TOPIC:

Decided to swap out the steering stem bearings in my '83 kz440 ltd. Went with All Balls roller bearings. Now the steering stops won't engage.

The races are in, but I do need to seat them better, as I can feel a gap of at least 1 mm in the lower race seat, I'll be going to get either a bearing cup press or a nylon bearing driver set today. Not a great situation because the races have almost no lip inside, so getting them out again to go back to OEM would present a major challenge.
Main problem is that the lower bearing is sitting too high on the steering stem. I've included pics, as you can see the bearing sits flush with the bottom of the actual stem, but that still leaves it a good 3 mm above the groove in the lower triple clamp where the original bearings sat. I don't see how these could be expected to be driven down onto the actual clamp without damaging the bearings.





I need some guru action guys.

You ARE going to take off that bottom stock race aren't you? Take pics before you seat the new ones in. It's possible to have them backwards.
Steve

Did you take off the lower race on the lower tree? That's what your mystery object looks like, the place the old balls were on.

Take the new bearing off and remove the old race, then try again

You guys can't see it, but I'm banging my head on my desk right now.

Believe it or not, I do have the FSM and I did read it over before starting, don't remember seeing anything about removing what I now know is a race. Before I head out there and bodger things up, anyone have any advice on how to remove this thing that won't involve flying monkeys coming out of my ears?

Throw the whole thing in the freezer overnight then give it a good beating tomorrow.If that dosnt work,youll probably have to cut it off with some sort of dremmelish thing.
Good luck

Got it. Thanks gentlemen

Balls deep!