The Hodaka Club Forum

anyone making a timkin bearing set up for hodaka triple trees

Why ??? The ball bearings work great if kept in good condition and greased. The cost to modify the races to accept a timkin bearing in my opinion does not justify the means.If there was a problem or issue with the OEM set up we would try and fix it but again the cost makes this application not a needed modification.
It can be done though..
Thanks
Paul

I would agree, for technical reasons. Ball bearings carry an adequate load, and have far less drag than tapered bearings, which are more suited for heavy rotating loads, subjected to loads from varying directions (top to bottom, side to side, in the same installation). Wheel bearings in cars and trucks come to mind.

The triple tree is not heavily loaded, and is not a rotating load (sure it rotates within a narrow arc, but it doesn't spin). Even the wheel bearings in the bike are ball bearings, not tapered, because the loads are light and side stress is mitigated by the fact that it is a two wheel vehicle that tilts to compensate for off angle situations, and is not subjected to strenuous side loading. Perhaps the question arises from a general presumption that tapered bearings are better by design. They aren't better, just designed to handle a different sort of load and stress.

I would install them just because the Timkin style is much easier to install.

Cheers

I turned up at set of bearing cups for my Dirt Squirt, used Timken style bearings with 1.0" bore. The triple clamp stem needs to be made longer.
The adjustment is much easier, But, adds weight and increases the rake some. After all is said and done, haven't done the other Hodie's in the barn. There used to be pictures in the Hodaka Groups under Sterling's stuff. I'll look to see if its still there.
Sterling

pictures are at Yahoo Hodaka Groups. SCaudill project.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Hod ... 1773507809
I don't believe there is a Timken bearing with a 1.0" bore that will fit inside the Hodaka headstay. The bearing cups I made fit above and below the headstay tube.
Sterling

Droptarotter wrote:I would install them just because the Timkin style is much easier to install.

How often do you disassemble and reassemble your steering head?

hmmmm, assembled in 2005 . . . disassembled, cleaned, re-assembled in 2014 . . . so once every 9 years.


Ed

Arizona Shorty wrote:

Droptarotter wrote:I would install them just because the Timkin style is much easier to install.

How often do you disassemble and reassemble your steering head?

Never........but when I did a total rebuild on my Wombat, this had to be one of the most time consuming finicky jobs on the whole process.

Maybe what I should have said is that if I was doing another rebuild and Timkins were available, I would go that route instead of loose balls.

Cheers

A light coating of bearing grease from your finger onto the races and the balls stick like glue. In all it should take all of five minutes if that to change or replace them.
Paul

Yup, I'd have to say the most time consuming part of the assembly is making sure that you have the two sizes of balls segregated and that you have the proper number of them (though I would have to admit my own bike is at minus 1 on the balls at the top )

A little grease makes the assembly process a breeze.

Ed

My Hodies have a grease fitting on the steering head. Once a year I pump in a mass of grease until the old grease is purged out.

I will have to look at the flat rate time allowed dealers to complete the process. when I was the dealer I never disassembled to grease. The flat rate manual based on a clean used machine quotes removal of steering fork 18 minutes , Installing front fork assembly 30 minutes... My flat rate $ was $6.75 Clarence

We used to charge $17.50 back in the mid 70"s, half of which I got, the shop got the rest. I don't recall ever having to disassemble a steering head just to service a bike, but I have done it to my own Hodaka more than once. The bearing assembly is essentially an open race assembly so it tends to gather grit if you ride a lot in the dirt. Just pushing grease through such an assembly does not clean the races and balls, it only displaces some of the old grease. Given the volume of the steering head, filling it with grease to the point that grease will push out past the bearings requires a lot of grease. Since pushing grease through the assembly won't definitively clean the balls and races, I would suggest disassembly is the way to go. This way you can visually inspect both the balls and more particularly the race surface for abrasion. The races are plated, and the plating wears off if the grease is dirty. The only way to verify whether this has happened is to pull it apart, clean it, and look.

Putting free balls back into an assembly is always done with grease as the glue, and if it isn't perfect, it does work just fine al long as you work carefully and watch that last little bit as it goes together to verify that you didn't tap one or more bearings off the race. A caged bearing would probably be easier to use, but caged rollers would be a hassle to refit, and I don't see much value in the effort. Caged rollers also need time and procedure to clean and repack, and if the two processes, free balls and caged bearings, were set up side by side, I doubt there would be a real time advantage in using one over the other in a complete service of the steering head.

I can't remember ever using the grease zerk on my Hodaka steering head. But I suppose it is there for a reason, so no harm in using it. I just would not consider an annual squirt into a packed head the equivalent of a clean and regrease service. Instead, I would think it is something to do between moto's to keep dirt from infiltrating.