Indexed Steering? Or badly needed bearings?

I'm spending this quarantine weekend (and probably next weekend, and the weekend after) rebuilding my kz550 LTD from the frame up. I got to the triple tree this afternoon and noticed the steering sorta snaps into place. I never noticed it while riding, but without forks on it, it's very apparent.

There seems to be indexed steering. Is this the case? Or am I desperately in the need for new bearings?

Indexed means you need new bearings. All Balls has some reasonably priced bearing and seal kits that should fix things up.

Get new bearings, your old ones are shot.


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You need new bearings. The best type you can install are tapered roller bearings. They are FAR better than normal ball bearings because the rollers provide much more bearing surface than ball bearings. I installed them on my KZ650-C1 and was amazed at how great they perform. The folks at the link below provide everything you need. Ed

www.allballsracing.com/steering.html

All balls tapered rollers, have installed them on all my bikes, much better than stock ball bearings.

My Z1R had the same index. It made the bike feel like it wanted to fall into low speed turns. I used new stock parts and it made a big difference.

I installed tapered rollers on a kz650, and was surprised by how thin the top bearing race was in the head tube. It seemed like it didn't have enough of a lip to ever get it out again. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it was specific to the kit I used.

I didn't notice a thin bearing race. Here are pics of mine (KZ650-C1). Ed

Yeah, those look like the set I installed. The ID of the race is larger than the ID of the middle part of the steering head. So there is no lip on the race that extends into the tube. The factory races have an ID that is a much smaller than the ID of the steering tube, which allows you to tap or pull on the back side of the race to get it out. How would you remove those races?

I hope I never need to remove them, but if I do I might either tack weld something to them that I can then pull out and/or cut them in two so they would be easier to remove. Ed

I have seen where some will weld a bead onto the face of the bearing race on two opposite sides and use that to put a punch on to drive out the race. The other option is to try and split the race with a grinder, but that can be difficult and time consuming. Normally the race doesn't have to actually be split because it kind of falls into itself as you are cutting the slot. You need some very good grinding bits to cut a race though.
Rick H.

Welding a bolt or better a washer onto the outer bearing race.

So, after getting this pulled apart I can see that these bearings haven't been changed since the 1981 factory floor. It's bad. I haven't quite gotten into getting the bearing race out. I'm researching methods. So, let's do a pole. Which of the following methods would you recommend?

• Weld a bolt to the race in order to get a pull on it
• Cut the race with a small Dremel or grinding tool.
• Hammer the race out with a long pipe or bar from the opposite end.
• Buckle up and invest in a press.
• It's a shop job, leave it to the pros.
• Screw it, just get a new frame.
• Other?.