Steering Head Bearings

[mcdonaldroadcapt]

Anyone tackled the steering head bearing adjustment on a Harley Ultra Trog?
I am feeling some play through my grips on mine when front brake applied while rolling over ruts and such. I have the raked tripple tree.

 

[Gorilla]

Anyone tackled the steering head bearing adjustment on a Harley Ultra Trog?
I am feeling some play through my grips on mine when front brake applied while rolling over ruts and such. I have the raked tripple tree.

Follow the service manual. When you tighten it down for the swing you want one sweep or less, rather than the 3.5 swing. Not a hard adjustment.

 

[mcdonaldroadcapt]

Thanks. Will give it a try.

 

[1550vt]

Yep...the kit conversion manuals I have seen say it needs to be "twice" as tight as specified torque. Since there is no actual torque value (fall-away instead), I did not exactly know what to do until a fellow forum member explained it to me. Tighten it to stop in the first swing as opposed to the normal 2-wheeler specification.

The old-timers use to always set theirs by "feel"...tighten the star-adjuster down until the bars were firmly sung....and back it off until they felt right.

What model year do you have? I know the MOCO eliminated the steering head nut retainer on the TG (for some stupid reason) and several TG owners have had that nut work loose. I do not know if they eliminated the retainer on the 2-wheelers or not. Check the torque on the steering head nut before you back it off to turn the star-adjuster nut.

 

[mcdonaldroadcapt]

Mine is a 2008 Harley Ultra with Motortrike Trog conversion.

 

[1550vt]

Well....I really do not know if they eliminated that retainer on the 2-wheelers altogether, or just the Tri Glide. I know early-on there were postings across the various forums concerning "clunking" with the TG and the issue was the top nut backing off. When you get it there....you will be able to plainly see if that nut has a retainer clip on it or not. If that nut loosens, it allows the star-nut adjuster to back off, thus creating the slack. If yours doesn't have a retainer, I'd put it back with blue loctite on the final torque.

On a trike...a "little one way or another" out of whack on the neck bearings may not make much difference....as long as the clunking is gone. It's a LOT more critical on a 2-wheeler. When I kitted mine, I rode it for years and never touched the fall-away until I installed TG trees on it.

 

[mcdonaldroadcapt]

I took it to the dealer yesterday and he adjusted under warranty. Great difference in feel from road contact of front wheel. Feels like new.

 

[FLTR2008TRIKE]

Keep in mind that the stock handle bar bushings will become soft much quicker on our trikes due to the push / pull we do to steer. I took mine out and installed polyurathane bushings to remove any of the play I felt