Steering Head Bearings

[big J]

Can anyone out there confirm what bearings go in the steering head, mine are shagged.

Dont want the old girl off the road any longer than necessary so I'll get new ones first and swap em over.

It looks like ??205 on the top one.

Presumably top and bottom are the same.

[dlaing]

I don't know if this helps, but the top and bottom are the same number:

EDIT

Here is a great chart intended for older Guzzis, but the part cross refs with what Pete and Paul said.

http://www.users.tsn.cc/rdd/TT/contents/PRTS/partsub.html

[Paul Minnaert]

30205 is writen on mine.

[big J]

Thanks, lads.

[pete roper]

Yup, #30205, all Guzzi big blocks since the dawn of time have used the same boring as batshit bearing, they'll cost you about $8 at the local bearing factor.

 

Pete

[Baldini]

...mine are shagged....

 

BigJ - do you what caused bearings to fail - they haven't got many miles?

 

KB

[Guest Nogbad]

Pulling wheelies perhaps.......

[big J]

Bloody corrugated Irish roads, I reckon. That's every wheel bearing been replaced and now the steering head. Ach well, could be worse.

 

I did check the rear spacer and it measured up ok, so either poor initial dealer maintainance or the road surface. You've seen the roads here yourself, so I can't complain.

[Guzzirider]

Yep my steering head bearings were loose when I got back from a lap of Ireland- worse place was the south west- lovely scenery but bumpy as fook.

 

Guy

[big J]

Dropped out the yokes, bottom bearing nothing more than a ball of rust. The nearest this thing ever got to grease was geographically,when it was in Italy.

 

 

Btw, changed the fork oil at the same time, took off the top caps and flipped the legs and let them drain, refilled with 20w( all the shop had in ) not recommended, feels like I'e got two broomhndles for fork legs. I'll change it next week for 10- or maybe 5w

[guzzi323]

Even though they are often under greased at the factory, I've always felt that the nature of the loads placed upon these is the largest cuprit in their early demise. Since all of the hard load bearing they do (hard braking, and for some folk coming down from wheelies ) usually has the front wheel straight, there's just no way for them to deal with it long. I replaced mine when I was replacing fork seals sometime around 20K miles.

When I had the forks off doing the seals, I could feel a little bit of wear with the steering bearings. I've found that I rarely get 30K miles out before I start noticing them and since it was mostly apart I just went ahead and did them.

 

johnk

[jrt]

I did check the rear spacer and it measured up ok, so either poor initial dealer maintainance or the road surface. You've seen the roads here yourself, so I can't complain.

62787[/snapback]

 

 

Well, at least you know they're greased now.

 

BTW, what did your rear spacer measure up to?

[big J]

Sorry,jrt, dont recall off hand. I measured the gap,checked the spacer was close enough and belted in the new bearings.