air and blew all the old grease and gunk out of the bearing and began to repack and work grease back into the bearing. It began moving more freely and after a couple of minutes more like 10 of packing clean grease in and working it until it came through fairly clean out of the bearing cleaning off the excess grease and gunk the bearing seemed to move freely. Some of the rollers show small pits, but otherwise all appears OK. I reassembled the front end and it torqued up well and seems to operate normally now. I still have an almost inperceptible movement in the front end when I do the push pull on the forks. My guess is the bearings should be replaced soon. Opinions please.
As such how do I get the lower bearing off the steering stem, and what is the best way to get the old races out of the steering head? Thanks for the help guys. Just a heads up, my scoot only has 26,500 miles on it and I serviced my steering head at 12,500 and yesterday and the upper was rusty. I do ride in the rain a bit, but was surprised to find rust on the bearings given my attention to this service.