View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5R2L8v1hA Got back from a good trip down the KVR trail between Princeton and Summerland, BC. Fun trail but definitely worked the suspension with a loaded up Strada. Now that I'm back home and giving the bike a one-over I've found the front end making a pretty terrible noise. There's nothing on the forks to imply that there's a leak and other than the rattling through bars the forks don't feel too much worse for wear. However, the sound it terrible and definitely means something's up. About 12,000 km on the bike now and I haven't heard anything from the forks other than the slightly infamous "knock" many of the owners have. I guess I'll have to dive into the forks to figure it out but anyone know what's going on here?
Might be the steering stem nut, remove it and compress the front end again to check if it is the nut. Otherwise it must be in the forks.
I've never worked on suspension before but it looks like now's the time. Going to follow RE's walkthrough here on ADV: http://advrider.com/index.php?threa...uestions-thread.850525/page-141#post-23286707 I'll post up what I find in there.
As I'm doing this I figured it will be good to pull the steering stem and inspect/grease the bearings. Too bad you need an odd 50mm spanner wrench to remove the ring nut holding everything together. The shops that stock that kind of gear aren't open on Sundays around here...
Finally got to this while my ECU is somewhere in California (hopefully) being remapped by KTM. Pulling the forks was all pretty straightforward, especially with RE's walkthrough in the link I posted above. Everything looked alright; Oil was clean and there were no signs of rubbing. Since there was no leaking of oil I tried leaving the seals and bottom ends of the forks intact on the first go to see what happens. Dumped the oil, replaced to 130mm with 5 weight, reassembled and voila! No more creaking. I suspect that something came out of line with the pring and the plastic preload spacer but can't be sure. But motion is now smooth and quiet and I'm feeling good about that. Recently there's been a lot of bearing talk on here so I figured this would be a good time to tackle that as well. Luckily my sprocket carrier and axle bearings were in great shape. Gave them an extra coat of grease inside and out. What surprised me was the bottom tapered steering bearing: Luckily the action was all smooth and there was no damage I could find but where did all of this come from?? The whole system is sealed top to bottom (and you need to get your ands on a 2.5" spanner wrench to get in there) and, since it was all properly tightened down I guess this much was in there when it was originally sealed? Was able to clean it all up, re-grease and reassemble. I recommend everyone checking that out before it causes any problems.
Nope, not sealed. There's actually a hole midway in the steering stem. Why? Don't know. Can't quite find where HighFive actually discovered the same thing, but here's his pic: Husky TR650 - New Owners Stupid Questions Thread
Son of a... I'll be damned, surprised I missed that. Ran a light down the steering stem and yep - there's an opening about half-way down. Guess I'll have to open a bottle of wine tonight and finally plug that thing up. Haven't rode the thing since cleaning it so I guess this is as good as it'll get. Thanks.
My bearings are stuffed. Do you have any idea what the sizes are? Are the top and bottom the same? And what was the torque of the head nut....Thx This is all i can find oem # 8000 87243 2- 29-48-17.5mm
It appears the bearing size is in your description. You will need 2 metric tapered roller bearings 29x48x17.5mm and seals to match, 29x48mm. Any good bearing house or industrial supply should be able to get them for you. Your steering stem is slightly larger on the bottom than the top so the bottom bearing will be a press fit while the top bearing will just be a snug fit. After applying liberal amounts of grease to your installed bearings install the bottom clamp in the frame and tighten the steering stem pre-load nut to 32.5 foot pounds. Turn the clamp side to side several times to seat the bearings and then back off the pre-load nut 1/4 to 1/2 turn. Install the top clamp and put a drop or 2 of blue Loc-tite on the stem nut and torque it to 65 foot pounds.
Thanks alot rwgregory, hope to get the bearings tomorrow if the supplier has them. 31000 miles its time! I never plugged to hole but sure will after new. Thanks for the torque numbers and the how to also, this will help my friend with the shop.
What's the skinny on plugging that hole? What's it there for? I know my '89GS was predrilled for a fairing but didn't come with one so they had plastic plugs put in at the factory. That bike has two holes. Darn things were already tapped! Those holes were on the front. Where is the hole on the TR?
