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[bloper123]

Since we don't have grease fitting to grease bearings in neck any longer , how long or miles before we should look into having these done ?  My understanding this is a very expense job taken it to the dealership ?

[skratch]

with the rushmore bikes, it is a 25000 mile maintenance item.  which means, tear down the front end, inspect and repack bearings, and torque to spec.  yeah, I imagine it runs a pretty penny at the dealer for that.

[Para Bellum]

Just another example of MOCO saving themselves a few pennies, by not installing grease fittings, and then it costs the customer a lot more in either time or money.

[TN]

Just another example of MOCO saving themselves a few pennies, by not installing grease fittings, and then it costs the customer a lot more in either time or money.

 

[wtfdskin]

If these bearings are packable not sealed, why couldn't the tube be drilled and tapped for a grease fitting?

[grc]

The motives of the folks at Harley are always suspect, but when it comes to steering head bearings I'm of the opinion that it's better to do it the right way (remove, clean, inspect, and repack) instead of just blindly pumping a ton of grease into a cavity and HOPE it flushes all the grit and crap out of both bearings.  All you have to do to realize it doesn't work that well is to observe how much grease ever oozes out of the top of the tube, as opposed to the flood coming from the lower end. 

It's important to actually inspect the bearings and races at certain intervals, since these unsealed bearings are subject to damage from not only dirt and water, but thanks to the imprecise way Harley sets preload they are subject to damage from pounding that can cause flat spots on the races.

One might think they could come up with a better idea for a steering head that doesn't rely on unsealed tapered bearings and imprecise adjustments.  It's technology that hasn't improved much in 100 years.

Jerry