First ride on my VF1000RE since rebuild but knock coming from front forks. At first I thought it was headstock bearings but there is no play there. The forks were disassembled and cleaned with correct amount of fluid going in each fork. Air pressure ok. Anything to do with the Trac antidive device??
Anyway of checking oil level with bike as is?
Things to check;
Brake caliper bolts
Triple clamp bolts.
Axle nuts
Is there a gap between top of spring and bottom of fork cap?
Finally it could be the valving in the bottom of the fork leg assembled wrong (out of four sets of forks, three of them had one or both valves assembled incorrectly.
Steering Stem “play” is a little ambiguous.
My Honda Shop Manual says to tighten my stem bearings until it takes 2lbs pull on one fork tube - Before it moves!
Its so tight you cannot ride with no hands, steering is “stuck”.
Get a new set of Thrust Bearings (not the factory Ball Bearings).
Keep tightening until there is slight drag, (after bedding), Done.
Another thing to check is the AntiDive Push Pin (Brake Caliper pushes it IN when brakes applied).
The Pin/Hole wears into an Oval.
Thanks for the replies guys. Yep it was the steering stem bearings - I probably didn’t seat them properly. Now nice and tight and the knock has gone.
Tip - if you are tightening stem bearings with forks and wheel on like me you need to install the top bridge so it stops on the stop rings. Then tighten the top bridge pinch bolts and then loosen the bottom bridge pinch bolts. You can now tighten the top bridge main nut to specs. This will move the bottom bridge up the forks instead of the top bridge being forced onto the stop rings and damaging them. Lucky I thought of this beforehand as the bottom bridge did move up by a few mm’s. Don’t forget to tighten the lower pinch bolts.