GL1000 -- Steering Head Bearings

"I have not failed. I have merely found 10,000 ways that do not work." --Thomas Edison

Before wrapping up the GL1000 project for the "winter" (now that it's the middle of June), I needed to replace the steering head bearings. During my ride to Whittier for a cup of coffee (lol) last Father's Day, I noticed that the steering on the bike felt a little notchy. Since I don't know the service history of the bike -- in fact, I don't even know its total mileage -- I decided that I should probably replace the steering head bearings after the riding season ended, which was probably a wise decision. Waiting until the next riding season before starting...that, perhaps, was not quite so wise ;)

In theory, this should be a pretty simple task. It's a lot of steps, but each task is pretty straightforward. Nothing too difficult, right?

Well...yeah, that's the theory, but like they say, "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they aren't." First, I needed to make a tool to remove the steering stem nut. Honda, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to forsake a traditional six-sided nut on the steering stem for this weird, round thing with four grooves cut in it. There is a specialty tool available on-line for around $50, but I managed to find one elsewhere for $27...plus $48 shipping and handling, sigh. However, you can make a reasonable substitute from a suitably sized socket by cutting it with an angle grinder to fit inside the grooves on the nut. For the record, "suitably-sized" for a 1978 GL1000 happens to be a Kobalt 28mm socket from Lowes (but not the 26mm or 30mm sockets that I also tried).

With the steering stem nut removed, I tried to drop the lower triple tree out of the headstock, but found that I also had to remove the forks, then remove the "Honda" name plate from the lower triple tree so that I could disentangle the wiring to the headlights and instrument cluster from the lower triple tree. That added a few more steps, but nothing too terribly bad.

Once the forks were free, it was easy enough to remove the lower triple-tree and the upper bearings.

Next, taking some advice I had found on the Naked Goldwings Forum, I had bought a threaded rod, a large-area washer and two bolts to use as a drift to punch out the lower bearing race from the headstock. Unfortunately, the large-area washer was too large-area to fit inside the headstock, $@#%!!! Fine, the traditional DIY way to pop a bearing race out of a tube is to use a long flat-bladed screwdriver as a drift. I have plenty of such screwdrivers, so I tried that, but the lower bearing race is behind a lip that prevents a screwdriver from finding purchase on the top edge of the race.

No problem; while reading through yet another thread on-line about replacing bearings on vintage Goldwings, I found instructions to make a different DIY bearing race removal tool: take a 1 1/2 inch diameter piece of pipe, cut four slits vertically (lengthwise) in the pipe, so that the bottom can flare out slightly, then place it over a ball hitch and hit it with a hammer to flare it. I still couldn't get a purchase on the lower bearing race...

...but it worked like a champ on the upper race. Yay!!! Partial success!

After a lot more searching on-line, I hit upon the idea of making another tool out of a piece of angle iron, but that didn't work either. At this point, I was starting to think that perhaps I was in a little over my head, but while holding a hammer while trying to get the angle iron to grip on the lip of the race, it suddenly occurred to me to try using the claw on the hammer to slowly and carefully pry the race out of the head. To be clear, I wasn't sure this was a good idea -- in fact, I was pretty sure that it wasn't a good idea, but I was getting desperate. To my surprise and relief, the race popped free after just a few minutes of prying with the claw on the hammer.

The next task was removing the lower bearing from the steering stem itself. One suggestion I found on-line was to use a thin abrasive cutting disk on a Dremel to cut most of the way through the lower, inner race and then to use a chisel to split the race. I cut most of the way through the race, but couldn't get it to split. Another suggestion was to run a bead around the race with a welder, so I fired up my cheap MIG torch, but no -- yet another tip that didn't seem to work for me. As I racked my brain for some other way to work the race free, I kept finding my attention drawn to the chisel. Finally, on a lark, I used the chisel as a wedge between the race and the lower triple tree, which actually worked! With a little space between the race and the triple tree, I swapped the chisel for a pair of pry bars and was finally able to work the race free of the steering stem.

After all the difficulty removing the old bearings, I was not at all thrilled about the prospect of putting it all back together again, but it turned out that installing the new bearings was considerably easier than removing the old ones. I drove the new lower, inner bearings into place using another section of the same pipe that I used to make the wedge that I used to pop the upper, outer wedge out of the steering head -- no fancy tricks, just place the pipe over the race, and tap it into place with a hammer. The outer races were also easily tapped into place with a hammer, using the old race to help drive the lower race once it was completely inside the head (split the old race with an abrasive cutting wheel first, so it doesn't get stuck in the head, too). Then slip all of the pieces back together, and the steering head is done! Yes, that's actually a lot of hand-waving over what was actually about two hours work, but it really was pretty straightforward.

Once the steering head bearing replacement was done, there were just a few simple tasks left to wrap up: an oil change; finish seating the bead on the front tire (setting it outside in the sun for a couple of hours, then hitting it with 110 p.s.i. of air did the trick); remove the old non-resistor type spark plugs with new iridium, resistor-type spark plugs; install the proper 30A "dog bone" fuse in place of the bare wire that the previous owner used (!) and suddenly, after six months, the Goldwing was ready to ride again!

It wasn't a long ride, just out to dinner with my wife and a quick trip to the grocery store, but it was good to have the 'Wing back again.