3 Miles from home
something was making some noise
August 5th 2021
I had planned a quick route, a loop around my local country roads. Only about 45 miles in total, lasting an hour or so. Until the motorcycle breakdown that is…
Leaving home I pootled over to a village near-by called Grafham in Cambridgeshire. As I was exiting the village towards the A14, there was a decidedly odd noise from the rear of the bike, and then I changed gear, let out the clutch, nothing. No drive.
Every time I released the clutch there was strange noise, and an almost grating like sensation through the bike.
Luckily I was only doing 20mph. I pulled over immediately and shut the bike off. I was in a very precarious position on the roadside, so that was my first course of action. Luckily I was perhaps 50mtrs or so out of the village. The 24c heat was a bit stifling pushing the GS to safety.
Breakdown Insurance
only on paper – not in reality
Once safely parked, I contacted my so-called insurance company. I have a comprehensive policy with them, and breakdown insurance was inclusive. All good? Not even close to being good! Each time I rang them, it just auto hung-up the call! What a farce, and I haven’t even bothered complaining, as that would be futile too. (Edit – since this time the insurer went into administration – but still called me to renew…).
Realising very quickly I was on my own, I made some calls to recovery companies. That too was also an experience. One company, a motorcycle specialist, made out he didn’t know where I was, and that he couldn’t get there (whilst he was googling the location)! He alleges to be a biker too…
I didn’t have the luxury of sitting around for three hours awaiting any “goodwill” as he put it. Some biker specialist he is. I eventually got in touch with a local recovery firm, and they were brilliant. Straight away they informed of a three hour wait, but I was grateful for a solution frankly.
Friendly local
kindly gent offers some help
A gent who lives on the very edge of the village was incredibly helpful to me. Plus he offered to let me park the bike in his garage overnight if necessary. Amongst other offers of help, his willingness to help was much appreciated.
He had also observed the seven bikers that rode straight past me. I have never ridden past anyone, EVER. If I got bitter I would adopt that mentality myself, but I cannot subscribe to that mentality.
I was lying on the deck, hiding from the sunlight, and a local biker stopped to see if I was okay. He thought I was taking a breather due to the heat. But when I revealed I was waiting for a truck, he offered to go and get me a drink, or anything else from the local shop. Faith in my fellow bikers restored. Cheers mate, I appreciated your stopping.
Heat vs. protective gear
i was struggling with my health
I was in a rut. I couldn’t take the jeans off of course. And I had to walk about a half mile each way to the shop to buy some drinks. Full clobber, carrying the helmet etc.
Being diabetic I was really beginning to feel unwell. All the exertion and the heat etc. were taking their toll. By the time I got to the shop I was very unwell indeed. Anyway, I managed to get a drink and some sugar going on, so I was good again in no time. Just the residual headache.
That’s on me of course, for failing to manage my own health conditions correctly.
Luckily, the lovely lady in the Grafham village shop was a 50 year plus biker, along with her husband! She was lovely to me, and offered lots of help too. Even for calling her husband to run me back to the bike – an offer I could not accept of course.
Once back to the motorcycle, I managed to find some shaded ground to relax on whilst waiting for the recovery truck to rescue me. From this point onward my drama was no longer. I just wanted to get home, as my situation was a little precarious.
Again, the gent who was helping me before was still looking out for me, and for the GS too. I have every intention of buying him a bottle of wine for being a decent human. I will look him up when the bike is fixed.
The recovery process
from the farcical to very helpful
My debit card confirmed the booking. Then I got a call from the driver letting me know he was 40 mins or so away. I was not concerned about that. I was happy. A solution finally. I’d been there for four hours.
When he arrived, my heart sank when he asked me where the car was! And how he hated motorcycles! False alarm, as he quickly changed his ‘tone’ and started to help. He was a decent bloke and took great care with the GS on the way home – no dodgy driving.
I was happy with the service I got, so I gave the driver a few drinks for nursing my baby with such care. Much appreciated. Cheers.
