a little sterring issue on my 87 250r

[mdslight]

Ok, so I bent the steering stem on my quad. I won another oem stem on ebay and put it on. Here is my issue. I threw the bent one away before getting the replacment from ebay. I installed it and the tie rod ends are just floating around on the stem. The steering has two inches of play back and forth. Is there suppose to be some sort of bushing for this? Is the hole were the tie rod slips in the stem suppose to have a taper? Any help would be appreciated.

[danhung11]

The tapered holes sounds like it came from a Yamaha.

I am almost positive that all Honda Stems have straight holes in them (where tie rod ends mount) - I can only vouch for TRX250R, 400EX, and TRX450R's.

I hope this helps.

[CorvetteZ06]

maybe you bought a steering stem for another quad, post a pic of it... we can help ya better..

[mdslight]

here are a couple of pictures. i am not sure you can see what i am talking about since the stem is on the bike rite now. I will try to take some better ones when i take it off.

[mdslight]

another

[danhung11]

It does look like there is a taper or a lip.

If you look at the tie rod ends and the stem holes, does it look like it will make a tight seal in any way? :ermm:

Them pics are a bit blurry and way to close. :(

[mdslight]

Sorry about the pictures. I was tring to get close enough to see the taper. No it doesn't make a snug fit. There is a ton of slop on the steering. The tie rod ends fit through fine and I can tighten them down good. There is just a bunch of slop.

[Rich250RRacer]

That is a stem for an '86 250R, which can be a real pain to tighten tie rods on. The '86 uses a double plate in the tie rod area, the flat spot on the upper plate is supposed to hold on the flat of the tie rod stud and keep it from spinning when you tighten the nut. Unfortunately these flats in the upper plate tend to round out, making tightening the tie rod nut EXTREMELY difficult. There isn't enough room to get a wrench on the flats of the stem. This is why Honda eliminated the top plate on '87-89 steering stems. You have two options. First, try to bind the stud while tightening the nut. If that doesn't work, take the stem out of the quad and cut the upper plate off, leaving just the lower. With the upper plate gone, you'll be able to hold the tie rod stud with a wrench while tightening the nut.

[mdslight]

Thanks for all the help guys. I am just going to break down and buy a new one. Any suggestions???

[rossco864]

Does a 400ex stock stem fit up to the 88-89 250R?

I need to get a new one as well and I was wondering if the 400ex would fit.

[troybilt]

Let me know if it does, I'll add it to the chart.

250 Cross Compatibility (http://www.exriders.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=340685&perpage=13&highlight=cross%20chart&pagenumber=1)

[Rip_Tear]

For the most part that looks exactly like my 86 stem and I didn't have a single issue installing my new one or taking the old one out...

I think the stems are slightly different, enough that you'd have to play around with a few things (I only tried matching my two bent stems together so it's not the best way to look at it...)