Removing MY Steering Stem Races

[hammer]

This spring I removed the front of the bike including the wheel and fork tubes. My plan included replacing steering races and bearings, wheel bearings and fork tube oil. Many posts show what a pain it is remove the steering stem races But there are ways and some have been posted in this forum and others. There are many posts about this topic and the Gadget pages and manual will show how to get to the stage of getting the races out.

The top and bottom races are the same. You will notice the very thin gap below the races that makes it almost impossible to get a punch, sharpened or shaped socket drive extension or nearly anything else to knock these races out. Thin gap, long tube, tough angle.

This would not be a problem if Kawasaki had thought to have detents (small depressions or grooves) under the races in 2 places opposite to each other to get a punch into. Doh!!! I can't use my 11" punch with 1/4" head that should work perfectly. Here are the tools I used during the process. They include my homemade bearing press, my 11" long steel punch, my Dremel and a small grinding wheel, and both a modified socket and a Pit Posse PP2649. The last tool I highly recommend as you can use your 3/8" torque wrench to accurately set your stem nut.

I also bought a Park Tool RT2 online for $28. The legs are straight so they did not snap into the grooves under the race. Ok, Hammer what to do? I marked off 3/16" from each tip and put the tips in the edge of my beat up old vice to mod the tool until it looked like this.

The tool has excellent steel so I had to pull pretty hard to bend the tips to a 45 degree angle. The tool is similar to and works like this, http://vulcanbagger.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33726
For the top race, the tool is pulled through the neck like this.

Pull harder and the ears snapped into place like this.

Once it's firmly in place, Hammer on the business end hanging out the other end like this.

Does it work? Yes, after 2 hits the bottom race came right out. I had to work the ears of the tool a bit so they fit solidly under the top race. I put a baggy of ice in the top for 30 minutes to help shrink the race first.
Before pressing in new races, I used my rotary tool (Dremel) and a small grinding stone to put the small grooves under each race that Kawasaki should have put there. I placed 2 grooves about 3/32" deep or less at 180 degrees from each other in spots I could easily access with my punch. It was so easy.

That was back in April. In July a light bulb went off in my head. Why not grind the grooves under the old races while they are still in? Will that work? Yes indeed!


The pics show you can get the small grinding stone at about the same angle as the race. The stem of the grinding stone actually prevents you from going too deep. Then the punch works. Why didn't I think of that before?

I have not posted other details about installing the new races although AllBalls makes a good kit. I did take the triple tree to a local mechanic to remove the old bearing and press on the new one. That was worth the $25.
I did use the PitPosse 2649 to torque the steering stem nut to 15 foot pounds. The manual in my opinion is totally off for the 1600s at less than 5 foot pounds.