Inline HD springer issues

[mowen]

As you can see there’s space in the cup to stem which I assume is fine but race to stem there’s a gap and it moves around when installed. The stem has steps that get bigger going towards the bottom which the race and bearing are snug but on top it’s thinner and I’m on threads not the stem

[TriNortchopz]

guessing the neck is too short, there should not be any threads where the bearing sits. I recommend you change those ball bearings to tapered roller 'Timken' bearings.
Gonna have to do some measuring.
Which springer is it?
What bike is it going on?

[mowen]

Stock ironhead frame
45 inline?
I have ball bearings and Timken roller bearings. Same situation on either

[TriNortchopz]

intall bearing cups, races and bearing in frame neck,measure across the installed assembly...this will tell you where the upper bearing should sit...add measurement of bearing adjustment nut (fits under top tree), and the top nut (sits on top of top tree).

bearing on bottom should be a light press fit on neck, upper bearing should be size-on-size fit.

typical springer bearing/nut/tree assembly:

[mowen]

With cups installed in frame bearing on bottom sits flush on bottom bearing on top is loose(shown in pic) around threads all this is inside of cups. Nothing protruding past them.

[mowen]

Question isn’t what goes in there it’s how do I tighten these gaps even if there around threads that won’t be used by the way

[Tattooo]

Better and more pics would be really nice.....

Also not as close of a pic...

Some with the front end off of the bike also......

[TriNortchopz]

Question isn’t what goes in there it’s how do I tighten these gaps even if there around threads that won’t be used by the way

get the right sized bearings to fit the neck, or get the right sized neck to fit the bearings.

you will need to measure, reasonably accurately on the diameters, to the thousandths of an inch...a vernier is all you need...along with bearing specs.

[mowen]

[mowen]

[mowen]

[mowen]

Okay! So a snug bearing on to around threads? The bottom is good

[TriNortchopz]

Bearing should not have any threads inside, they will crush and loose fit will result. Need to have the bearing on a precision machine part, size-on-size fit.

Is that neck removeable from the springer - not welded in?

you neeed to assemble the bearings with cups in the frame neck, measure, determine bearing fits, top and crown nut thread requirements, thickness of top tree, and get a neck machined to fit your machine.

Only time a thread can be in a hole is if it uses a sleeved nut, like the old Sportster top tree nut.

[mowen]

Okay got it.
No I was saying I need a exact fit top bearing but it’s gonna be on the lower part of the threads on the stem/neck which are not being used

[Tattooo]

I'm sure you figured this out but that's the problem when you try and make different bikes and years fit together that have NEVER been together......

That's why they call it custom....

By the way thanks for the pics............

By the way I think you need to swap out the stem.......... That would be the easiest fix.......

But WTF do I know?????