1962 650SS headstock bearings

The factory parts book and owners manual have nice instructions and numbered drawings for the entire bike's components.

Factory-style replacement parts have the added benefit of being more likely to fit and needing less re-engineering than "upgrade" parts.......

Featherbed framed Nortons do not use a headstock spacer tube - only Commandos from 1971 on.

Remove the tube andI 'm sureyou will manage to assemble it.

Be careful not to overtighten the stem nuts when using plain bearings . Featherbeds had cup and cone headstock bearings originally and needed adjustment to remove play. I prefer to use taper roller bearings which also need adjustment on set up.

I did once use plain bearings but probably overtightened the stem nuts and it was not a success.

Iain

The correct bearings for Featherbeds and early Commandos are not regular ball races. They are special bearings designed to take thrust, and must be fitted the correct way round. The bearings are clamped by an adjusting nut which should be tightened to allow free movement and no wobble or binding. The yoke top nut tightens the yoke against the adjusting nut.

The trouble with retrofit taper roller bearings is that they are too wide and the fork covers/headlight brackets don't fit any more.

The nut is not just a "Thin nut", it is a special one with two tubular projections to locate in the bearing inner and the top yoke. If you have sealed bearings, they are not the correct ones as the originals were not sealed. You should be able to tell by the look and feel of the bearings which way round they go, when pushed and rotated, one way will be as you would expect and the other way will allow you to push the balls off the race slightly. You want them so that they resist clamping force when the nut is tightened.

Previously wrote:

The correct bearings for Featherbeds and early Commandos are not regular ball races. They are special bearings designed to take thrust, and must be fitted the correct way round. The bearings are clamped by an adjusting nut which should be tightened to allow free movement and no wobble or binding. The yoke top nut tightens the yoke against the adjusting nut.

The trouble with retrofit taper roller bearings is that they are too wide and the fork covers/headlight brackets don't fit any more.

ColinSorry to disagree but I have taper rollers on four road bikes - two Dommies and two early commandos and they all have the dommie style tin fork covers/headlight mounts. Offhand I dont know the different bearing numbers I have used but they all seem to fit fine.Iain

Iain, I have taper rollers on my Manxman, but that is a cafe racer with clip-ons and non-standard headlamp brackets, so I wasn't bothered. I am going by what I read somewhere. I'll agree with Allan, some DPO has done a bodge on his steering head bearings by trying to convert to Commando style set up.

My Commando, a 1969 model, has the correct ball races - I got them from a bearing supplier. I obviously can't remember the bearing maker or number after 20 years when I put it together. I'm sure Mr. Hemmings or one of the other usual sources can flog Allen the right bearings.

Colin.

Previously wrote:r

The correct bearings for Featherbeds and early Commandos are not regular ball races. They are special bearings designed to take thrust, and must be fitted the correct way round. The bearings are clamped by an adjusting nut which should be tightened to allow free movement and no wobble or binding. The yoke top nut tightens the yoke against the adjusting nut.

The trouble with retrofit taper roller bearings is that they are too wide and the fork covers/headlight brackets don't fit any more.

Dear Colin,

your comment sounds very interesting to me. I have a model 50 -1961-slimline and once placed the conical bearings are too thick and due to this lamp holder tubes gets too short. also the open space between fork yokes and headstock is not very suitable. Did you say this is due to actually sold bearings (have they been slimmer befor?) To change depth of bearing in headstock looks dificult for me. Placing commando bearings and distance tube, and changing nut with tube on both sides migt be a solution. Any other you would prefer?

Some of the parts listed in the factory parts list, are not in it's illustrations. The washers that go behind the bearing cones and the washer under the locknut for instance. The stock bearing assemblies are about flush with the head-tube when fully seated, which means the cups are well below the surface to make room for the balls and cones.

The crown lug gets a shim/washer, then the lower cone goes on with a felt washer, some grease and the balls. This goes up into the headstock with the waiting greased upper cup and balls. The upper cone is dropped on, it's shim/washer and felt then the adjuster nut which has two different diameters for it's two sleeves and can only fit into the bearing one way, the other end going up into the top clip. Then the locknut's washer and locknut. The part number for the upper and lower bearing assemblies is identical in the parts book, so they are interchangeable.

If aftermarket taper roller bearings are the right dimensions and fit into the headstock like the original bearings do, then there is no reason why there should be any problems.

If someone has a mix of Dominator and Commando parts though, along with a lack of experience with the bikes though, then going to someone like Mick Hemmings would certainly be the best thing to do as getting things correct on this part of the bike has heavy implications where safety is concerned.....

I have checked out a lot of this by looking at the four 62' Dominators laying around here, including a 650ss model I am doing some heavy maintenance on right now that is a very original bike that looks to have all it's original bits and hardware even.....

I have fou

The other thing to look at if you are assembling a bike from an old pile of parts is that when AMC took over production after 1962 they phased in a change to the steering bearings, probably after Bracebridge Street stocks ran out. AMC lists a separate cup, cone and loose balls in the 1964 parts book, but prior to that the featherbed bikes had a bearing that was supplied as a complete unit and was not supposed to come apart, but it WOULD pop apart if someone tried to press it out of the frame by putting pressure on the inner race only, this is written right in the pre-64' maintenance manual. So if you have one of these old style bearings that someone has popped apart, at first glance it might look like a standard set of cups and cones as was standard in 1964 and later, when it fact if you try to put it together with some loose balls you might find it will not go together unless you heat the outer race up and expand it to fit the room temperature or cooler inner race and balls in place, good luck.

A friend of mine up in Canada who is very smart and particular about his old Nortons talked to a bearing manufacturer in England and got the information about heating this special early type of steering bearing to assemble and disassemble it.

I do not think there is a source for the old-style steering bearings that Bracebridge Street used, unless someone might run across a set in an old dealer's stock, but the later cups and cones will swap right in place of the early parts. As far as using later taper bearings, which seem to be all the rage, it is common sense that unless they were the same dimensions as the original bearing assemblies they would cause trouble.

I bought replacement steering head bearings recently from RGM. They are sealed with a spacer tube. I was a bit dubious about fitting them, but they went straight in and fitted perfectly. So these ones seem well thought out. Not expensive either. Gordon.

Previously wrote:

Iain, I have taper rollers on my Manxman, but that is a cafe racer with clip-ons and non-standard headlamp brackets, so I wasn't bothered. I am going by what I read somewhere. I'll agree with Allan, some DPO has done a bodge on his steering head bearings by trying to convert to Commando style set up.

My Commando, a 1969 model, has the correct ball races - I got them from a bearing supplier. I obviously can't remember the bearing maker or number after 20 years when I put it together. I'm sure Mr. Hemmings or one of the other usual sources can flog Allen the right bearings.

Colin.

Hello Colin To add to this confusion My Norton Manxman was Built In December 1960 it has the original Head stock bearings that are taped rolls and a cupped washer goes over the top and bottom of bearings the nut that holds them in place has tapered shoulders at each end so one end goes in to the bearing top and the other fits into the head stock where the handle bars fit on to .So I hope this may help in some way . Yours Anna J Dixon