Diagnosis & fix
i am not a mechanic, but i am going to fix this…
After much fretting and investigation, my diagnosis is that the final drive is to blame. When I dropped it down from the swing arm, the rubber boot pulled back, and it was corrosion city in there.
At the gearbox end the drive shaft was mint. But the end at the final drive was not. So much so that it is very evident of neglect. There was no discernible evidence of preventative maintenance.
The final drive dropped off the splines of the drive shaft easily enough. However, in hindsight this is actually the problem. The splines are in very poor condition.
I had positioned the final drive so that I could see past the rubber boot, but still in place for the drive shaft to turn the final drive. The noise I heard on the breakdown was very evident too. I gingerly put it into first gear, and the gearbox was fine, the clutch was fine too, but the final drive was protesting loudly!
further Inspection
Releasing the clutch fully was interesting. The final drive was turning, but not at the same speed as the other end of the driveshaft. I held the rear disc and the final drive stopped turning. Hence my diagnosis.
I managed to source a second-hand final from ebay for a reasonable amount – vs. the staggering cost of a new unit, or even a rebuild of my own unit. Neither are financially viable. With workshop prices averaging £60 +VAT per hour, plus the parts etc., I was not going to explore a rebuild.
I hope there is no drive shaft damage. My guess is that there isn’t any damage. As I stated previously, I turned the engine off immediately, so hopefully there will be no damage.
I shall clean the whole swingarm area, and do my utmost to clear any signs of corrosion. Also, I will use the proper lubricants to seal the area from water ingress – which will be a first judging by the state of things.
more trouble…
Both the final drive filler and drain plugs had been over tightened. The drain plug had no O ring present either. The BMW dealer did not service this item. The oil was old, dark and had water in it. No O ring on the drain plug also says the dealer never changed the oil.
The correct torque for both drain plugs is 20nm. But given how much muscle I needed to release both, it felt more like 100nm! I have bought two new stainless steel plugs for the replacement final drive from motoworks in Holmfirth.
From here onwards I shall look after the transmission myself. It’s not difficult to do, and for the peace of mind, it was worth the learning curve to accomplish. I hope that after this fix, this issue doesn’t reoccur – in fact in mean for it not to!
Replacement final drive
second-hand part from ebay
The replacement final drive arrived, and upon inspection was in much better condition than the original my bike had. Some minor exterior corrosion, but crucially, the splines and bearings are all in excellent condition. Also it was from same year as my bike, which quietly amused me.
Whilst comparing the two final drives, I noticed that the original on my bike was missing the oil breather cap! Unbelievable. That would also explain why the oil that was in there was totally shot and contaminated with water. There’s a theme here – that this whole transmission had never been maintained.
Certainly no evidence anywhere, the splines or the shaft union having ever been cleaned or greased appropriately. Nor the rubber boots on the swingarm having any sealant or grease type application applied – as in no trace.
Prop Shaft Issues
prop shaft inspection
This was very telling too. I could see that the inside of the swingarm was really wet, and it was rust coloured water laying in a huge puddle at the bottom near the pivot. Obviously this is from the condensation process that occurs naturally with use, but wow, what a mess.
Without too much drama I extricated the shaft from the swingarm, as there was no way I was going to leave that as is. It needed a thorough clean inside, so that was my first job.
There was no evidence of previous grease on the rubber boots at either end. The gearbox end was like new. That’s not an exaggeration either.
There was a profound reason why the final drive dropped so easily after the roadside failure. Given the level of corrosion evident it should have been nigh impossible to separate them without resorting to penetrating oil type products.
The reason this was not needed is of course is that the final drive splines were totally shot. But so were the splines on the prop shaft too. More expense.
Further investigation required
Out of curiosity I removed the shaft from the bike and tried the final drive end on both drives – off the bike – the duffer and the replacement final drive. One was an abject failure, and the other was not so good either!
There was no tight fit on the replacement unit. It worked (kind of), I put the shaft back in put the replacement drive in place temporarily and started the engine for a quick test. It was working fine upon first impression.
I removed the prop shaft again to clean and inspect further.
Out with the craft tool then and clean the splines of the shaft at the final drive end, Shaft on the bench it became immediately apparent that the shaft was totally finished. The splines were badly rounded – well ground down and rounded – very, very bad. Shocking in fact.
This failure was always going to happen. No ifs or buts. So check yours out if you have BMW shaft drive as a matter of urgency and routine. Make it a part of your ownership. I know this topic is well documented, but it is for a reason. As I have found out to my cost.
I removed the knackered final drive from the bike, and I loosely fitted the replacement I had bought.
When I lined up the shaft with the replacement drive there was lots and lots of play between them. Mine is a purely amateur opinion, that this might have worked for a [very] short while, but failure would come very quickly indeed. Inevitable.
This is a risk I am not prepared to take – can’t afford to take either. So I am on the hunt for a new (second-hand) prop shaft. I did approach the ebay seller I got the final drive from, but he didn’t have any listed (despite asking me to search for one! Yes seriously). Anyway, he did make me an offer for a low miles shaft, but he wanted an eye watering £399 for it. Too rich for me.
So I shall remain off the road until I can source a prop shaft. I’m not unduly concerned by this, as like last year this one has been a bit of a non event for myself and many other folks too of course.
prop shaft found 22/08/2021
Lady luck was shining on me for once!
Needless to say that I have been searching very proactively for a replacement prop shaft. So I was not expecting any joy, and still reeling from the eye-watering £399 demand from a well known and respected second-hand BMW parts supplier.
I saw a really nice prop shaft for £245 including postage on ebay.
It didn’t take too long to work out whether or not to buy the item! The listing had the make an offer option, but I know from experience that I couldn’t wait to save perhaps ten pounds, and lose out whilst waiting for a response. So I just bought it.
A week or two to wait for delivery – the seller explained his reasons, which were fine by me. But it wasn’t mentioned when he listed it, but hey. What’s another week – which became two?! Mmm… Patience is a virtue Mark!
Anyway, it transpires that the seller was on a fortnight holiday, and just chose to not share that fact with me, when he told me he’d be away for a week. I had suspected as much to be honest.
This has added three extra weeks to the fix time though.
The Repair
12-09-2021
Whilst I was stripping the bike to install the new (second-hand) part, I took some pictures to show the corrosion and the consequences thereof.
The shaft I bought on ebay has only covered 2000 miles, and is like a brand new part. The old one looks way better than it should, as I had cleaned it extensively as described above.
The images are quite shocking.
This is the final drive end of the drive shaft. This is the one that failed.
This is the replacement drive shaft.
replacement final drive images
Conclusion
This has been a very expensive and annoying fix.
Sourcing the parts was especially exasperating. Varying levels of quality, and varying levels of honesty too. Greed featured too!
So I now have five sets of washers, “O” rings, drive shaft circlips and a large bottle of transmission oil for maintaining in the future. The appropriate grease for the splines and rubber boots in hand to ensure no further repeat of this whole sorry tale.
Do check your own bike regularly. It can be a tricky job at times, but not especially difficult. If you have a decent set of tools and a good quality torque wrench, you could fix your own like I have.
Besides, there are lots of great videos available on YouTube to assist/instruct, plus the ubiquitous Haynes manual (which was a great help)…
Test ride was good. I was really nervous after I started the bike on its centre stand and put it in first gear! It made some very peculiar noises, and I thought to myself “not again”.
My fears were unfounded luckily. I put in gear on the side stand and all seemed well. That provoked a very tentative test ride, very locally too – just in case!
All was well. Gear changes were far less agricultural than before, and much smoother too. So tomorrow I shall ride around the village for an hour or two! Haha! Not venturing too far for now. I know I am being unduly wary, but you know what I lost faith after that, trust even, but either way it will take time to be restored.
Back on the road finally…