Rear drive seal took a dump...

SergioK · 06-22-2007, 11:05 AM

So here I am, at the top of Angeles Crest, waiting for the flatbed. Newcomb's is a great place to sit and wait and luckily, someone let me borrow their laptop. Ah... bearings and seals... gotta love'em!

Off to the dealer I go...

EZ-RIDER · 06-22-2007, 11:19 AM

what year and how many miles?

Steve Carlton · 06-22-2007, 11:26 AM

At least it didn't go during your California Walkabout.

Rapid Dog · 06-22-2007, 12:05 PM

...how's the weather up there?!
Hot as Hell here in Hell.

You just replaced the tranny on that bike Serg, didn't they do the rear mainseal?

JonyRR · 06-22-2007, 12:14 PM

is that the big one around the output of the final drive?
should be easy to replace
input side you yank the final drive...
I had a bultaco that did this kind of thing

I sold it...

SergioK · 04:33 PM

Sorry, it was the Final drive seal, not the rear main seal. Trans works fine, etc, but after a spirited run up the crest she pissed herself.

73,3xx miles on the bike. Apparently the rear bearing went and took the seal along with it. At least it happened just a few miles before the top of the hill. I thought my rear brake line went out or that my pads were gone (odd since I just put them in a few k miles ago). Well, the rear tire and rotor had gear oil all over thus the brakes weren't working at all.

After we stopped, I took my gear off and walked around to the other side of the bike to find the rear drive with a downpour of gear oil. The angle, sitting on her side, exacerbated the leak and it made a pool of oil underneath.

I'm hoping the tech at the dealer doesn't tell me the gears are gone. I doubt they would be but one never knows.

Now of course Arbi was laughing as I was loading the bike onto the flatbed so I had to oblidge him with the standard PP salute...

Edit: The weather up at the Crest was fantabulous. We even got a little welcome double sonic boom thanks to the space shuttle and California's prime weather.

EZ, the bike is an '01. Bought her back in Dec of 2004 with 41,xxx on the clock. Trans rear seal went out at 58xxx taking the transmission with it (the ride home from Laguna Seca was brutal to everything, including my body core temp and my transmission). Anyway, that was 11 months ago but she's now at 73,xxx. She had a troubled childhood as an Edelweiss motorcycle tour bike, poor thing!

arbik · 05:40 PM

Hey man,

I wasn't laughing AT you, but was WITH you.
Seriously though, this bike is a very well behaived bike. It died at the end of a leisure ride, at a time where you had all the time int he world...
gets an A from me!

SergioK · 06-22-2007, 05:50 PM

That's true, she is pretty well behaved. And I had such a good time going up the hill too. Down the hill...not so much. The tow truck driver though was full of stories of both car and bike pilots who managed to leave the asphault on Hwy 2.

SergioK · 06-26-2007, 12:57 PM

$1150 for a new final drive
$850 for a rebuilt final drive

Which to do... which to do...

signit98 · 06-26-2007, 01:01 PM

...I have one, Sergio... and I am just an hour down the road... ABS?
Mine is NOT...

SergioK · 06-26-2007, 01:02 PM

Yup, ABS.

roger albert · 06-26-2007, 01:05 PM

This one is a fairly easy call.
$300 gets you not only the new seals and bearing, but all the other seals, bearings, all new gears, and the hub and housing. Once you sell a few bits, it should be less than a $300 delta.

Go new. For 5-600, I'd go rebuild, but 30% more money seems to get you a LOT more parts/value

SergioK · 01:23 PM

Yeah, I'm leaning towards new as I can sell the old FD unit.

Edit: No new FD units in the country... they'd have to order one from Germany (2 weeks to get here). So, I'm having them rebuild it... oh well.

ExarKunONe · 06-26-2007, 03:19 PM

The weight of that charcoal canister could have helped the seal to fail.

SergioK · 06-26-2007, 04:13 PM

I've heard that about charcoal.

Flatbutt1 · 06-26-2007, 05:41 PM

Yeesh, go new...ya sorta need the new bearing anyways

See ya at Laguna?

SergioK · 06-26-2007, 06:58 PM

Yeah, but I'm not gonna wait 2+ weeks. I figure after this rebuild the FD will be good for at least another 75k miles.

As for Laguna, I have yet to buy me tix. Hopefully I'll make it.

SergioK · 10-21-2007, 07:20 PM

I just changed the final drive oil today and it came out competely black, not a hint of red. It was also shiny... from all the flakes of metal that were suspended in the oil. I'd say my 'rebuilt' final drive is literaly destroying itself from the inside out. There were so many metal flakes in the oil that the magnetic drain plug was completely covered in a fine mound of metal shavings. I'm wondering how much worse it would have been if I had not followed the SA advice. He told me it did not need a 'break-in' fluid change at the 600 mile mark. I went ahead and changed it out at 600 miles.

Anyone know what the warranty, if any, BMW offers on their work? Is it like cars, 12 months/12k miles? The bike now has 83,9xx miles on it. I'll have to dig up the paperwork to see exactly how many miles have passed since the FD rebuild but it's been probably exactly 12k.

signit98 · 10-21-2007, 07:36 PM

....your FD crapped out at 73.3XXK... according to this thread... I might have a FD for you... I'll have to change my bike around to NON-ABS... you could have mine, ABS 38K miles... no play at all... Let me know, Sergio!

arbik · 10-21-2007, 10:42 PM

I got two words for you.

molybdenum disulfide!

I got some. Ask me next time you're over.

-arbi