Steering Column Ball Bearings Disaster

[vacationer]

I learned an important lesson today: there is a wrong way to disassemble a steering column. Now I need to learn how to reassemble it.

What happened was, my handlebar has never exactly aligned with my front wheel, so I decided to see if I could lined the two up again. I loosened those two weird nut-type guys and lifted up the circular piece underneath them, and all these ball bearings fell out onto the ground:



Where they came from is a mystery to me. Actually, I'm not sure what exactly I did to cause them to fall out, but their falling seem to coincide with my lifting.

Furthermore, the ball bearings that remain appear to see sitting sort of caddywhompus, and I'm not sure what to do about that:



I'd like to remove the handlebars+mount (aftermarket, I'm pretty sure) in order to get a better look at things, but the mount won't come loose. I believe it has something to do with that piece there:



On the bright side, it seems I'm now able to shift the handlebars back and forth (a bit). Please help.

[aeroxbud]

You will be lucky if you find all of those ball bearings again. They roll for miles! There are replacement parts available.
They should be covered in waterproof grease. This will hold them in while you reassemble it.
You really need to get those bars off so you can get the forks out.
Have you undone the two pinch bolts in the picture? The other thing you refer to looks like a roll pin. It can usually be knocked through with a punch.

[snaker]

Yeah, everything Aeroxbud said.
Those two cinch clamp bolts (to the right and below your red circle).
That roll pin would either go through a larger inner hole that would allow for some alignment or its all tight and that spot would have no adjustability.

Your second photo shows what look like two ring nuts(round pieces with slots)
Not familiar with your rig, but I believe they would be your riser's bearing tension adjuster nuts.
The bottom one would be the adjuster and the top one would be the locking nut.
I think that those are loose and allowed the bearings to fall out.
Likely also caused the steering misalignment as well, especially if that roll pin allows no adjustment.

You have to round up the exact number of balls to work properly.
Either find the runaways and be certain that you got them all or buy a set
Be easiest in the long run to disassemble from the handlebars down to do it right
Also, get the weight off the front end to get a better adjustment.

[FrankenMech]

I have found many loose ball bearing applications can be replaced by caged ball bearings. I do not know about your application but it may be worth checking. The manufacturers use loose ball bearings because they are cheaper to buy in bulk. I just bought some equipment that used loose bearings and I replaced all of them.

[vacationer]

aeroxbud There appear to be two separate sets of bearings. The first picture shows the ones that feel out, no evidence of grease. The second picture shows the other set, lots of grease.

Roll pin's out now. Here's what I'm working with:


The ring on the left sits directly underneath the bottom ring nut (upside in photo). The one on the right sits directly underneath the one on the left and directly on top of ball bearings (as evidenced by grease) (also pictured upside down).


There seems to be room for one more bearing.

So since that's the entirety of what's present in this setup, I can't imagine where that clean set came from except for maybe between the two rings pictured above. Maybe this was a "fun" mod by the guy I bought the scooter from? I can't imagine anything at all shifting - upon loosening the ring nuts - other than what all was directly underneath it. Furthermore, I can't see any reason why things shouldn't work smoothly if I replace the single missing bearing with one from the clean set, and put everything back - sans the mysterious clean set.

snaker The balls fell out when I loosened those rings nuts intentionally, namely right when I picked up the piece (left, above) that was immediately underneath the ring nuts.

Brent said in a video that most packs of ball bearings come with extra and that the manual would tell how many were needed. I found nothing of the sort. Is there another way to know how many bearings I need? Is it not as simple as "How many will fit?"

Also, I always forget that I can contact the previous owner, so we'll see if he has anything to say.

[aeroxbud]

The bigger piece on the left is a cover for the bearing. The bearings look like they have had water in them.
You need to clean all the grease off, the bearings at the top and bottom of the steering stem. Then you can see if there is any wear.
My top bearings looked a lot better than yours. But the bottom gets most of the stress and water. They looked like this.

[vacationer]

aeroxbud Are you saying that because of the orange color? So that isn't just the color of the grease? Also, when you say "top and bottom of the steering stem", where exactly is the "bottom"? Is there a place for bearings that I haven't discovered yet?

[snaker]

Oct 30, 2023 16:19:05 GMT -5 vacationer said:

aeroxbud There appear to be two separate sets of bearings. The first picture shows the ones that feel out, no evidence of grease. The second picture shows the other set, lots of grease.

Roll pin's out now. Here's what I'm working with:


The ring on the left sits directly underneath the bottom ring nut (upside in photo). The one on the right sits directly underneath the one on the left and directly on top of ball bearings (as evidenced by grease) (also pictured upside down).


