Steering is a bit twisted after crash... By sillylittleboy (Read 1,947 times)

[sillylittleboy]

I relayed my little tale of woe in wiping out on my TaoTao PowerMax150. It banged me up pretty good (got a twisted/sprained knee that is creating a little difficulty hobbling around), but my scooter came through without much damage. I've got one body panel that is cracked and broken in a few places where it mounts, but a replacement is on order for $50.

The only other issue I'm having is with my steering. Everything seems to be okay with the steering and I've stripped off all the body panels and inspected it pretty good. I even removed the handlebar assembly.  It'll work the way it is, but for me to ride straight down the road I have to have my handlebars turned about 5 degrees to the right (maybe a degree or two more). I'm thinking it MIGHT have something to do with that big nut at the top of the steering column. It reminds me of the front wheel assembly on my bicycle. On my bicycle I would loosen that big nut and then straighten out the handlebars while holding the front wheel between my legs/knees.

Is it the same on a scooter? I've just got to find something big enough and strong enough to loosen that nut, but if there's something else I might be missing that anyone would care to share, then I'd be most obliged.

Thanks,

SillyLittleBoy

[trashtruck12172]

inspect the upper forks and the triple trees where they attach to make sure nothing got bent. that big nut holds the triple tree to the steering head and there are bearings under there.

[sillylittleboy]

Will do... thanks! Now I've just got to get the right tool(s) to tear it all down and inspect it right.

Thanks again!

[cyborg]

You need to loosen everything and get it straight and take all the different ones to the hardware store and replace all critical bolts with grade 8,,,but that's just me,then I would tighten everything down

[sillylittleboy]

Sounds like good advice, cyborg, since I'm sure the quality of the bolts and parts used on these Chinese scooters are not the best or made from the best materials.

There's just one little problem. I'm not entirely sure what I should be looking to loosen/remove. I got all the plastic parts removed so I can see the column and fork. I did a lot of reading around the internet and many places talk about this misaligned front wheel being an easy fix, even when the alignment is due to an accident (curb strike or such). Many places suggest just cranking the steering to the opposite side that it's bent towards (if handlebars face a little right, then turn steering to the left). They suggest just pushing very hard against the stop and it'll straighten the steering up.

Now maybe that works on Vespas or other higher end scooters, but mine didn't budge one bit. As far as I can tell there's nothing really bent. The front wheel spins freely and doesn't rub on anything, but as you can see from these photos it's anything but straight. I'm thinking that there's maybe some adjustments that can be done to straighten this out. Here's what it looks like:









Should I be removing everything from the triple-tree to insure there's nothing bent. Any guidance or guide that someone can assist or point me towards would be MOST appreciated. I even looked in the Scooter Doc manual and there wasn't ANYTHING showing the front fork assembly or how to tear down, adjust, or anything.

Once I track down the necessary documentation photos with circles and arrows pointing to the correct parts and areas, along with a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what to do (or a nice video showing you what to do), then I'll post it as part of Scooter Doc's manual (or wherever it could/would be useful.

Now I can see where it would be rather advantageous to have a second (or third... or more) scooter to reference such things.

But that's just me and I'm just a SillyLittleBoy

[cyborg]

Loosen the 4 pinch bolts at the top of the fork tubes and crack the axel nut ,,,straighten it then tighten everything down and you should be good to go

[sillylittleboy]

Awesome, this is perfect! I was even sure where to start with this assembly, but your direction got me started and now I'm completely removing the triple tree to inspect it fully. After I loosened those four pinch bolts and the front axle nut, I still couldn't get anything to straighten out. The right fork rotated and moved inside the triple-tree, but I couldn't get the left fork to rotate or move at all (forks relative to me sitting on the scooter).

I didn't want to hammer on the fork to loosen it, cause I was a fearing me damaging something permanently.

Just waiting now for a buddy to stop over to help jack up the front of the scooter high enough to allow the triple tree to slide out the bottom. I'm taking some photos and videos along the way so maybe my learning as I'm doing will help someone else with a similar problem.

Thanks again, Cyborg. I know I'm well on my way towards a resolution. Even if I have to get a new triple-tree, I've already priced one for my scoot at $65. And the police officer who responded to my accident handed me an accident report in the hospital where he estimated the damage to my scooter at $1500. A couple of body panels ($45 and $30) and maybe a triple-tree ($65) will bring my total to less than $150.

Maybe the officer just forgot a decimal point with that estimate.

[sillylittleboy]

Okay, I must be much denser than I thought. I've loosened everything and tried to straighten out the front wheel alignment, but it's not budging one bit and not straightening one bit. I even removed the front axle to insure it wasn't bent and to try and line everything up and get it straight, but no such luck.

It's at exactly the same angle and at the same number of degrees on the handlebars off from center-line (center of tire). It doesn't look like the triple-tree is bent in any way, although I'm assuming even a small bit of bend could or should be able to be off-set thru some adjustment (that I've just not figured out yet) to make it ride straight.

What am I missing here?

[cyborg]

Bent fork tube or both,,,take them both out of the clamp and roll them on a flat surface like a table top,,,that will show you which one is bent

[sillylittleboy]

Okay, I did some more reading and research and hopefully this method will work for my scooter, too. I watched a video where a guy demonstrated how to straighten the alignment of the forks/front end of a motorcycle. Sure there were a few different parts, but the basics of it were loosening up everything below a certain point on the steering column and then... it was what he did next that I'm hoping will work for me and my scooter.

He got up on the bike and stood on the pegs and pushed downward on the forks (not forward, just downward...until they bounced). He bounced down on them a couple of times and that self-straightened everything up.

Hey, at this point it can't hurt, though it'll have to wait until tomorrow cause it's dark and I'm in need of a nice chilled martini (or two).

[cyborg]

Both doubles I hope

[cyborg]

Just took a closer look at the pics,,,looks like the lower tree is bent

[jct842]

I believe you are right on the tree. But not the end of the world, they are available reasonable.

[cyborg]

Inspect the sh!t out of the headstock on the frame,,,look for fine rust and cracks,,,,one face plant is quite enough,,

[sillylittleboy]

Yea, a replacement tree is far from the end of days, in fact it's $65 for a replacement. In one of those pictures it DOES look like something is bent, but when I'm looking at it LIVE without Memorex - it don't look bent at all.

I'm going to try he bounce adjustment procedure and if that fails, then I'm stripping it all down (the front fork assembly) and doing some flat table reviews of all parts. I just might be ordering me some parts later. The good news there is that they've got the triple-tree stocked in a US warehouse, so I don't have to wait for any slow boats from China.