[cherront]

Does anyone know hot tight you have to torque the steering head nut? Mines almost came off yesterday. Scard the shyt out of me too! The only thing that held the nut on was the steering damper.

And has anyone else had this problem?
:dontknow:

 

[SkyDork]

You mean the steering head nut or the triple clamp bolt? 2 different things. The steer stem nut is below the triple clamp. If that top nut comes off, it's not dangerous as the triple clamped is clamped to the forks tubes and alignment bolts. If that's loose you may or may not feel some vibration in the handlebars under braking, but it's not an "oh Jesus!" bolt and you're front end isn't going to fall off if that nut comes loose!

Snug it back up and use a little loctite on the threads. I'm at work and don't know the exact torque on it, but 20-30 lbs should be more than sufficient.

 

[swjohnsey]

Torque for the '04-'05 is 58 ft/lbs. I suspect it is the same for the '06. Blue Loctite is in order. When using Loctite or other lubricant such as anti-seize I reduce torque by 25%.

If that nut worked loose chances are you also need to adjust the head bearings. If you hear a knocking noise from the front that will be what it is.

 

[cherront]

It felt funny last week but I haven't noticed a knocking noise. How do you adjust the head bearing?

 

[SkyDork]

You need to take the upper triple clamp off of the bike to give you access to the nut. It requires a spanner wrench to adjust properly (not in the tool kit). You can also use a punch and hammer to adjust it :badteeth:, but this won't give you fine control over the tightness. Once you get access to it, you need to make sure the front end is off of the ground and able to be turned freely by hand. Then you slowly tighten the nut to the point that you can feel the front end starting to bind. The nut will be at the proper tightness just before that point. The front must be not have any resistance to turning freely.

I doubt it's loose though. Just tighten the top nut to the torque setting swjohney gave you and you should be all set. Now, if you do get some knocking under braking or over bumpy pavement or some front end vibration under braking, then you need to turn your attention to the head bearings.

 

[cherront]

Yea I hope that I just have to torque that nut. I can't afford to take it back to the stealership! I not rich like some of the ppl on here. I'm just a man living his dream!

 

[ninja44]

I has the same noise (popping, knocking) under braking or bumps and i just tightened the head bearing a little more than an 1/8 of a turn and now the noise is gone.
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Jailbroken