Steering Head Slinging Grease :/
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 413
Likes: 12
From: St Louis
Steering Head Slinging Grease :/
Man, so I greased the fitting on the steering head on my '15 Slim for the first time a week or so ago. It took quite a bit of grease (to fill up that cavity I was told) to push through the bearings. I stopped pumping as soon as grease barely started to pump out. Mine actually came out evenly of the top and bottom.
Well, did about 150 miles the other day with lots of turning, freeway, city, and such and when I got home, I had grease from the steering head slung flippin everywhere. It was coming out the bottom and airflow scattered it all over the front of the bike WTF??
Did I overfill or something? Is it just the runny factory grease got hot and running out cause I pumped it to the edge? Will it stop? You guys have this?
Update...got that mess all cleaned off, and did about 15-20 miles around town today and it was already starting to ooze back out the bottom of the steering head again. Any thoughts? Wonder if it's the factory runny grease or what? It just needs to stop.
Well, did about 150 miles the other day with lots of turning, freeway, city, and such and when I got home, I had grease from the steering head slung flippin everywhere. It was coming out the bottom and airflow scattered it all over the front of the bike WTF??
Did I overfill or something? Is it just the runny factory grease got hot and running out cause I pumped it to the edge? Will it stop? You guys have this?
Update...got that mess all cleaned off, and did about 15-20 miles around town today and it was already starting to ooze back out the bottom of the steering head again. Any thoughts? Wonder if it's the factory runny grease or what? It just needs to stop.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 10,135
Likes: 4,780
From: Sandpoint, Idaho
Gotta ask, don't your Softail owners manuals have service intervals? On Dynas it is 30,000 miles for steering head and I can see no reason Softails would require more often.
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Elite HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,762
Likes: 12
From: north jersey
Yeah dude, you definitely didn't need to put grease in that neck yet. I don't know what the exact service interval is for greasing the neck, the manual will tell you, 30,000 miles sounds about right.
As far as grease coming out, it's normal. For you I would imagine it's gonna be worse since you added grease where you didn't need it.
I had my front end apart over the winter and for the life of me I can't remember what type of grease I used on the neck. I do rememeber it was red, it might have been some type of marine grade grease. I'm sure someone will chime in with what type it is, a lot of guys on the forum recommended it.
My neck leaked briefly after I put it back together but eventually it stopped. I get some that comes out of the bottom of the neck now but it's not enough to be slung all over the place while I'm ridding. I just wipe it before I hit the road.
I remember with the stock grease in the neck I used to have the same problem you're having now, it used to get slung all over the place while I rode.
No need to worry about it.
As far as grease coming out, it's normal. For you I would imagine it's gonna be worse since you added grease where you didn't need it.
I had my front end apart over the winter and for the life of me I can't remember what type of grease I used on the neck. I do rememeber it was red, it might have been some type of marine grade grease. I'm sure someone will chime in with what type it is, a lot of guys on the forum recommended it.
My neck leaked briefly after I put it back together but eventually it stopped. I get some that comes out of the bottom of the neck now but it's not enough to be slung all over the place while I'm ridding. I just wipe it before I hit the road.
I remember with the stock grease in the neck I used to have the same problem you're having now, it used to get slung all over the place while I rode.
No need to worry about it.
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Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 413
Likes: 12
From: St Louis
I'm not worried that there's a problem, and it's a bearing...greasing it doesn't hurt a dang thing...wether it "needed" it or not. It's just super annoying. The factory grease is pretty runny. I'm almost tempted to keep pumping until the new grease pushed all the factory stuff out. I certainly won't be any worse off and this same thing woulda happened eventually anyways. Just checking to see what folks have experienced.
Tourer
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 358
Likes: 38
From: Spain
In factory, they not greasing the neck, only the bearings of the neck. It´s recommendable greasing the neck.
You must use grease with specifications NGLI2 , because this grease it´s for bearings and support extreme temperatures (avoid leaks for hot temperature) and also support the cold.
When you greasing the neck, it´s usually in the first rides have leaks in the lower part of the neck, you must only retire with a paper and ok. (When you are riding and move the handlebar/bearings/tree, the grease is moving to the bottom).
When I bought my bike, the direction of the handlebar/tree was very regular. I greasing the neck and after, the direction go perfect and softy. (When I greasing the neck with the new grease, dont see nothing of the first grease from factory, because they only greasing the bearings).
You must use grease with specifications NGLI2 , because this grease it´s for bearings and support extreme temperatures (avoid leaks for hot temperature) and also support the cold.
When you greasing the neck, it´s usually in the first rides have leaks in the lower part of the neck, you must only retire with a paper and ok. (When you are riding and move the handlebar/bearings/tree, the grease is moving to the bottom).
When I bought my bike, the direction of the handlebar/tree was very regular. I greasing the neck and after, the direction go perfect and softy. (When I greasing the neck with the new grease, dont see nothing of the first grease from factory, because they only greasing the bearings).