From: "John W. P. Davies" Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 17:21:03 -0500 Subject: Re: gts front end I recently stripped the front end. You don't have to take the complete knuckle arm off. 1) Remove side and lower bodywork panels. 2) Remove mudguards (fenders) and wheel 3) Use car jacks or car jack and axle stand to raise bike under side members. 4) Support front of lower swingarm with axle stand and towel (to protect paintwork) (THIS STEP ONLY NECESSARY IF REMOVING SHOCK AS WELL) 5) Remove locking pin and nut holding ball joint to upper wishbone. 6) Remove two nut on top and bottom of steering tube and remove totally (Or remove only bottom and hold up with wire - but easy enough to remove altogether) This gives access to the top ball joint nut (YOU WILL NEED TO RIG SOMETHING TO SUPPORT THE KNUCKLE ARM - DO NOT LET IT FALL OVER OR YOU WILL DAAGE LOWER BALL JOINT - STRING OR WIRE TO THE GARAGE ROOF IS A REASONABLE METHOD). 7) You should now be able to remove the top ball joint nut and remove the ball joint. You can possibly get away without removing the wheel if you jack the bike up enough to lift it just off the ground, Replace everything in order. I would reccommend however that you take the whole front end apart and inspect all the bearings for yourself and regrease or replace them as necessary. The upper right (sitting on bike) especially seems prone to wear. My opinion is that these look as though they should be checked /regreased at least once a year, as they are particularly open to the elements and the grease can be washed out (especially if you pressure wash your bike). The whole process isn't as bad as you might think, and you will certainly lean how the front end of your bike works! I regreased and replaced all my bearing - but now detect some play at the top, so wished I'd just replaced them all. Have it all to do again and the frosts have arrived here. louis Tweed (ltweed@nfis.com) said that he will be redoing his front end before me and will measure up the bearings as he replaces them. The Yamaha parts are VERY expensive, there are almost certainly cheaper bearings available. Let me know how you get on. John Davies - Durham, UK fluffware@compuserve.com -=---------------------- < By the way, how many miles do you have on her? Seems like these ball joints should last a very long time. >> Greg; It was actually not the bikes fault. I had some work done to the bike and without my knowing the guy took the front swingarm loose and moved it forward a couple inches without taking the upper balljoint loose. After picking up the bike I got to looking at it at home and saw a big gob of grease had been squeezed out of the rubber housing. IM pretty sure most if not all the grease is gone and wanted to replace it before it developed slop in the joint. the manual also says not to push on the rubber housing the grease which I had done at one time. You learn from your mistakes!! Bob