Help changing steering head bearings

I've had some progressively worsening wobble in my 750 Seca.. checked the forks for play, didn't find any but once I got the bike supported with the front wheel in the air I noticed a definite notch with the wheel centered. Figured it was time for bearings. Just started pulling it apart and got the tubes loose and ready to slide out. My question is what to do with the anti-dives. The Haynes manual makes no mention of this and I'm wondering, since this bike is such a bitch to bleed, whether there's some way to get around that. Obviously there's no way to get those tubes out without doing something with the anti-dives, whether it be unbolting them from the forks or taking the lines off. Either way seems like the brakes will be in need of bleeding again once the thing is put back together.

Also, I've never done this before so if anyone has any general tips, hints or advice on this job I'd appreciate hearing from you.... and I am replacing the stock bearings with rollers.

 

if you still have old rubber brake lines, just toss them and get new ones. to put the old ones back on is going to be the same work with no benefit.
they're not that hard to bleed.

 

Thanks for the response. My bike has been upgraded already. So my original question still stands.

 

Disconnect the mc cable and unbolt the m/c as a unit from the frame and zip tie it to the fork and pull it as an assembly.
Or undo the antidive unit from the fork and do the fork oil while its apart

 

New fork oil it is... been planning to do that anyway. Judging from other subtle bits of evidence of neglect I've found throughout this bike, once I see what's in there I'll probably be really glad I got that out of the way.

Also, I've been thinking about removing the antidives but am wondering if that's going to upset some sort of feng shui in the front end. This blog from a Katana owner describes some problems he encountered and overcame after removing his bike's antidives. Not sure if any of this is applicable to the XJs. http://www.theflyingbanana.com/antidive.htm

 

Blocking or removing the anti dive units won't make the bike handle funky. It will eliminate the compression damping you get under braking though, so you may see increased stopping distances (assuming that the anti dive units on your bike are in working order; many are not, but they are pretty easy to set right).

 

that guy at the flying banana is full of beans. if a spring has 59 turns and 4.5mm wire it will bind at 265.5 mm, his new spring with 5mm wire will bind at 295 mm, so he was worried about a 16 mm spacer and he actually lost 29.5 mm with his new spring.
Forks don't bottom because the spring binds, they hit at the bottom before that happens but that banana guys might

 

I have to say, this is one of the most difficult bikes I've ever worked on. From the buried M/C, to the handlebars that cover the fork end caps, to fork end caps that are held in by ridiculously hard to remove circlips with no snap ring plier attach points.... even the fuel tank clip is a challenge to reattach. I couldn't remove those circlips after putting an hour and a half of mine and a friend's most intense concentrated effort. What I ended up doing was removing the antidive from the fork end, then emptying the oil and refilling it from the bottom antidive hole. Then I reattached the antidive unit, disconnected the hydraulic line going to it, held my finger over the hole while my friend held the caliper and banjo bolt at the level of the M/C, and slid the tube back in and quickly and carefully reattached the hydraulic line. I was able to do this without losing any brake fluid and hopefully letting in a minimum of air into the system. But whoa.... what a half ass backward way of changing the fork oil. Tomorrow I'll do the right tube then will move on to changing the steering head bearings. Anyway... thanks for all your input. I'll let you all know how this progresses.

 

i made one of these and sent my helper for beer

 

Interesting. What is to formula for determining this?

 

59 X 4.5 = 265.5

 

Absolutely brilliant.