Decided to service the steering stem on my '71 CT1 during the off season and despite my best efforts, still dropped ball bearings all over the floor. Interestingly the grease was in basically perfect condition, only part of the bike like that and very surprising for something that has been sitting outside for almost 50 years. I think I found all of the bearings from off the garage floor, 18 1/4" for the lower and 21 3/16" for the upper. I checked on partzilla and the order size is 19 for the lower and 22 for the upper so I am either off by one for each or partzilla includes an extra in the order, not sure. Does anyone know what the correct number of bearings is?

Thanks.

Pretty sure it's 19 and 22.

I wouldn't buy missing ones from Yamaha. You can get bags of high quality bearings online or from a bicycle shop much cheaper. I've had bicycle shops give them to me... and I think someone in Australia recently posted the same thing happened to them.

Ace hardware or other good hardware sells them too but not quite as cheap as buying a bulk bag... which is what I do because I always lose some so I just replace them all.

One place the uppers sometimes hide is in the steering tube... they get stuck by the grease halfway down. So check there if you haven't.

19-- 1/4 bottom. 22-- 3/16 top.

I always have towels around my shop and learned after the first bike to put down towels (I have a bunch of white ones) on the floor under the tree. Bearings don't bounce much when they hit the towels...plus white is much easier to find the missing bearings versus the concrete floor. When you put the ball bearings around the races there should be a small gap but not enough of a gap to add another ball. That's when you know you've got the correct quantity.

Indeed, there were 19 and 22. Thanks for the tip on the steering stem as well, there was one caught in there. I had some towels down but evidently not nearly enough coverage. The other one took scouring the garage for awhile but at least the garage is a little cleaner now. I've got two types of grease that I think would work for this application, red and tacky high temp wheel bearing grease or harbor freight marine grease, light blue in color. Any opinions on which one works best? I am leaning towards the red and tacky currently for no reason in particular. Sorry, I know grease threads are about as bad as oil threads.

either grease is fine.

Usually a missing ball bearing or small spring is located on the same day the replacements arrive in the mail or are purchased at the local store.

Ok, sounds good on the grease.
My continually growing collection of nearly microscopic springs can definitely attest to that statement.

I noticed something odd as I was about to put everything together, it looks like there is a chip in the bottom of the steering head, however all the edges are painted so the metal must have been removed before the frame was painted by the factory. This makes me think it is intentionally, however it would mess up the seal or maybe the race that the bearing is supposed to ride on. Maybe it is supposed to be a water drain hole? If it's not supposed to be there I will try to fill it in with some JB weld, will have to see how well it cures below freezing.

There is also no rubber seal for the top bearing nor can I find any reference to it in parts list. There is a cover but it has no actual seal, anyone tried putting in an o-ring or something, or does the standard setup work fine? Everything in there was perfect on such a beat up bike that I am willing to believe it works fine.

The only rubber seal is on the bottom of the tree. No rubber on the top nor do you need one. If the race is installed in the bottom of the steering head and the chip isn't where the race sits, you'll be fine. A picture of that chip area would help. I don't recall anything like a piece missing on my bikes.

Haha whoops, took photos and totally forgot to attach them. The flash reflects off the chip in one of the photo making it looks weird but it is all painted the same black as the frame.

Great pics. I'd just take a look at the seal on the tree and be sure it looks good. Sure looks like it's been doing it's job with nice even paint wear inside the head. Get her greased up and you should be golden.

BTW your races look like new. Reassemble and good for another 50 years!