Drive Shaft seized on the final drive splines

[Grumpy Goat]

Great job, Bob. Thanks for sharing the pictures. How did you get all around the transmission spline?

[BobAin'tStoppin']

Wayne. The small wire brush I got fit in the space very nicely and I was able to stroke left to right pretty well. I was surprised how well that worked. Also surprised how poorly it worked on the rear drive But I did get all the loose rust off, so I think the lube will be effective going forward. Fingers crossed on the long life. But I likely will never hit the mileage that Darrell has on his bike, so no real worries.

[Grumpy Goat]

Wayne. The small wire brush I got fit in the space very nicely and I was able to stroke left to right pretty well.

I was wondering about the inboards side of the spline. Did you manage to turn it and if so how?

[BobAin'tStoppin']

I was wondering about the inboards side of the spline. Did you manage to turn it and if so how?

Not sure what you're asking. The tranny output shaft turns very easily. Fingers or screw driver.

[Grumpy Goat]

Not sure what you're asking. The tranny output shaft turns very easily. Fingers or screw driver.

No kidding! I will admit now I feel like a fool. I never even tried turning it, assuming that, with all the gear train connected to the shaft it would not turn easily. Learned something new today - thanks Bob!

[Ray]

In the spirit of, "A good mechanic is like a little old lady; he/she worries about everything," I decided to load-test my 5 year-old Yuasa battery (see Lee's post in a separare thread - it passed) and take a look at the drive shaft.

But first, a 12-h ride to Chicago and back on Saturday. After seeing Olgry's garage on Saturday, Sunday's plans went from wrenching to cleaning my garage and then spending another 5 h riding the bicycle to take a look at the confluences of the Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers.

So today I took the bike to my mechanics and for 1.6 h of their labor, had them drop the final drive and take a look, while I worked and made enough money to pay them, as well as slip one of the managers an extra hundred for the mechanics' beer and lunch fund. (I mean, these are the guys I trust with my life.)

Summary:
Front of shaft disconnected, as expected, when they dropped the final drive They've noticed most of the RS's missing the circlip, and have speculated about possible reasons including need for a little play in the system. Their practice has been to leave the circlip off. (Maybe Darrell's early build was the only one our bikes with a circlip....)
Like every other 6 y-old bike, lubrication was reduced to dust and a little rust.

Instead of fishing around with string and a screwdiver to reconnect the shaft to the transmission, they simply unbolted the shock, which gives better access for inspection and any lubrication. If I remember correctly, the rear swing arm bearings are needle bearings, and worthy of attention when we have the chance.

"FRONT DRIVE SHAFT YOKE SLIPPED OFF DURING DISASSEMBLY SO THE FOLLOWING WERE CHECKED
FRONT AND REAR DRIVE SHAFT U JOINT BEARINGS SMOOTH
FRONT AND REAR SPLINES NO ABNORMAL CORROSION, CLEANED AND GREASED
REAR SWING ARM BEARINGS SMOOTH AND RE GREASED AT REASSEMBLY
FRONT SWING ARM BEARINGS SMOOTH"

And the best part, I didn't curse once.

Ride on....

[Grumpy Goat]

Thanks for adding this to the knowledge bank, Ray. Looks like no circlip is indeed quite common. I like the idea of unbolting the shock, if nothing else to get better access for inspection and lubrication, but it does add a slight bit more work.

[darrell]

Glad you had it checked Ray as sounds like many others in the fact it was dry with little or no lube. I know mine new one does not have a circlip installed and mechanic could not remember if there was one when he removed the old. As your mechanics mine is not installing them on any replacements or services he does now. Thanks for sharing.

[BobAin'tStoppin']

Interesting to hear about the swing arm bearings inspection. On the 1100 bikes they were bushings and you needed to heat things up to loosen the hardware in that area. Nice that they are using needle bearings now.

[Olgry1]

[quote='Ray'

"FRONT DRIVE SHAFT YOKE SLIPPED OFF DURING DISASSEMBLY SO THE FOLLOWING WERE CHECKED
FRONT AND REAR DRIVE SHAFT U JOINT BEARINGS SMOOTH
FRONT AND REAR SPLINES NO ABNORMAL CORROSION, CLEANED AND GREASED
REAR SWING ARM BEARINGS SMOOTH AND RE GREASED AT REASSEMBLY
FRONT SWING ARM BEARINGS SMOOTH"

And the best part, I didn't curse once.

Ride on....
[/quote]

It was good seeing you Ray. You may think my garage is clean but just don't ask me to find anything.

Glad everything was good to go after a little cleaning and grease.

It is interesting that a circlip does not appear to be on a number of RSs. On my 2019 RT there is a circlip type of mechanism that appears to be an integral part of my drive shaft.

[darrell]

Interesting when I check the parts fiche for the R1250 RT and the R1200 RS the same part number is shown for the drive shaft and the circlip shows yet many bikes don’t appear to have or use the circlip. And certainly some mechanics don’t feel they are necessary.

[Lee]

So today I took the bike to my mechanics and for 1.6 h of their labor, had them drop the final drive and take a look,

I may do the same later in the spring.
When I did this work on the K1300Ss it was easy and did not take long but with the problem some have had with the driveshaft being stuck I think it best to go to Kansas City.
The Tech will also have a better idea of U joint condition than me.

[Duccrazydave]

Dropping this info here, since it’s driveshaft related. When dropping the final drive, to inspect the splines, I also had a little difficulty separating the two. Nothing dramatic. But after cleaning and lubing the splines, the ease at which they slid back together was very different. Practically no effort. The original lube/paste had turned to something resembling dried up plumbers putty. This probably contributed to the disassembly difficulties. I ended up using Honda M-77 assembly paste. Supposed to have at least 60% moly content. I’ve used something similar for engine assembly. There’s no way it will “solidify” like the other lube.
Just presenting this as another option that might help someone else.



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[Mark]

There I was sitting in the lounge at Brown's Motor Works having my 114K service. When the technician (AKA the BOY) ushered me to the
cone of silence, to inform me that I needed a new drive shaft not happy. All things considered no better get this news. Visually the drive shaft look fine
but the U-joints where very notchy.

[Duccrazydave]

Glad to hear it was a problem resolved, before it turned into a complete failure. With non-serviceable u-joints, complete driveshaft replacement is the order of the day.
Did the older generations of boxers have grease fittings?

[Mark]

Glad to hear it was a problem resolved, before it turned into a complete failure. With non-serviceable u-joints, complete driveshaft replacement is the order of the day.
Did the older generations of boxers have grease fittings?

Not that I know of.

[BobAin'tStoppin']

The 1100 series had no grease fittings, and I don't think airheads did either. Replacing U-joints on car drive shafts is pretty easy. Odd that there has never been discussion about replacements on these bikes.

[darrell]

Ted Porter at the Beemer Shop has replacement drive shafts for the older models that have grease zerks in them.

Glad your technician caught this Mark before failure. Sounds like a couple dozen donuts are due for the service department or 23 with one for the buyer.

[Lee]

Mark how much is a driveshaft?
I planned to have both of ours checked before trading late fall.

[Grumpy Goat]

There I was sitting in the lounge at Brown's Motor Works having my 114K service. When the technician (AKA the BOY) ushered me to the
cone of silence, to inform me that I needed a new drive shaft not happy. All things considered no better get this news. Visually the drive shaft look fine
but the U-joints where very notchy.

Mark, that was good albeit expensive news. The driveshaft monitoring paid off and you were saved from a catastrophic failure while riding at speed. The costs there would surely have been higher.