MRSOUND
05-06-2011, 04:24 PM
Has not been a good day. Decided to prep for front brakes I have coming. Well might as well take off the front fender, rack, light and clean it up awhile right? (just got this in Mar, started in the back working my way forward) Got front rack, headlight, off fine. Snapped (2) bolt off while removing fender (1 now has a 1/4-20 bolt will repair the other one later since it was on the bottom). Took axle out and dropped front wheel. Slider boots are shot. Ok I'll drop the sliders and replace the boots awhile, wrong! Got 3 out of 4 bolts loose and the other has the bolt head stripped and still tight. Side that bolts are loose, slider seized into forks,spins (with pipe wrench) but won't come out. While doing all this realize lots a play in the neck. Ok I'll drop the forks will make it easier to fix other fender bolt. Remove handle bars and upper fork bracket drop forks and realize non-sealed bearings! Ball bearings everywhere! Now for questions! I see they have retained bearings for these, Any reason to stay away from certain brands of neck bearings...suggestions? What if anything special do i need to do before installing retained bearings? Suggestions for getting stripped bolt out and slider removal. I guess this is what 25 yrs of neglect looks like! Any advice is appreciated! Sorry for the book. Thanks