TOPIC:

Hello everyone.

Finished up refinishing my front forks to my 77' KZ650. Also replaced the stem bearings. Went to put everything together and just finished up the headlight bucket. The fork cover brackets jiggle up and down a bit now. Going down the road, they'll jiggle a lot I'm certain! The rubber and metal bushing are on the bottom and the metal washer is on the top of the cover. The stem head is secured according to torque specs. What gives? I was considering tearing it all back down and adding another metal washer to the bottom of the fork cover. Any thoughts or opinions? Take the stem head off and reinstall? That's the only thing I see that is putting "pressure" on those covers. Thank you in advance!!

my mistake.  didn't see that you mentioned the rubber parts.

Try loosening the lower clamp bolts. They are supposed to be the last one’s torqued anyway. It might release and allow the fork tube and stem head to drop. Make sure to retorque.

Could be any of the following,

• you didn’t get the lower bearing pressed down on the steering stem.
• The bearing races aren’t seated in the head tube,
• you didn’t tighten the stem head lock nut correctly. When installing tapered bearings you need to tighten the stem head lock nut as your turning the stem head right to left to evenly preload the bearings. 

Sequence as a procedure, please find proper torque and dimensions in your service manual.

• steering stem up into head tube
• upper inner race, dust shield, and stem lock nut, tighten lock nut
• fork tube thru steering stem lower clamp. 
• slide the following over fork tube in the following order. rubber damper, thin metal washer, stay guide, headlight stay, metal washer, make sure fork tube is up high enough to protrude above upper clamp on stem head, temporarily snug lower clamp bolt.
• install stem head, torque stem head bolt.
• loosen lower clamp bolt, adjust fork up or down till top of tube is correctly position at the steering stem head, torque all three upper clamp bolts.
• torque lower clamp bolts. 

Will do and thank you! That is the sequence I followed initially, but recently too the stem head off as I forgot to route the handlebar wires correctly. I will start over as if I was resetting the forks again and follow the procedure. 

The races and bearing are set, that I am sure of. Looked with an inspection scope to make sure the races were set fully. I will report back! Thanks again!

MIkaw, thanks! Success!! I did not in any way have the stem bearings tightened down sufficiently.

All is good with the exception when I was installing the front wheel I snapped off one of the lower brackets bolt on the left side axle. 15 ft/lbs is what I used. Probably should just go and replace all four for safety sake! Thanks again brother!!

Good job on the steering stem. The FSM call 11.5 to 16 ft lbs on the front axle clamps. You should have been ok. But as a safety factor when there is a torque range I always divide and find middle torque number then round down to the next lower whole number. The Kz1000 FSM says 13.5. Sucks you snapped one. These are critical parts, I’d seek out OEM. 

I replaced one already as the PO didn't have an OEM one in there. I noticed that some one or two had some corrosion around where they sit between the clamp and the fork. Should have just replaced them all. I used OEM and will this time as well. Thanks man!

Thats your call. You have to decide how much corrosion is acceptable. It might just be corroded Aluminum stuck to the zinc. 

Just received the new bolts. Hell, I've already replaced one, might as well do the other three. Appreciate the help!!