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Scooters - 125 to 300 => Downtown 300 => Topic started by: de dee on July 06, 2016, 03:55:30 PM
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It looks like the steering bearings should be greased every two years, took mine apart and flat spots on the outer race, so I have ordered new bearings, Canadian price is $ 92.48 usa. price is $42.95, each, I put the old bearing with new grease back in and it is not to bad, so I can still get a few miles on it, till the new ones get here,.
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Is there a grease port or do the need disassembly and repack?
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Repack, reassemble. There. I beat De-dee on the reply!
Karl
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if you grease it soon enough, before it is worn , you will not have to remove the outer bearing race,
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I've noticed a flat spot, like a "notch" when my steering is in the 12:00 position and have ordered new bearings. The dealer who assembled the bike said that was normal when I first noticed this a few years ago. From that time on I have and will continue to do my own work on the bike because that answer just seemed "wrong" and if that is their attitude then my safety is obviously none of their concern. Any pointers you can give of regarding disassembly of steering unit? Thanks!
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I took the front end off, and the handle bar covers off , bottom one hung off to the side, the shiney cover of the dash, off just push down on the plastic plugs center piece and lift out, and one screw at the bottom, and pop it off, next remove the brakes and light switches from handle bars, then remove the bolt on the steering stem, watch for the shaped washer on bolt, forgot, remove wheel and fender then front shocks, then the bolt on the steering bar remove nut on top of steering then use biggest screw driver flat to remove next nut, use small hammer, it will drop out so hang on to it, I lined the pieces up to keep track of them, then take the screw driver to remove the outer races upper and lower race,, tap lightly on each side to remove them ,,
install the races with a socket sized to fit the new race outer edge but small enough to fit in the frame, seat race all the way in, then reverse all your work to finish, I use full syn. grease in the new bearings,.
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Mine has this problem too.
Is there any needle bearings to replace the original ones?
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Mine has this problem too.
Is there any needle bearings to replace the original ones?
they are ball bearings, not roller bearings or needle bearings, I think roller bearings are a up grade,. if you can find the right size,.
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Yes, needle bearings are definitely an upgrade over the original ball bearings.
Ball bearing type races are susceptible to notching. Hence the needle bearings with their larger surface area will be more durable.
Can anyone share the size that we need for both the upper and lower head bearings?
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lost the paper the sizes were on,. when I went to a bearing shop the said one bearing was found in Germany was looking for another supplier and they did not give me a price after 3 days so I ordered mine at performance powersports.com ,. $ 4o.88 us dollars lower bearing , $40.32 upper bearing plus shipping $ 18.00 14 days delivery mine should be here 20 july,.
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The guy at my dealership quoted me RM180 supply and install. That's about USD45. Labour is cheap here in Malaysia.
I am assuming the bearings were sourced from China. Durability I cannot comment as I have not done it yet.
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Yes, needle bearings are definitely an upgrade over the original ball bearings.
Ball bearing type races are susceptible to notching. Hence the needle bearings with their larger surface area will be more durable.
Can anyone share the size that we need for both the upper and lower head bearings?
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I will have the size next week, new bearing will be in Wednesday, I hope,.
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Thanks de dee.....I guess it seems easy enough. What the hay....if all else fails I'll just box it up and truck it to the shop should I get in over my head. Any special tools needed that I might not have?
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basic tools only ntn top bearing # sfo581px1
ntn bot. bearing # sfo7a17px1 both say japan ty on them. bought a new caliper and I get different measure ea. time,. electronic caliper with digital display
try again,. top inner race 1.o24 outer race 1.852 inches
bot. inner race 1.376 outer race 2.166 inches
I tried to close it between ea. measure, and it resets, and it seems better,
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Installed the new bearings today,. it took two hours to remove the old bearings , and three hours to install the new bearings and put the scooter together,. this time I did not remove anything from the handle bars, I just leaned it over side ways,. more of a mess with all of the lines in the way,.
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Hey de dee, I went ahead and cleaned and regreased the upper and lower steering head bearings with synthetic bearing grease because something didn't feel right with the steering ever since I got this scooter. It has 2000 miles on it now, I bought it with 1500 miles. I thought the bearings were starting to notch but when I inspected them they looked brand new. The problem with my dt300 is that it follows imperfections on the road too easily and also easily disrupts the steering when going over bumps and it's down right scary when going over bumps slightly leaned over. At 70-80 mph the steering seems to move left and right ever so slightly causing the entire bike to ever so slightly wobble...I thought the bearings had a notch because of that, like it was riding in and out of the notch but I didn't find any notches. What do you think the problem could be?
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What are your tyre pressures? A few psi difference on the front tyre can cause unstable steering. Pump it to 28-30psi and see how it goes.
