Hey Gang,
I have a question for all of you rear drive failure brothers???
Here's my story:
On Monday I was riding from Houston toward Oklahoma City on my trusty silver Frau, when I started noticing a kind of buzzy, un-natural vibration. At first I thought it was the road surface, but it slowly got worse and worse. At this point, I was almost to Bowie, TX, just south of the Red River. I pulled over, because I though it might be a bad tire. They were new, with about a thousand miles on them, and thought maybe one had started to shed a skin. Wrong, they looked perfect. I put the bike on the center stand, and spun the rear wheel, and it felt like there was gravel in the final drive (or gear box). Got back on the bike and limped into Bowie. Finally made arrangements with AAA to haul her over to the BMW shop in Ft. Worth, (thank you AAA), where she is resting, waiting for someone to check her out and determine the source of the problem.
The bike is a 2002, with 27500 miles. I got her used in Dec. 02 with 2000 miles. I changed the gear and final drive lube, when I got her at 2000 miles, with BMW gear lube. Then I changed them again at 12000 miles with Amsoil full synthetic, and again at 24000 miles, again with Amsoil full synthetic. The build date of the bike is 11/2001.
At the end of the week, I picked her up from the Ft. Worth Dealer on Friday morning (dealer hadn't touched her, much less test driven her to determine whether the rear drive was bad). I rode the bike from the shop to the trailer (about 50 yards), I had borrowed to carry her home. When I got her on the trailer, she started dripping gear grease out of the rear drive. That pretty much confirmed to me that the rear drive had passed on to better riding grounds. Now, once I got her on the trailer, I had to take black tape and cover over the license plate holder, which said 'if this motorcycle is on a trailer or truck, it is being STOLEN'. Talk about humiliation...
Now, on Monday, I have to go to work and face the crap from all of the Harley riders, including the Aggie in the next cube. Damn, this shouldn't have happened. I took good care of my baby, and she failed me. I just can't believe it. I just have to take solice, that in my 40 years of motorcycling I've never had a mechanical failure... well, that is if you don't count the Harley that I owned - it was ALWAYS broken...but that was a long time ago. In the past 4 years, I put over 100,000 miles on BMW's, without a problem. It just shouldn't have happened with my big Beemer bike. How humiliatin'.
I am thankful that she gave me about 100 miles of warning. Of course, had I not read all of the other stories of rear drive failure, I might not have noticed until much later, when she was protesting loudly, and roughly.
Anyway, my question is, can I replace the bearings/races in the rear drive, after this failure, or does it take a total rebuild/ or replacement (trash the old rear drive???)? In other words, after a failure, with all the CCC (Crud, Crap and Corruption) floating around in the gear grease, does it require replacing seals, and possibly even ring and pinon gears, or can I just replace the failed bearings/ races?
So, what say ye Bros?
I have a question for all of you rear drive failure brothers???
Here's my story:
On Monday I was riding from Houston toward Oklahoma City on my trusty silver Frau, when I started noticing a kind of buzzy, un-natural vibration. At first I thought it was the road surface, but it slowly got worse and worse. At this point, I was almost to Bowie, TX, just south of the Red River. I pulled over, because I though it might be a bad tire. They were new, with about a thousand miles on them, and thought maybe one had started to shed a skin. Wrong, they looked perfect. I put the bike on the center stand, and spun the rear wheel, and it felt like there was gravel in the final drive (or gear box). Got back on the bike and limped into Bowie. Finally made arrangements with AAA to haul her over to the BMW shop in Ft. Worth, (thank you AAA), where she is resting, waiting for someone to check her out and determine the source of the problem.
The bike is a 2002, with 27500 miles. I got her used in Dec. 02 with 2000 miles. I changed the gear and final drive lube, when I got her at 2000 miles, with BMW gear lube. Then I changed them again at 12000 miles with Amsoil full synthetic, and again at 24000 miles, again with Amsoil full synthetic. The build date of the bike is 11/2001.
At the end of the week, I picked her up from the Ft. Worth Dealer on Friday morning (dealer hadn't touched her, much less test driven her to determine whether the rear drive was bad). I rode the bike from the shop to the trailer (about 50 yards), I had borrowed to carry her home. When I got her on the trailer, she started dripping gear grease out of the rear drive. That pretty much confirmed to me that the rear drive had passed on to better riding grounds. Now, once I got her on the trailer, I had to take black tape and cover over the license plate holder, which said 'if this motorcycle is on a trailer or truck, it is being STOLEN'. Talk about humiliation...
Now, on Monday, I have to go to work and face the crap from all of the Harley riders, including the Aggie in the next cube. Damn, this shouldn't have happened. I took good care of my baby, and she failed me. I just can't believe it. I just have to take solice, that in my 40 years of motorcycling I've never had a mechanical failure... well, that is if you don't count the Harley that I owned - it was ALWAYS broken...but that was a long time ago. In the past 4 years, I put over 100,000 miles on BMW's, without a problem. It just shouldn't have happened with my big Beemer bike. How humiliatin'.
I am thankful that she gave me about 100 miles of warning. Of course, had I not read all of the other stories of rear drive failure, I might not have noticed until much later, when she was protesting loudly, and roughly.
Anyway, my question is, can I replace the bearings/races in the rear drive, after this failure, or does it take a total rebuild/ or replacement (trash the old rear drive???)? In other words, after a failure, with all the CCC (Crud, Crap and Corruption) floating around in the gear grease, does it require replacing seals, and possibly even ring and pinon gears, or can I just replace the failed bearings/ races?
So, what say ye Bros?