Anyone do their own steering neck bearing adjustment? I know the procedure in the service manual is about a bunch of BS, sounds good & easy enough on paper but the taping on the fender to find the fall away spots is not that accurate. Anyone find a certain torque spec. on the nut that puts pressure on the bearings that seems to work the best? I went with 16ft.lbs. and at low speed manuvering it seems a little to loose for me, at riding speeds no wobble in the bars or on decel.Anybody got a system for this adjustment?

Thanks,
Dan

 

I just tighten mine till it binds and then back off till the bind is gone..........Works for me

 

So are you saying you tighten until the bars are very hard to turn then back off a little or, just tighten up until you can feel a good amount of resistance then back off a little?

Thanks,
Dan

 

I just tighten till i can feel to much drag, resistence.........then back off ever so slighty till the drag is gone. This works well for me

 

Cant believe that there isnt a specified torque to set the bearings. Read the procedure in the manual and wanted to laugh! Such a pain in the *** just so the engineers didnt have to run more test if you ask me!

 

I'llagree with you, I did not feel real good with trying to do it by the book. The only way I could get the fall away marks to be within the 1-2" range from each other the adjusting nut had to be like just barely finger tight & I know that's not right.

To all with a Softail, when you sit your bike on the jiffy stand & point your habdle bars straight ahead & then get off the bike do your bars stay straight or do they fall over to the left on their own? What should they do, just trying to see if I am to loose on the bearing adjustment?

Later,
Danny

 

Sometimes, well all the time, I think Harley writes things in the manual just to befuddle people into bringing their bike to the shop. I've never had a bike that wore out the steering head bearings, and I don't think I will even check them until 30k miles or so unless something feels loose. At that time I'll use HD7585's method mentioned above. Good post though.

 

My 05 Heritage will flop over when I put it on the jiffy stand. How do you get the cap off that covers the nut? I can't get a good enough grip on it to remove by hand. Is it threaded or slip on?

rcc

 

It is threaded, might have to put a leather glove on or one with rubber on the palm side to get a good enough grip.

Don't forget to loosen up the lower stem brackets pinch bolts that are behind the headlightspanel or fork cover, the upper part of the forks go through this bracket that the pinch boltsare for. Good luck with coming up with your own creative way as how to get to them, a real pain any way you do it. Also there is a pinch bolt on the left side for the adjusting nut just under it orjust under the cap you are having problems with.

I first set the adjusting nut to 15 ft.lbs. and bike felt a little unstable (bars to free) at low speed manuvers. Bike felt okwhen at riding speeds. Adjusted to 20ft.lbs and bike feels better at low speed manuvers and still ok at riding speeds. Also bike does not want to veer off to the left as much when I test & take hands off the bars for a second. I think it does this because on the Heritage the left side of the wheel is heavier due to all the brake components are only on the left side which also makes for the fall away test a bit tricky since it always wants to fall to the left side more due to the extra weight on that side. Now when I get off the bike & on jiffy stand, bars don't fall over to the left on their own unless I turn them about a quarter of the way to the left from center.

Later,
Dan

 

How about adjusting them like wheel bearings, preloading them a tight snug but not backing the nut off and retightening a loose snug. Did my bike this way and eliminated the clunk in the front end. It was about a 1/16 to 1/8 of a turn tighter than it came from the factory. Also changed the grease in the steering headto a type that won't leak out and drip while i had it apart.