Tapered Bearings - Which race goes in the bottom?

[Chuck]

Ok I was unable to find a straight answer for how to tighten up the new tapered bearings. I had a front end wobble at 60mph and some odd vibrations with low speed braking. I used my old standby "Just snug" and check for play. Not good enough! I emailed "All Balls" (the bearing company) and they said it sounds like it was too loose and recommended 20 -25 ft. pounds of torque. So I gave it a try(went maybe a little lighter than that because I am afraid of too tight). The good news is that the wobble is gone and the odd vibrations gone too. So I thought I would give this info in this thread just in case anyone else may want to know.

 

[tonyc]

Chuck if your front end is ready to go center the bars and give a push own the bars. If everything is correctly tightened your front end will only bounce once on the stops. If it is too loose the front end wil rebound more than once. Your front end must be off the ground.

 

[XSLeo]

I use the procedure that Harley uses. It's in the repair manual for my FXDX.
Lift the front wheel. Put wheel straight ahead.
Put a string with a weight on the end in the center of the rear of the fender. Where the weight hangs just of the floor, put a mark one inch to each side of the weight.
Now gently push the wheel of center till it falls to the stop. The point it falss shoild be at the mark an inch to the side. Check it both ways. If there are cables or wires that restrict the free movement of the forks, unhook them while doing this.
If the fall away is at the inch mark the bearings are set right. If the fall away is before the mark, to loose. If the fallaway is after the mark to tight.
Adjust the bearing preload to get the fall away at the marks.
This works well for me.
Leo