hey so know honda had a recall on streering stems in like 2004. I recently had to swap out my steering stem i know a special tool had is suppose to be used to torche off the nut off the top of the stem. so i took off my old stem bearings and all and ordered a new stem from honda. my question is putting the new stem in i know the bottom bearing has to sit flush against the bottom of the frame. will this happen after i torche the top nuts or shoudl it sit flush before i start torching. becuase right now there is a little gap between my bearing and frame its not flush but i figuared by torching the top it will eventually sit flush. is this how its done or should it be sitting flush before i start torching the top?

 

I just did my VFR stem bearings with tapered roller bearings - cant be much diff to yours.

Just make sure you seat the lower bearing properly on the stem, and seat the top bearing properly, and then torque up to spec and you should be right.

If you've gone to tapered bearings they need more torque than spec. Make sure you check them after about 500-1000km of use.