MC19 Headstock bearing replacement

[Sanx]

Hi all,

My baby Blade, a 1989 MC19 CBR250, in addition to having comedy suspension, demonstrates a knocking sound under braking. In fact, if I just hold the rear brake and push forwards, I can hear it - so I'm guessing it's probably the headstock bearings.

As one of the many reasons I bought this bike was to have something cheap and cheerful on which I could practice my mad mechanics skillz, I was wondering if anyone knows how difficult it is to replace the headstock bearings, and whether any special tools are required.

Ta.

[riffer]

Easy as piss to redo steering head bearings if you know what you're doing mate.

BUT...

You will need a C-spanner, drift, something to get the bottom bearing off, and something to get it on again.

I've used an angle grinder to get the bottom bearing off, but I usually get a workshop to press the bottom bearing back on again. You could bang it on, but its tricky.

Check your manual for the exact reinstallation details. I will describe the procedure here, but I might miss something particular to your bike.

Suffice to say, you need to get the front up in the air, remove the wheel, forks and undo the triples. Then you get access to the top nut, which is undone with a C-spanner. Pull the steering stem out from the bottom (taking the bottom bearing with you), take the bottom bearing off the steering stem and throw it away. Then you need to get the races out with the drift. Clean the whole lot up, bang the new races in, grease up the new bearings, and torque the whole lot up to manufacturers settings, then tighten it up half a turn again. Wiggle it back and forth, then loosen it off a touch. Then reassemble everything else and torque up the manufacturers settings.

Every steering head is different - you are probably best to have someone who's done it before help you do it the first time - but after that it gets a lot easier.