Stearing stem bearings on a 77 kz 650

Ok i had a friend come over today to help me tear down the kz 650, and everything was going great unti i went to take the fron end out of the neck and then it happened. It looked like somebody dropped a tin of bb's all over my garage floor. Now im guessing thos were the old stearing bearingg's. I was wondering if this from Z1 enterprises is all i need to replace the bearings? or do i need something else also? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do i need this?
www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=2780

Or this?
www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=216

Either one will work. If the races are still good you can buy some 1/4" ball bearings at the hardware store pretty cheap.

I agree Kent that if you want to do the inexpensive root and your races are spotless with no roughness or pits you can do a simple google search for 1/4 ball bearings and you get lots of hits for ball bearings. But, tapered rollers have always been a superior bearing for just about any application and not all that expensive especially if the kit has the seals also included as Z1's does in your first link. I haven't put mine in yet, it's part of my winter reconditioning, but everyone on here that has installed them says that they are way better.
A couple of the advantages are they make a lot more surface contact for strength, they hold more grease to begin with for lubrication and everyone says they are much smoother.
Just something to think about if you are planning on keeping the bike for a while.
Ride safe.

Milkman is correct, EVERY bike that comes into the barn gets tapered bearings, even the bikes gotten just to turn around and sale. To me, it is the BEST 50 dollar or less upgrade(and ANY cost upgrade for that matter) you can do on a bike.



The Milkman wrote:

I agree Kent that if you want to do the inexpensive root and your races are spotless with no roughness or pits you can do a simple google search for 1/4 ball bearings and you get lots of hits for ball bearings. But, tapered rollers have always been a superior bearing for just about any application and not all that expensive especially if the kit has the seals also included as Z1's does in your first link. I haven't put mine in yet, it's part of my winter reconditioning, but everyone on here that has installed them says that they are way better.
A couple of the advantages are they make a lot more surface contact for strength, they hold more grease to begin with for lubrication and everyone says they are much smoother.
Just something to think about if you are planning on keeping the bike for a while.
Ride safe.

Both items you have selected are tappered roller bearings.As to the correct set,I would call or email Z1 Ent.To find out if one is better or not.I would go with the one that comes with the seals and is cheaper??

Don't bother replacing the balls, because your races are damaged, trust me. Even if the bike only has 500 original miles, the races are damaged the first bump that was hit on the road. You can tell by jacking up the front of the bike and turning the handlebars from side to side. You'll feel a nice spot with the wheel pointing straight forward that feels like a detent. This is where the races are dented from hitting potholes ect. (kind of late now trying this now that you lost the bearings though). To tell the truth though, even though most my motorcycles had seen a lot of miles and the bearings were beat to a pulp and dry as a bone, replacing them with the tapered type on 3 or 4 of them I could tell absolutely zero difference really, so now I just leave in the old balls and ride in the rest of them. As to what is different about the 2 sets of bearings, hard to say. I used Timken, made in USA bearings that never came with the seals. My guess is the more expensive set may be the better bearings, without the seals. The cheaper may be a Chinese knockoff with Chinese seals that probably fit as well as can be expected meaning you need to reuse your old seals most likely or buy them separately. Just a guess.

Post edited by: RonKZ650, at: 2007/10/30 09:52

All Balls sells wheel and steering bearing kits with seals. I have replaced my old ones on my GPz550 with great success.

www.goallballs.com/Product_Lookup_results.asp

Replace the wheel bearings while you're in the neighborhood, and you'll be done with it.