Fitting a Grease Nipple to the Headstock on a DTR
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Here's a post about doing a headstock bearing grease nipple conversion. One of the great things about the DTR is (on the early versions at least) every bearing on the rear suspension linkage can be greased externally due to it having grease nipples fitted at the factory (and these can be added quite easily if you have a later one where they were deleted).
Drilling and tapping an M6 hole is relatively easy but the biggest headache is what to do about the slot machined into the steering stem for the separate steering lock!
If you don't seal this up all the grease will just come out of it and go all over the front mudguard, plus no hydraulic pressure inside the headstock = your bearings won't get cleaned and lubed by all the grease you're pumping into this area.
So what you have to do is, whilst the front end is apart get some approximately 1" heatshrink tube on the stem to cover it. Secure with zip ties and don't use sticky tape of any kind because once the headstock is full of grease it will break down the glue and make it unravel which will make a bit of a mess and allow the heatshrink to move.Because the steering lock protrudes into the head tube slightly it sometimes takes a couple of goes to get the zip ties in the right place but it's quite easy to check and redo this if you're just trying the bottom yoke in there, you can feel if anything is interfering with the lock-to-lock movement.
Grease nipples have tapered threads to seal them so don't try and do them up until they bottom out as you could ruin the thread you've just tapped. Just get them tight at an angle you can reach with the grease gun when everything is back together. They're pretty inexpensive on ebay etc.
This does unfortunately mean you can't use the frame mounted steering lock but the actual lock will still function should any future owner want to use it, you/they will just need to remove the heatshrink to allow it to work. IMO perfect headstock bearings are of much greater value than two steering locks which shouldn't be relied upon in the cold light of day in any case; a big chain/D-lock is a much better theft deterrent.
Also readjustment takes time as all that grease gives you a false reading; Yamaha recommends doing up the adjuster nut to something like 38Nm. rotating the bottom yoke fully a few times, then backing it off to about 6Nm. Pump the headstock full of grease after finishing this step and keep checking them for the 1st few rides.
If you've got this fitted and grease nipples on all the rear linkage bearings you can basically throw your DTR around a MX track, jet wash it with all the accuracy and sensitivity of the bloke with the M-60 in Full Metal Jacket, then re-lube everything externally so it will take a very long time to wear out. A very special feature I personally believe all bikes should have!!
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@HOTSHOT-III these are exactly the type of post I love to read. Good information.
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Cheers bud! I wondered where it was fitted. It’s a lot of grease, but it’s worth it! How often would you tear down the headstock to lube it otherwise?! I had to replace the headstock bearings cause they were dry & ‘notchy’. (Couldn’t find a rubber seal set for headstock)
I also had to replace all the seals and needle bearings I could (couldn’t find bushes) on the suspension linkage because the previous owners never bothered using the grease nipples. Worse was the swing arm bearings (pure rust) & bushes because the grease nipples had been deleted.
