Voyager XII Steering Stem Adjustment

Thought I'd write up something, not much, on my experience with the front end of a Voyager XII.

I bought a 99 Voyager in 01. It had about 15K miles on it. It was a nice bike for it's size. With the suspension pumped up a Voyager can handle the turns just fine. The motor's strong and really likes to run.

I hadn't been on it too long when I discovered that if you let go of the bars on deceleration it sometimes would go into a scary wobble. If you kept your hands on the bars there was never any problem. Still it's an ugly habit and I was determined to fix it. I looked at all the regular culprits. tire, tire mounting, wheel bearings and front axle assembly, nothing obvious. I was sure it was caused by the stem bearing so I started with the manual, which says "tight but no preload". Not sure how no preload reconciles with the 95 in-lbs the exploded view specifies. The manual even shows a picture of a spanner wrench turning the adjustment nut. Good luck with that! I couldn't even get mine close. Course the Voyager in the manual doesn't have a fairing on it!

The only thing I did manage was to cobble up the notches on the castle nut with a drift and then I still couldn't get it tight enough. I tried several times over consecutive evenings with road tests every day. It was always the same: let go of the bars at 35 mph and the front end would shake with an ever increasing wobble. I got very good at taking apart the top of the triple tree. I'd lash the bars to a come along and float the bars up about three inches, just enough to get the stemsocket in there. I made a special tool so that I could get a good clean grip on the nut and measure the torque.



It helped but the specified torque always left the front end too loose. Finally I took the top triple tree off of the bike and completely removed the castle nut and spacers down to the top bearing. I found two things: First there was almost no thread left with which to tighten the bearing. Second, what little thread was available was filled and clogged by the O ring that Kaw puts between the castle nut and the top of the bearing.

I got this bright idea and went after the O ring with a glazing pick. Once I managed to pull the O ring free the whole front end fell three inches till the front wheel found the floor. Embarrassing but no harm done. Note: Support front wheel.

This time I put it back together without the O ring. It worked, I was able to get nearly a full turn more on the castle nut. The bike was able to run with no hands on deceleration fine, as long as I didn't bump the bar. If I let go of the bar and smacked it with one hand, the bike would start wobbling, perhaps not as badly as before but still a concern . It's not something that ever happens with my hands on the bars or even when riding with no hands on cruise control. Voyager XII's are prone to head shake on deceleration particularly if the stem bearing is loose. The bike handles fine, just keep your hands on the bars.

It's actually very easy to flex the front fork: just yard the bars to and fro at low speed. I was able to see and feel the flexing between the bars, down the forks to the axle. I have a good way of checking my tolerance meter. My Valkyrie is way stiffer by comparison.

I never did fit a SuperBrace, I imagine one would help.

KZCSI

Post edited by: KZCSI, at: 2006/12/23 19:10