Hello,
Would like to convert the head stock bearings from ball to taper roller. The ball races are not in good condition.On the guzzi bits web site it says you need some special adapters to do this. These bits of metal are £90! not including the actual bearings. If I had not retired I would have turned these up on the workshop lathe (ex DT teacher). Other web sites just list the bearings for this model and make no mention that adapters are needed. So question is; Do I need adapters or are bearings available to fit straight in?
Any help much appreciated.
My understanding is that the old style cup and cone bearings are pretty much unobtainable for this model. If anyone knows different please post a link. Beyond that, I believe that you will need the adapters to switch to taper roller, and that this will also increase the stack height – enlarging the distance between top and bottom yokes; such that some extra spacers will be needed for the headlamp brackets.
I am fairly certain Corsa Italiana did a kit for this several years ago.
Might be worth giving them a bell.
I remember it wasn’t inexpensive.
We fitted new steering head bearings to Maggi’s Monza last year.
We enquired about taper roller bearings (which are generally available) but were warned these were taller when assembled than the original cup and cone bearings and as a consequence would need a longer steering stem to accommodate them. Logical, but unhelpful as nobody makes a bottom yoke with a longer than standard stem.
Furthermore, adding height to the stem assembly increases the distance between the yokes which creates problems fitting associated parts like the fork stanchions and headlight brackets.
Nobody mentioned ‘adapters’ and I can’t imagine what these might be as nothing can compensate for what is effectively a shortened steering stem.
The solution was to buy cups and cones from Reboot (rebootguzzispares@hotmail.com) and source the ball bearings from a local supplier.
As a footnote, I was once told that fitting taper roller bearings in a motorcycle steering head was a case of gross over-engineering and that cup and cone bearings were more than adequate.
Hope this is of some help - Phil
There’s already a thread on this.
http://www.motoguzziclub.co.uk/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=23806&p=285749#p285749
Almost a year later and I can report no problems so worth doing in my opinion.