Can't wait - as soon as I am out of the office, it's off to the house for a little maintenance!

Putting in new steering head bearings (mine have a catch in them), and rebuilding the front forks. Adding progressive springs & RaceTech cartridge emulators - woo hoo!

How many people have drilled their steering head for a grease fitting? I'm thinking it's a good idea - definitely keep those bearings alive longer!

WISH ME LUCK!

The neck is double walled so make sure to drill through both layers of the neck not just the outer layer or you'll be pumping grease between the walls not into the neck area.

Doc

Just changed mine out last weekend. It all went pretty well until I had to get the lower bearing off the steering stem. Mine had rusted to the stem. I put some JB penetrating oil on it and let it stand over night, after breaking a cold chisel trying to get it to budge. If you access to an arbor press you should use that to get the bearings off. Not sure how a zerk would work there is a lot of room for grease inside the stem. I think that you would be getting a lot of grease past the lower bearing and not much in the upper. JMHO. I only have 26,500 miles on an 06 so I hope that this was an annomolly and that these last longer.
A note of caution, if you use the cold chisel to lift the lower bearing make sure you position it so the edge of the chisel does not hit the stem, don't ask me how I know I had to carefully file down the nick in my stem to get the new bearing in place. Not a hard job, but it was time consuming.

Well, so far so good - the bike is mostly back together - I got lazy and figured I would finish this week, as the weather is horrible anyway.

I can't believe the shape of the bearings at 15000 miles - rusty, pitted races, notchy ... incredibly bad! I drilled the neck in two spots while I had everything apart, tapped it and put in two zerk fittings. After I got the steering head re-installed, I filled it up with grease. It took awhile, and almost 2 full 3oz tubes of grease, but I got a satisfying blob of grease out of the top and out of the bottom - the bearings feel silky smooth now and are set just a touch more than factory specs (around 40 inch-lbs; the factory calls for about 28 inch-lbs.)

Forks were fairly easy to do - can't wait to get out and see how much better the bike rides and handles! I will post another update soon; I will also get some pics of the bearings posted ....

I really can't understand how these bearings go out so soon. They are'nt like wheel bearing that make a lot of revolutions. My only thinking is maybe the rake of the front end put pressure on them.

Could you post a photo of the zerks, and where you positioned them. Having just replaced the bearings I don't want to do it again soon. I serviced mine at 12,500 miles as there was some play in them. Still had play after the service. Then at 26,000 I noticed a catch in the bearings. I tried servicing them, but the upper bearing was rusted and pitted. It cleaned up pretty well and I used it while I waited for new bearings to come in. While the lower bearing was not bad it was rusted to the steering shaft, not bad, but a line of rust all the way around. After replacing and torquing the bearings I still have some slight play in the front end, but it rides perfectly. If I could keep fresh grease flowing through the bearings they should last much longer.

Cruiserbob -

I will take pics and post tonight I also need to post a few pics of the bearing races - I'm actually quite irritated at Yamaha about it - one sore spot on an otherwise outstanding machine ....

Did you guys who serviced your bearing completely remove the forks and what-not?

To service the bearings the forks do not have to be removed, only the top clamp and then lift the bike enough to get to the lower bearings. When you are replacing them the entire front end has to come off so you can get to the bearing races and lower bearing for removal. I actually took the brake calipers off, then loosened the lower clamp and raised the bike high enough to take the forks and front wheel off as a unit. Saved somd time not having to remove the fender and front axle.

seminole bob wrote:
I really can't understand how these bearings go out so soon. They are'nt like wheel bearing that make a lot of revolutions. My only thinking is maybe the rake of the front end put pressure on them.

What makes you think they do Bob, I would be willing to bet that most of the folks that have trouble probably live near the beach or in salty areas...very few go bad..