springer neck conversion

fatman61

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help. can't find right bearings for my 71 xs650. got a moto iron springer and neck conversion kit and bearings to small.
 
yes i did. guy putting it togethre said the races fit and bearings fall through. thinks i may have a different neck.
 
Did you contact TC Bro's about this issue?
As far as I know all the years of the XS/TX bikes used the same bearings.
All the necks the same diameter. The early bikes like yours had shorter necks.
I know that all the tapered roller bearing kits I've used fit fine, no issues.
If the races fit in the frame, how can the bearings that came with the races fall through?
Perhaps your "guy putting it together" don't know as much as you hoped he did.
Leo
 
told him to try trailer bearings. n/g. tried allballs and casnt find size, timken , etc

Hi fatman and welcome,
like Leo sez, if it's an XS650 bearing set it aught to fit because they are all the same.
Perhaps the expert assembling your neck bearings ain't one.
Attaching a photo of the problem area will help us understand what's going on.
And how come a New Jersey resident posts with a Bristolian accent?
I casnt remember hearing that particular contraction of "cannot" since I was last in Bedminster.
 
1st of all thanks for all the replies. i have done most of the work on my bike in the past but decided he had more tools , talent and time. falling through the races? idk. called patrick at tc and he wanted a picture of the neck which i haven't done yet. jim (mechanic) claims the tc neck conversion kit bearings are 1/2 mm to small . i believe he said they are 44 or 48 mm od and 25 id. hesai top and bottom are 2 different sizes, is this right? jim has tore these things apart and raced them in the past! still believes i may have a neck from another make bike. don't forget its a bobber and has gone through many changes in close to 50 years. i have had this bike about 10 years and it runs great. i know xsleo has a phd in xs650, and most of you guys really know your stuff. i fix most things with a hammer and vice grips.
 
1st of all thanks for all the replies. i have done most of the work on my bike in the past but decided he had more tools , talent and time. falling through the races? idk. called patrick at tc and he wanted a picture of the neck which i haven't done yet. jim (mechanic) claims the tc neck conversion kit bearings are 1/2 mm to small . i believe he said they are 44 or 48 mm od and 25 id. hesai top and bottom are 2 different sizes, is this right? jim has tore these things apart and raced them in the past! still believes i may have a neck from another make bike. don't forget its a bobber and has gone through many changes in close to 50 years. i have had this bike about 10 years and it runs great. i know xsleo has a phd in xs650, and most of you guys really know your stuff. i fix most things with a hammer and vice grips.

Hi fatman,
it took 7 posts to say that your frame's steering neck may not be from an XS650?
OK then, if it ain't and if it's bearing pockets are too big to fit the bearings, it's an easy fix.
What you need is a "Bro with lathe".
Have him turn two aluminum sleeves that fill the gap, make 'em a slip fit for easy assembly and fix them with Loktite.
 
On the stock stem they do use bearings with different inside diameters. The lower as I recall is 30 mm, the upper is 25 mm.
The tapered roller bearing kits for the TX/XS650 are set up the same.
I don't know for sure just what brand TC Bro's sells, a lot of them are set up with a 1 inch stem. This is so they are a straight up bolt on for Harley's. If so you can use the races from a tapered bearing kit and 1 inch trailer bearings.
On your bike it should have a number stamped into the steering head. It should match the number on your title.
You can use this number to ID the year of the frame.
Being a 71 it should have a 10 digit number, it should start with S650. then 6 more digits.
Check this out if the numbers match there is a good chance the neck is stock.
If the numbers on the neck look a bit funny. Not all stamped in a straight line or stamped to a different depth. Some not straight up and down then there is a chance the neck was changed and the old numbers were hand stamped in the new neck.
If you have another 650 around you can compare the way the necks are welded to the frames. Best if the other 650 an early one. For 74 they made a bunch of changes to the frame. The neck and how it's welded in is one of them. So a 74 up will look different.
There are diagrams on here somewhere that show the bare frames of the early, late and special models. By looking at them you may be able to tell if your was changed.
Leo
 
...falling through the races? idk. called patrick at tc and he wanted a picture of the neck which i haven't done yet. jim (mechanic) claims the tc neck conversion kit bearings are 1/2 mm to small . i believe he said they are 44 or 48 mm od and 25 id....

Just sitting in the corner and watching this.
Consider that the Japanese stuff is metric, Harley is english.
25mm vs 1", would be about 1/2mm...
 
ok will check vin which could be false and it took 7 posts cause jim talks in circles... the lathe he wouldn't do, would have to find someone else. hoping there is a set of bearings that will fit. even if it were a different neck, there should be bearings out there that fit. the springer is moto iron and so is the this the bearing kit. was suppose fit like a glove not oj's going to call him tuesday and try to get direct answers to my questions, if not guna pull the bike out and throw it in my pickup truck and get it done somewhere else.
 
not many mechanics that will touch an old metric bike near me and i don't feel comfortable working on something like a steering part going down the hwy at 150 mph, lol
 
not many mechanics that will touch an old metric bike near me and i don't feel comfortable working on something like a steering part going down the hwy at 150 mph, lol

Hi fatman,
as it'd take a streamlined body shell and a supercharger to drive an XS650 down the hwy at 150mph, what kinda bike you working on, eh?
Not that we mind giving other marques the benefit of our thought, but it'd be nice to know.
Post a photo, why don't you?
 
Picture0427181156_1.jpg
 
got a strange vin on title 1 1013286
Hi fatman,
foggy day when you took that photo, eh?
Just enough detail to show it's a raked hard-tail with an XS650 engine.
Don't sweat the strange VIN as long as it lets the DMV Nazis register the bike.
 
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I don't know where you are in NJ but that bike looks like a single tube Triumph frame. I don't see two down tubes
XS650 is close to triumph frame. Those races and bearings are totally different. Plus top speed on any XS650 I ever had was only close to 90 before your teeth rattled out.
 
The only way an xs650 is going to go 150 mph is if it's towed by a Vette.
Need to do some measurement on that neck. Length. ID where bearings go. How deep the recess is the bearings set into. stuff like that.
Swapping forks is not that hard. You just need the right parts and assemble them right. I have had several apart and put back together.
Leo
 
I don't know where you are in NJ but that bike looks like a single tube Triumph frame. I don't see two down tubes
XS650 is close to triumph frame. Those races and bearings are totally different. Plus top speed on any XS650 I ever had was only close to 90 before your teeth rattled out.

Hi DaddyG
good that you can see further through a fog than I can. No wonder an XS650 headrace bearing set don't fit.
 
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