How tight to make steering stem adjuster nut?

I replaced the ball bearings with All Balls tapered roller bearings. The service manual for the KZ305 says tighten adjuster nut to 14.5 ft-lbs. But that is for the original ball bearings. Should I now just snug it up and back off a 1/8th turn, the way you would do with auto wheel bearing?

tighten till you feel the steering get heavy and then back it off slightly. You will need to check it again after a hundred miles or so as the tapered bearing have a tendency to get loose after first install

There should be no torque spec for the large nut/ring that takes out the play in the bearings.  The torque spec is probably for the locking bolt/nut or possibly the big bolt that binds against the adjuster nut/ring (with the triple clamp sandwiched between the big bolt and adjuster nut/ring). 

As Vic mentioned, the nut/ring to take out the play is tightened until the steering just starts to drag, then is backed off a bit.  It's more critical with roller bearings.  You just barely want to get the play out, with no real tightness in the steering rotation.

Here's what I was told to do and have done myself since i've owned motorcycles. Put the bike on the centre stand, put a jack under the engine, use a piece of wood to protect the engine from damage from the jack, slightly raise the front wheel off the ground so you can turn the handlebars with ease, tighten the stem nut until the front end stays straight ahead with just enough pressure that if you tap the end of one handlebar the frontend will flop to one side. If it takes any force to push the handlebar to make it flop its too tight, there should be only a tiny bit of resistance...

Thanks all. I did end up adjusting it as you guys suggested. Tightened until I felt steering resistance, then backed off a hair.
 

wrote:

There should be no torque spec for the large nut/ring that takes out the play in the bearings.  The torque spec is probably for the locking bolt/nut or possibly the big bolt that binds against the adjuster nut/ring (with the triple clamp sandwiched between the big bolt and adjuster nut/ring). 

There is absolutely a torque spec for the "steering stem locknut", the ring that goes under the top clamp and sets the bearing preload.  I've installed these on the KZ1000 and KZ650 and both FSM provide a torque value. 11-18 ft-lbs for the 650, and 19.5-24 ft-lbs for the 1000.  When I installed new balls and races, I used a luggage scale and a hook wrench as a makeshift torque wrench.  

Now that being said, I had this exact same question when I switched to tapered roller bearings in my Kz650.  I figured the factory torque specs no longer applied, and I did pretty much exactly what you folks recommended.  I tightened it "enough". 

 

Crusty old car mechanic slmjim used to work with in the day was fond of saying "Snug it son... just snug it." when confronted with situations where limited torque was called for.

A technique we've settled on for setting preload on tapered steering bearings for bikes that came OEM with balls goes like this:
Front tire on the ground to load the bottom bearing. Bike on the centerstand if possible.  Steering stem threads and head nut threads very clean & freshly greased.  Tighten the head nut by bare hand until very snug.  Rotate the stem through full travel a dozen times or so.  Very snug by bare hand again if it will.  Elevate the tire off the ground & try the 'flop' test.  Take into account resistance to movement from wiring harnesses as best one can.  Too tight & the bike takes on a mind of it's own, with the Rider constantly fighting a tendency for the bike to wander away from straight line.  Too loose, maintaining a smooth cornering arc becomes near impossible.  Plan on checking preload again in a few hundred miles.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE
 

Another approach would be to see how Kawasaki instructs to adjust the steering head on models w the tapered bearings.  Zephyr 1100 or ZRX FSMs for example.

My confusion was because Allballs instructions told you to tighten the nut as per your bike's service manual, and also gave general tightening guide lines similar to what you guys are suggesting.
www.cyclepedia.com/manuals/online/cpp-al...ing-bearing-upgrade/

wrote:

wrote:

There should be no torque spec for the large nut/ring that takes out the play in the bearings.  The torque spec is probably for the locking bolt/nut or possibly the big bolt that binds against the adjuster nut/ring (with the triple clamp sandwiched between the big bolt and adjuster nut/ring). 

There is absolutely a torque spec for the "steering stem locknut", the ring that goes under the top clamp and sets the bearing preload.  I've installed these on the KZ1000 and KZ650 and both FSM provide a torque value. 11-18 ft-lbs for the 650, and 19.5-24 ft-lbs for the 1000.  When I installed new balls and races, I used a luggage scale and a hook wrench as a makeshift torque wrench.  

Now that being said, I had this exact same question when I switched to tapered roller bearings in my Kz650.  I figured the factory torque specs no longer applied, and I did pretty much exactly what you folks recommended.  I tightened it "enough". 


 

Well, dang, there sure is.  That seems awfully tight, but I haven't adjusted ball bearing stems in decades.

I once slightly tightened some roller bearings and they took a "notch" after just a few years.  That is a huge pain to remove taper races.
Since then I run them as loose as possible with no play, and haven't had a problem.

I like All Balls Racing but it was said they were made in China so I looked it up. THEY ARE MADE IN CHINA.    I had Timken bearings as we did in the day but after sitting 15 years the steering was a little notchy so I replaced them with the All Balls kit. I had to use a shim to use the kit. Will be going back to the Timken;s or find a German source. 
Steve

I don't understand why one would not use the factory torque settings when installing tapered roller bearings.  Obviously I may be wrong, but it would seem that tightening the bearings that use individual balls would present a greater chance of dimpling the races than tightening to the same spec using tapered roller bearings.  I used the factory spec when I installed tapered roller bearings and have experienced zero problems.  I installed them 14 years ago (16,000+ miles ago) in my 1977 KZ650-C1.  Ed