steering head nut torque down setting ?

I installed a new set of steering head stem bearings today.. and as I put it back together.. I couldnt figure out how tight that nut needs to be ? I have a clymers manual, but it says nothing about this. Anyone know off hand or have specs ? Also, I use a pipe wrench to snug this nut up.. carefully.. :blink: As, I dont have the right tool for this.

This is for my kz900..

I went with the allballsracing.com bearing set.. it seemed to be a good quality set. It came with seals which was nice.

dan, i just did mine yesterday. i used a pair of channel locks and put it to about 50 lbs. (i checked it after i found my spanner wrench)

the book i have says 25ft/lbs. but man i tried that and i thought it was way to loose for me.

let me know what you do,

no torque reading in the manual because it would change too much bike to bike, you need to do a bearing preload this is why there are two nuts one to load and one to lock , this is just like doing beaings in a car, thighten bottom nut till you feel resistance when turning forks back and forth then back off till it turns smooth thighten top nut check for play in forks if its ok then your all set if not repeat proceduer you may have had too much grease in the bearings hope this helps

jbw7300 wrote:

no torque reading in the manual because it would change too much bike to bike, you need to do a bearing preload this is why there are two nuts one to load and one to lock , this is just like doing beaings in a car, thighten bottom nut till you feel resistance when turning forks back and forth then back off till it turns smooth thighten top nut check for play in forks if its ok then your all set if not repeat proceduer you may have had too much grease in the bearings hope this helps

ditto.

I only have one nut

But then, I have the big bolt ontop that goes on after the handle bar part goes on.

How exactaly do I check for play in the forks ? If it's too lose the steering stem will rock ?

I guess I'm over thinking about this..

Well, how did the bearing install come out? Is everything working OK? I am just at the point of needing to torque the stem nut and can't imagine how to do it. Manual says 19-24 ft-lb, but how do you torque with a spanner wrench?? As far as "feeling resistance"; is this using the handle bars to turn the front end? I only have the tree on there now, not even fork legs. I would think I would feel resistance long before you would cranking on a big set of handlebars or fork legs. Once again I am confused and have turned to the kzrider membership for help! :S :blink: