Good point about water entry Bill...I'll be sure to put a plastic bag over it when washing. As for riding in the rain it stays pretty dry back there because of the Closed Cell Foam Fender I put back there. I've ridden on muddy roads in AR and nothing reaches the rear shock, swing arm pivot, airbox, etc.

I'm too old to blow on a hose...

Well... I remembered how much you like water.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r1100s-r1200s-tech-forum/442647-arkansas-bridge-um-water-bridge.html

Connect a vacuum brake bleeder to the new hose and see if you can put a vacuum on the tranny that holds. That's not going to damage any seals. If it holds a vacuum, your teory is correct. I still think if you in fact do have a block, it was some metal that worked it's way into the vent system. I am thinking the more logical conclusion is as Bill said, bad lube that got water contamination.

If this vacuum test works, you have just invented a vent test procedure that doesn't involve stripping down the plastic.

Here's the system. Two vents: one in normal configuration and one with the skirt pulled up so you can see the V-shaped slot. :eek: Anyway, the V is the opening that is sealed shut on some of the bad vents. Air passes up through the body, through the V, and then down to escape around the edge of the skirt.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1310641847.jpg

The hole in the cover is a cross drilling of two roughly 6mm bores. The rubber vent pushes into the top hole and the baffle pushes into the internal one.

If there's debris clogging the hole, all I can say is... there's just no way unless the entire transmission was packed with debris. And this is a bike that covered over 100,000 miles with no indications of a problem, so I just don't see it. I work on a lot of these things and vent clogging just isn't an issue.

Posting stuff is great; it's the backbone of peer-based tech help.

Why I (and presumably others, although I can't speak for them) are speaking up is that whereas most of such posts present things in a sort of balanced, lessons-learned kind of way, you're proceeding with a great deal of speculation and presenting this to readers as if what you are doing is reasonable.

You overhauled your transmission and now it leaks. How is this suddenly, certainly, the result of a clogged passageway within the transmission casting rather than something that you actually touched? You're convinced that it's clogged but you systematically refuse to test for that. You think the vent would certainly pop off under very light pressure but you are just guessing. My personal guess is that a pressurized transmission will start passing oil through the seals during use long before the vent pops off.

FWIW, the picture of your opened transmission indicates that it has had water in it before, if the rubber shields were blistered as they appear to be.

Thumbs up X 2 Anton
 

Anton, thank you for taking the time to explain this. Sharing your experience in this is certainly much appreciated by me.

Thinking of the seals, this is a good moment to warn against using a power washer to clean your bike.

I love the water as much as you, therefore, I've tried to fix some silly BMW venting ideas too!

http://www.advrider.com/forums/attac...1&d=1310427016

What NEXT! A snorkel so the bike can run totally submerged?:rolleyes:

Actually, yes, funny you should mention it. :eek:

I'm looking for a 2.25" hose and that should fit, I believe one from several wet/dry vacs may work. Hose clamp and some wire tires should do the job.

A guy in Britania sells a kit with a trick SS bracket, but it's 50 quid! Way too much!

Damn! I'm impressed with the thoughtful solution, I'd still be beating it with a hammer.
Who has that as a sig line, "a hammer might not fix it but it teaches it a lesson" or something like that?

Thanks for posting that Pic Anton of the rubber external vent as well as the machined hole for the internal vent.

I can't deny you make some good points. And yes there's a good measure of speculation on my part. This is because I am loath to tear it apart again...a weakness on my part.

As one who has worked in Diesel Engine Electronic Control System Development for 25 years now, I am many times in speculation mode about something that isn't working correctly. I take the clues I get and try to fill in the blanks as best I can...and for sure I'm wrong sometimes and others right. I'm used to speculating about something I can't "see" because this is the norm in Electronics - "black boxes" with no moving parts. One has to "poke around in the dark" so to speak. Granted Oscilloscopes and DVMs are great tools but they're more like a window glass versus being able to touch a rough surface or see a crack.

I ordered a new Output Shaft Seal. I will install it after it arrives next week sometime. As I did with the previous new Seal, I'll wrap a small length of Saran Wrap over the Splines to keep the Seal from getting cut during install.

Lastly, I'm not clear on what you mean by "if the rubber shields were blistered as they appear to be"...can you please elaborate? Remember I used a pan of boiling water to split the Trans Case Halves so is this what you're seeing?

In the picture where the intermediate shaft bearing is identified, you can see the rubber shield for that bearing. In the picture it appears that the surface has a blistered appearance. This is indicative of past (and long-term) water ingress, which causes the steel backing for that shield to rust.

Thanks for responding Anton.

I can see how it would appear to be "past (and long-term) water ingress". But I'd never had water ingress on my R1100S. One time I did have water ingress into the Transmission of my '94 R100GS/PD via the Speedometer Cable Boot on the Transmission so I know that that looks like. I put a ty-strap on the Boot where the Cable enters it and that solved that issue.

This instance did not exhibit anything like that. In fact that was my first thought but after the oil sat in the drain pan for ~80 minutes I took another pic and it was completely clear like syrup. I was puzzled by that and it was sometime after that when I started to consider air entrainment in the gear oil.

I reviewed my transmission pics and cropped these two for a closer look. These pics were taken shortly after splitting the case halves so there was still some gear oil on all parts.

One pic shows remnants of Bel-Ray Gear Oil lying on the Intermediate Shaft Bearing and the other not. As identified earlier, when I spun this bearing by hand a slight crusty resistance could be felt. I wiped it with a paper towel and then took the second pic.

Bearings - post intermediate shaft bearing wiped:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1310934170.jpg

Bearings - pre-wipe:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1310934285.jpg

Here's the Gear Oil with bubbles immediately after draining (looks just like water contamination right?):
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1310934379.jpg

And here's the Gear Oil ~80 minutes later - clear like syrup because the bubbles were all gone - not a "milky" look at all:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1310934440.jpg