triple tree bearings and how to grease them

so I have been looking for a way to get the triple tree greased. my grease gun is primed with bearing grease and I want to get this taken care of.
I am going to put another wheel bearing in because the one on the left has had a problem due to improper installation while driving the center of it-ed told me so.
the fork looks like it is wobbling on the left side so why not grease the triple tree while I get the bearing in there.


is anything going to fall out or cause problems I don't know about?
should I get a tool for the adjuster beforehand?

ok, I got it on the service stand.

I don't know if mine was just an odd one or not, but the berings in my head tube were loose without cages. So be prepared for them to fall out if there isn't much grease in there already.

One other thing to, I find for putting grease on berings or bering races that just using your hand is the most effective method. As long as you have a good degreaser on stand-by.

It would be nice if kawasaki would have made a grease fitting although I could tap one in there I don't know what I am getting into.
As far as the bearings coming out is that the individual pieces or the whole thing?
It looks like there is a bolt at the top, is that some sort of a nut or a bolt?

Greasing the triple tree bearings is a bit more involved. You have to pull your forks, remove the handle bars by taking the top of the triple tree off. Then there is a castle nut under everything to take off. When the triple tree is loosened be ready to catch a bunch of 1/4 inch ball bearings. I got them all except 1 which I happened on to some days later. When putting the triple tree back together, the ball bearings are held in place with grease. There is a different number of bearings for the top and bottom races. If you need to know, I'll look it up for you.

Now, if I were to do all of this, which I did over the winter, I replaced the stock triple tree bearings with "all balls." This is a kit which comes with the triple tree oil seal and caged tapered bearings with races. Some people like them while others don't. I can attest so far my bike feels like it handles a lot better.

The reason I went with the all balls is when I pulled the triple tree apart, I found the triple tree races were pitted. The price difference between replacing with OEM and the All Balls kit was only a couple of dollars difference. If I were to rate difficulty on this job, I would rate it an 8 out of 10. The reason is because removing the old races and the seating the new races is a PITA!

Regards, Tim

so the big ball bearings go on the bottom

Don't know about yours but all of my steering head ball bearings are the same size. There is a different count between upper and lower. 19 in the top, 20 in the lower.

If talking about All Balls then you are correct, smaller bearing on top, larger one on the bottom.

all done thanks for the help. yes, I was wrong the balls are all the same size but the upper ones were dirty and had very little grease.
the lower seemed to take more bearings and it seemed a little tight and the upper was more loose so I think 19/20 was right.

wow, I have never had such a fun time trying to steer this thing.