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Steering head bearing replacement



Calling the FOAK...

I am having trouble removing some taper roller bearing races from the
steering head of a bike.

There is not enough material of the race sticking out to hammer them
out with a drift like i normally do.

Any ideas for removing them?
Weld a large washer to the tapered (open) side of the race and pound
'em out. I was told welding a bead around the periphery of the race
would shrink it enough after cooling to make them fall out easily, but
it's no harder to bung a washer in there and it gives you something to
pound against. When I did this on my ZG1000 they tapped out very easily.

You can see I "can't weld for toffee" with a cheap borrowed wire
feed welder that has terrible amperage and feed control, but it did
the job.
Now this seems like a cracking idea, the frame needs a touch of weld so
I'll get my friendly mechanic to weld some washers to the bearings.
Get your friendly mechanic to replace the bearing races when he does the
welding for you. Job done
Yes, or do it yourself BUT be sure to file (dremel or rotating file) a
few pockets in the steering head inside where the races sit. That way
it is easy to knock the races out the next time.
That's a smart idea.
In principle yes, but on the ZG the design of the steering head
tube prevents access to the back of the race. There's a narrow
necked down area in the middle so even if you dremeled out a
spot to put a drift against the back of the race, the drift
can't hit it.

Kawasaki sell a special tool set to extract the races and press
the new ones in, but most mechanics appear to end up doing the
welding thing.