I have run into one other thing with the bike that I am working on along with the hub. I was going to overhaul the headset yesterday and when I finally got it off, heard a bunch of metal balls falling and when I finally got it off (I had to unscrew it from the fork), I noticed there was no bearing cages and there were probably over 20 small bearing in the race and some in the adjusting race that the grease were hold on to. Do I need to just try to get all the bearings in there after I clean it? Or is is possible to get a bearing case for it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You can buy bearings that are held in a retaining ring. (Make sure to take the headset parts with you to the shop to test fit). But it's better not to use the retainers. They take up space, meaning you have fewer bearings, meaning faster wear and less durability. When you rebuild the headset, put a lay of grease into the cups, load the bearings in, and then put a thin layer of grease over the top of them. The grease will hold everything in place while you reassemble. So it shouldn't be too hard to get it back together without everything falling all over the place.
Okay, thanks for the help. I was thinking about doing that. The other question is if there are bearings on the bottom cup where the fork meets? I only saw bearings come out of the top and not sure I have enough for the bottom one as well.
Yes there are two sets of bearings, one set is on the top, and the other set is down where the fork meets the frame.
Thanks for all the help. It took me a while to get it right, but it is on now and working fine.
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