Speed wobble after bike got ran over

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perkinja

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So my neighbor ran my bike over while I was at work, insurance company totaled it out, the shop told me my tubes forks/tubes were fine but the triple trees were bent at the pinch bolts. So i got some new triples from gggGary put em in and everything looks straight.

Riding around at low speeds is fine but as soon as I hit 4th/5th gear speed if I take my hands off the bars it just wobbles real bad, and i'm not pushing faster than 50mph. I've got the stock front spoke wheel that came with the bike, mines a 79 special 2f. I measured the run out of the wheel as best as I could and noticed that in one section it jets out a small amount then comes back in, I also checked to see if its balanced and it seems like it is.

Just looking for any advice as to what I should do with the thing, and if anything I've mentioned could be why im getting my wobble.
 
The spot that ot jets out, it it at the seam of the rim? Cant do much about that. Could try a knownn good wheel/ forks. Are you sure your neck bearings are snug but not tight? No slop? A
 
I'm sure the neck bearings are snug and not so tight that its smashing them. Where it jets out is where the spokes are tightened, towards its edge.
 
Another thing I noticed is that when I turn my bars it feels like there are "grooves" that my tripples sit in to keep it straight and then at 120 degrees and 60 degrees when turned. It has always had these since I owned the bike so i'm not sure if they are suppose to be like that or not.
 
Install new steering bearings, those "notches" in your steering are from the ball bearings beating indents into the races.

Remove Fork Tubes from Lowers, and roll them across a flat surface to check for any bends.

Remove the wheel and put it on a truing stand, you can even home brew something, and see if it's still round and true
 
I've tried to true wheels before and no matter how hard I try I just mess it up so badly.

I'll get new bearings and races, can they be picked up locally or?

I'll rip apart the forks later tonight and roll em around and post back with an update.
 
You might find them locally, but if not, Get the Tapered Bearings from All Balls - good stuff, and I've never had a problem with them. Changes the bike entirely from old worn bearings...
 
perkinja said:
I've tried to true wheels before and no matter how hard I try I just mess it up so badly.
I'll get new bearings and races, can they be picked up locally or?
I'll rip apart the forks later tonight and roll em around and post back with an update.
Click to expand...
Hi perkinja,
if you've ever set up an old-fashioned ridge tent, the ones with guy-ropes and tent pegs, trueing wheels works the same way.
OK, smooth curves can be straightened out by differential spoke tightening but dents, flat spots and sharp kinks ain't fixable.
The tapered roller headrace upgrade uses modified Timken bearings. Your local bearing supplier won't stock them.
You gotta mail-order them from a specialist shop. Any XS650 parts supplier will stock them.
Watch the fork teardown!
The minute you remove the top tripletree and expose the upper ring of bearing balls, fish them out of there with a big magnet.
If one of those balls falls down between the frame head tube and the lower tripletree's steering stem it'll lock the steering stem
into the head tube and it'll take vigorous BFH application to get the lower tripletree out of there.
 
Well I got the all balls upgrade, got the old races out easy enough from the bottom tree and the neck. the new races went in without a hitch, packed the bearings, put the dust seal on the bottom of the triple tree and then pressed the bottom bearing on (I double checked and made sure that yes I put the bottom in the bottom and top in the top) and then put my triples back together.

I searched around the forums and I found a similar guy did the same thing i'm doing, apparently I have play in the ears where the headlight mounts, about an 1/8th of an inch. looked at the bottom of the triples and it looks like its just not going up far enough. I've attached some pics so you can see what i'm working with, I took the whole thing apart again and made sure the bottom bearing is pressed down all the way and it is and i'm still getting this play.
20160810_223216.jpg
20160810_223342.jpg
20160810_223535.jpg
 
Hi perkinja,
the headlight ears have a whole bunch of square O-rings and their grooved mounting rings and I disremember what else top and bottom plus the shiny thing with the YAMAHA badge on it.
Losing, omitting or mis-assembling any one of those will give a parts stack-up that's 1/8" short even if the trees are installed correctly.
 
I never had the yamaha badge on there and it mounted up flush prior to me putting these new bearings in. I have all the mounting hardware (orings washer etc) for the stock ears and it mounted up flush prior.
 
Hi perkinja,
so long as you are certain you got all the parts back in there, I'd suppose you are right, the cones ain't fully seated.
This is NOT a BFH job, although the cones are extremely strong they are also quite brittle and hammering on them is liable to break them.
Try this:- Take the trees out, drop a length of as fat a threaded rod through there as will fit, big thick plain washer & nut either end and two long wrenches to try and squeeze the cones closer together.
 
I'll tear it apart tomorrow but I'm 100% sure I got those races in there. I double checked before I put the bearings in and they looked good. Could it be that its not seating properly because I have the front end up in the air and I cant seem to shove it in myself?
 
With the front wheel off ground, grab the lower fork legs and see if there is any play at the head. Also check fall away, how it goes from wheel straight ahead to over to the side with a small push. If these things are fine, just add an o-ring or spacer to the stack of bits in the headlight ear assembly.

Also - best thread title ever!!!
 
perkinja said:
I'll tear it apart tomorrow but I'm 100% sure I got those races in there. I double checked before I put the bearings in and they looked good. Could it be that its not seating properly because I have the front end up in the air and I cant seem to shove it in myself?
Click to expand...
Hi perkinja,
just perhaps. Try this before you tear down the forks again:-
Set the bike on the ground to put it's weight on the lower head bearing, loosen off all the top end and reef the notched adjusting nuts down until the head races get real tight. If your 1/8" mystery gap has closed up, re-set the headraces with zero shake and so the forks just fall from straight ahead when you give the bars a nudge.
OTOH, it's possible that the replacement 'trees &/or the roller headraces have gotten the bike a 1/8" taller gap between the 'trees.
If so, put the chrome bridgepiece back in there with a fat o-ring underneath it each side.
 
Took it all apart, those races are in there flush and I still have this 1/8th gap on the bottom of the tree going in. I took the bottom out and had my old race with some pvc and beat it down some more but it won't go any lower 1470938621824965879671.jpg
 
Yeah it looks like I put the dust shield on backwards that comes with the bearings. Now I gotta figure out how the hell to get the bearing and that off without breaking that dust shield. The things only about a 1/16th thick.
 

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