Mounted of my front fork including crowns today and found fine gravel, mud and water inside my steering head, on the guide bearings. My TE is only 4-5 weeks old. Possible reasons is that the steering main shaft is hollow and that it is in a recess of .... what do I know ... Maybe for a steering lock, or an imaginary vetilation, either way, these inputs are not protected and should be protected as soon as possible. Is your TE / SM to age a pair of heavier rain or some hearty wash, a little muddy enduro ... yes you got it. so you should probably remove the entire front fork. For me alone, it took less than an hour to remove the fork, clean, lubricate the bearings and an hour to assemble there ever again. So a couple of hours should be enough with a little help. Then plug both upper and lower hole with te.x. rubber plugs and then replacing the fork again. Is your bike very new .... Plug both holes, the lower by deselect the fender, 4 pieces M6 bolts, that's all. On my bike was also the large 30 mm nut completely loose. Easily accomplished ... tighten. And it must be mentioned: Both the guide bearings were really poorly lubricated at the factory.
Not good, think you might have attracted that mess in riding or a factory gift? Great pun, don't yah think?
I had a trail bike (another brand) that had the same feature. I stuck a piece of electrical tape over the slot, and the second set of bearings has lasted a lot longer than the first.
Absolut from my own travels. Of course, the lack of lubrication from the factory, even the casual assembly .... or a bad manufacturing planning, Husqvarna assume. My new fork have not the problem when the shaft does not have the recess for the steering lock or whatever it is for.
It's for the steering lock, not a necessity. Of course there is the 2% of public thieves that needs to accounted for. Nothing a club and/or 12 gauge wouldn't fix.
My bike (2011 TE 630) was at the dealer for a routine service & another set of tyres yesterday but they called to advise the steering head bearings are rooted & need replacing. The bike is just under 12 months old, 8,000kms, had a fairly easy life with only moderate off road usage. I suggest forum members keep an eye on this.
Just picked up the 630 after fixing broken subframe for second time. They followed the fix originally suggested by Chris Brown (thanks Chris), but now the steering head bearings are shot as well (second set). Are there any tips I can give the dealer for when they install the new ones, to minimise crud entering & destroying? Bike is 3 years old, 17,000kms. Thanks, Russ
Steering bearings should be removed and cleaned/greased at least once annually. I bet it doesn't take more than 30 minutes to do. If they run dry (and they will), they will destroy themselves in short order.