There seems to be room for one more bearing.

So since that's the entirety of what's present in this setup, I can't imagine where that clean set came from except for maybe between the two rings pictured above. Maybe this was a "fun" mod by the guy I bought the scooter from? I can't imagine anything at all shifting - upon loosening the ring nuts - other than what all was directly underneath it. Furthermore, I can't see any reason why things shouldn't work smoothly if I replace the single missing bearing with one from the clean set, and put everything back - sans the mysterious clean set.

snaker The balls fell out when I loosened those rings nuts intentionally, namely right when I picked up the piece (left, above) that was immediately underneath the ring nuts.

Brent said in a video that most packs of ball bearings come with extra and that the manual would tell how many were needed. I found nothing of the sort. Is there another way to know how many bearings I need? Is it not as simple as "How many will fit?"

Also, I always forget that I can contact the previous owner, so we'll see if he has anything to say.

So, are you saying that the balls shown in your first post are not in the second photo here?
And that there is no empty space in the view blocked by the riser?
If so, then some of the balls from the lower bearing set must have fell out as well
You DO have to dismantle completely to figure out what's up
And yes, there would be a entire second set of bearings that are positioned below the frame steering tube.

As far as how many, that falls on you to be diligent on tracking and counting the things as they come out.
If nothing else, place all the balls in the bearing race.
they should be loose to each other, but no big gap.
If you can fit another ball into the lineup and still have some looseness, then do it.
And be aware, there are different sizes of ball bearings, have to get the right size, exactly

[aeroxbud]

The grease would not have been that colour when the bike was new.
Like said above, you have another set of bearings underneath the head stock.
You have to pull the forks out from the frame to assess whether you have any problems with that also.

[vacationer]

Okay, forks pulled. I also wiped down the top set of bearings and there was indeed a bit of rust on the race itself, not much though. The grease in the bottom ring was also brown, but the bottom bearings (the ones that fell out) have been clean as a whistle since day one, so riddle me that.

Anyways, manual says I need 22 3/16 bearings in each set. I've got 22 for the top and 19 for the bottom. Is "3/16" enough information for me to get some off of Amazon? Also, the manual recommends "lithium-soap-based grease". I assume white lithium will do.

Any advice for getting that rust off the race without doing any damage?

[FrankenMech]

Replace the race. The rust leaves tiny cracks and faults in the surface that will destroy new bearings. 3/16" is a standard ball bearing size but all the bearings should be replaced as a set.

[FrankenMech]

BTW, For bearings exposed to the weather I use waterproof bicycle bearing grease available from bike shops.

[vacationer]

Alright, all new ball bearings on a bed of white lithium (FrankenMech The package said "water resistant" so I'm at least halfway there). The consistency was thinner than I expected, though. Anyways, took it out for a ride and my steering appears to be tip-top. I need this thing to get to and from work, otherwise I'd have waited until after I was able to replace the races. I've got 56 more ball bearings so I'll open her up again when I get the chance.

Now, I did run into some issues during the ride. For one, the scooter is vibrating a lot more than before. Something happened to the shocks maybe?

And two, my front brake is now very loose (I don't know if that's the right word - I can squeeze the lever to the point that it touches the grip, without squeezing very hard). Only thing I can think of there is that something happened when I had the fork out. The best I could do with what I had was to lean the scooter all the way back so that it pointed straight up in the air. I'm sure I didn't do myself any favors there. Anyways, there was a couple second there where the front wheel was more or less hanging by the brake cable. Maybe that knocked something loose.

At the end of the day, though, it goes from A to B again. Thanks, comrades.

[aeroxbud]

Are you sure you haven't over tightened the steering stem nuts?
With the front forks off the ground. You want to tighten the bottom ring while moving the forks backwards and forwards.
You should be able to feel when all play is gone. Then making sure the bottom ring doesn't move. Tighten the lock ring onto it.
It's very easy while tightening the lock ring. To over tighten the bottom ring.
Definitely bleed your front brake.

[vacationer]

By "backwards and forwards", do you mean parallel to the ground?

In other news, my engine seems to sound like a spaceship now. I usually have music playing in my helmet when I ride so maybe that isn't brand new, but it's definitely new to me. It's like a phaser, if you know audio terms, or like one of those tubes you swing around to get a cool sound. It's also a little tinnier than usual - with a little knocking - and feels kinda jerky. I assume this is from, if anything, tipping the bike back.