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What are your tyre pressures? A few psi difference on the front tyre can cause unstable steering. Pump it to 28-30psi and see how it goes.
Thanks Mousejunks, the tire pressure is at 28-29 psi front and back. Any other ideas? I have a givi trunk on my down town but it's usually empty when I'm riding since it holds all of my gear so I doubt that's contributing to the problem. I weigh 145 lbs and I mostly ride solo.
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Try a higher psi. I do mine around F 31 and R 33.
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get a straight edge and check the wheel alignment, ( I don't know how to re- align a scooter ) you would have to check the web,. my dirt scoot has adjustment screws on the rear wheel,.
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The front suspension forks could be seized up. Try pushing the handlebars down when the bike is on the centrestand. The DT has quite soft suspension.
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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll try upping the tire pressure and checking the forks first since those are easy to do.
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what kind of tires do you have?, I put city grips on the back wheel and power pure on the front tire, and my scooter runs well over most roads and RR tracks
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what kind of tires do you have?, I put city grips on the back wheel and power pure on the front tire, and my scooter runs well over most roads and RR tracks
I'm still on the stock Maxxis tires. Have you tried the Metzler FeelFree tires? I took the handlebar off again and tightened the steering head nut some more until it wouldn't tighten anymore, that seemed to have helped tighten up the steering a bit, now there is a bit more resistance when turning the handlebar left and right but riding over cracks on the road will still disturb the bike, also riding at high speeds 75+ mph will oscillate the bike left and right ever so slightly, is this normal?
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The Maxxis tires are BAD about following everything. Metzelers are HUGE improvement as are nearly every major aftermarket brand. I could not believe the difference when I put 'em on my original DT300i.
Karl
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What do you think about drilling and tapping a hole in the neck, screwing in a grease fitting and just filling that sucker up? Sounds like a lot less trouble.
Mac
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The Maxxis tires are BAD about following everything. Metzelers are HUGE improvement as are nearly every major aftermarket brand. I could not believe the difference when I put 'em on my original DT300i.
Karl
Thanks for your feedback Karl. I look forward to changing them out now!
What do you think about drilling and tapping a hole in the neck, screwing in a grease fitting and just filling that sucker up? Sounds like a lot less trouble.
Mac
That sounds like a great idea, although I can't imagine how it would be done in my head... Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal taking the wheel/forks/handlebar off. If you can figure out an easier way that would be great! Although I think I would still prefer to take the thing apart just to be able to clean the old grease out and inspect the races.
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The original head bearings seem to be the worse part of the scooter..... Mine notched terribly and had them replaced with NTN Japan bearings.
But I think the shop fitted back the front end wrong, there is a slight clunk over small bumps and she now headshakes gently at 60km/h when I take my hands off the bars.
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It could be the shop did not put the outer race all the way in, and you have a loose steering shaft, it should not clunk,. for the steering try heavyer steering bar weights, I read that in here way back,in our Zomby years, miss his storys,. de dee
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Yeah, pretty sure it wasn't installed back properly.
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Had mine replaced a few weeks ago.
I removed and re-installed the plastic stuff.
I had it done by a mobile m/c repair service man.
It took him about 3 1/2 hours. He had trouble with one bolt
that was frozen, finally got it out and replaced it with a new one.
Oh, the top bearing was missing one ball, service guy said he
has seen this before on other makes as well.
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What do you think about drilling and tapping a hole in the neck, screwing in a grease fitting and just filling that sucker up? Sounds like a lot less trouble.
You would have to fill it to the top for the top bearing, that's a lot of grease, and you would have to improve the seal on the bottom to keep it from shaking out,. so taking it apart sounds easyer,.
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Tapping and filling up the steering stem cavity with grease, won't that grease leak out over time? and that would like down the forks etc.
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Tapping and filling up the steering stem cavity with grease, won't that grease leak out over time? and that would like down the forks etc.
my thoughts too,. de dee
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I found the culprit to the wandering/steering instability issue. The problem happened to be with the stock maxxis tires I had on the scooter...not sure how tires can make a scooter handle so poor, especially with so much tread left! I replaced them with Metzeler Feelfree tires and it handles like a dream now! I cannot believe how well the scooter rides, incredible!
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Little tough to say without the tires in hand, but you can break a belt in a tire, & have it fail without any major visible signs.
I've had this happen on bikes and cars. The symptom is pretty much what you describe.
Regardless. Glad you got the problem before it got you.
I found the culprit to the wandering/steering instability issue. The problem happened to be with the stock maxxis tires I had on the scooter...not sure how tires can make a scooter handle so poor, especially with so much tread left! I replaced them with Metzeler Feelfree tires and it handles like a dream now! I cannot believe how well the scooter rides, incredible!