Older Phazer steering question

[AK Eggy]

I also posted this int he yamaha forum, but figured more people read this forum...



My wife has and older Phazer (mid '90's) and the steering on it gets extremely stiff when left outside over night. It's stiff enought that it feels like if I force it, I'm going to break something. If we cover it up and apply heat, it loosens everything back up, so I'm assuming water is getting somewhere it's not supposed to and freezing up. I have no Yamaha experience, so I don't know of any common failures that I can start from to make it easier to figure out. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't see where there are any grease zerts to lube anything to force water out, am I just missing them?

 

[DallanC]

Yes water gets in the TSS upper knuckle and can freeze it up. To disassemble, you have to remove a c-clip at the bottom of the upper knuckle and then slide it down. Grease it up and re-assemble. Its a pain in the butt to take apart. I'd recommend also trying to remove all of the bolts in the linkage if you can get them out and grease them. If they rust in, you either will have to have them pressed out or drilled out. Luckily all of mine came out through pressing this summer.


-DallanC

 

[AK Eggy]

Thanks...

I'll start there and see if that does it....

 

[DValentine]

I just got through rebuilding the VSS arms. What a bear. I used a lot of cuss words and a bushing driver.....couldn't take it apart without cutting some of the bolts.

Dave

 

[LeeDoo]

It is a lot easier and it works very well to spray a water displacer like WD-40 on the frozen bearing. It will loosen up and in my experience it lasts a long time.

 

[Viper5]

Yes water gets in the TSS upper knuckle and can freeze it up. To disassemble, you have to remove a c-clip at the bottom of the upper knuckle and then slide it down. Grease it up and re-assemble. Its a pain in the butt to take apart. I'd recommend also trying to remove all of the bolts in the linkage if you can get them out and grease them. If they rust in, you either will have to have them pressed out or drilled out. Luckily all of mine came out through pressing this summer.


-DallanC

Drill and tap a hole in the TSS upper knuckle and install a grease nipple and use a low temp grease. I did this on my 85 phazer and the brother inlaws SRV and no more problems. It is a good idea to remove the bolts and pins in the linkage and clean and grease them. I use to do this once a year in the summer.
Chris.

 

[DallanC]

Drill and tap a hole in the TSS upper knuckle and install a grease nipple and use a low temp grease. I did this on my 85 phazer and the brother inlaws SRV and no more problems. It is a good idea to remove the bolts and pins in the linkage and clean and grease them. I use to do this once a year in the summer.
Chris.

Ya I had the same idea. I tore my TSS apart on my '92 Phazer ST this fall and installed a shim kit to tighten up the steering (made a HUGE improvement). I had a local sled shop press out the bolts. I greased everything up good so I can disassemble later to install zerks. My wifes '87 Phazer still has a very tight steering so I havent bothered to really do much with it yet. Prolly going to sell that sled, give her my ST and me pick up a $3k sled (dunno what I'll go with yet... prolly '02 RMK).

 

[Kootenay-Stomper]

mine has never frosen up yet!but i think im going to get a shim kit,you can get them out of the royal distributing catalog for $40

 

[DallanC]

mine has never frosen up yet!but i think im going to get a shim kit,you can get them out of the royal distributing catalog for $40

Nah, you can get under $30 for a kit if you dig a little. These guys are about that... http://www.mfgsupply.com/m/c/100-650.html


-DallanC