Hi!

I have recently stripped down, cleaned, painted and reassembled a C5 chassis. When I put the steering assembly back together, I pressed the bearing holders in as much as I could, checked the bearings were ok, reassembled, and tightened it all up. The lock nut was tightened up against the bearing holder nut so it wouldn't work its way loose. Once everything else was back together, I noticed there was a bit of movement on the headset that could be detected in the handlebars.

I figured that it was just that the bearing cups needed to settle in to the frame a little bit more, so it would just need tightening up to account for this. No biggie really.

As I'm sure you're all aware, tightening this up with the body on is a real pain! I've had to go out and get a 1 1/4" socket to loosen off the headset lock nut. Anyway, the bearing nut was already pretty tight against the bearings & cup, so I don't think that's where the movement is coming from. But I can't quite tell. Could it be the bearing cups within the frame?

Could this be possible? I know it's only a pressed steel frame, so I guess it might be. Is there anything else that's likely to cause it to feel loose despite all being tight? Is there anything else I should check?

Thanks

STM

Hi there I have done a few and as you have found out after putting it back the steering is loose
What I do is tighten up the nuts as you should and make the steering tight and then it should be ok
But as you said it is very hard to do when the frame is on the body.