84 Honda Elite 125 questions...

You put oil in the final drive, right?

Yep, changed both oils when I got it and just checked the levels again the other night.

Pulled the rear wheel tonight to see if the squeak/squeal sound went away and it seems to have. The only real bearing is in the bottom of the shock and that turns freely but not smooth, can feel the bearings hit as I turn it. It doesn't feel real bad but maybe its the culprit. The shaft is also a bit off from straight, not terrible but maybe the two in conjunction are causing the noise. No idea how hard it would be to find a new shaft but I'll check into it or maybe this one can be straightened. Is it a bitch to get off? I think I'll just replace the bearing, hopefully I can get one at my local bearing supplier. Pics to come. Should have shot a video of the shaft in movement, might do that later.

Bearing in question...



Brake shoes, how do they look? I know nothing about drum brakes and can't measure them tonight...



The bottom end of the housing is oily, is that a concern?



Sorry about the crappy iPhone pics.

It wasn't the bearing causing the squeak. Changed that out tonight and put the wheel back on, it's coming from the drive unit. Could be from the slightly out of true drive shaft, maybe the belt but it isn't consistent so I doubt it's that. I either tear the drive apart or just put it back together and sell it once it warms up. I'm waiting for the title to come, that'll make it pretty easy to sell. I don't want to ride it without resolving the issue and I have two other bikes waiting for winter service.
Question: With the drive shaft slightly bent, could that be causing the noise? Could the belt cause a noise like this? I can pick up a used on on ebay for around $30. I can't hear the noise with the wheel off but it's easy to hear with the wheel mounted. I'm guessing because there's weight on the shaft.
Ready to hang it up and forget about scooting for awhile.

Plan B:
Put it back together, ride the piss out of it and when the squeaking stops and something breaks pull the plate and plastics off, sell the parts on fleabay and say the hell with it, it was fun while it lasted. People already look at me funny when I ride it so the squeak isn't that big of a deal I guess.

If the 125 is anything like the 150 in this respect, the shaft is held in the transmission case with a press-fitted bearing, and if you remove the shaft, you need to replace that bearing, too, and hopefully with the appropriate tools, i.e. a bearing driver.

and I don't have that tool. Thinking maybe I should just ride it til it stops.

When you mentioned the bearing in the shaft it got me wondering. Could it be a bad bearing that is causing the shaft to wobble? I might have the tools to press a new bearing in at work. When I turn the shaft by hand I don't feel anything out of the norm though and that makes me think its the shaft, not the bearing. I should feel friction otherwise right?

TBH I'm just going off the service manual, and my general experience. Bearings aren't my specialty. Do you have the drive plates and other stuff taken off the transmission side of the shaft? If all that is off, I would assume that it should turn freely by hand, with little to no noise. You could always try to scrub it out with a toothbrush, not a wire brush, and some light cleaner, NOT WD-40. After that try cramming in some new waterproof grease, not too much, and see if that helps.

If you ONLY have the wheel off, as is shown in the pictures, I don't think you can access the bearing itself, and when you spin it by hand, you'll hear lots of noises, since you're spinning all the gears and whatnot in the transmission, too.

Hope that helped some...

I haven't pulled the drive apart yet, just have the wheel off. Guess that's next on the list. Might as well dig in there and see what's going on.

I've yet to take mine apart, but I think the preferred method is to put the wheel back on so you can wedge something in it, braced against the transmission case, to keep it from spinning while you take off the nut at the end of that shaft. I think there is another CH150 thread around here that talks about all that, as it's part of the same process you have to go through to get access to the clutch bell housing, and the roller weights in the driven face.

People have talked about needing an impact wrench to get that nut off...So be prepared to either use that or a breaker bar with the correct socket. Not something you want to round off, heh. Good luck!

I checked the roller weights last week, was able to get the nut on the housing off by wedging a long screwdriver through the fins on the cover and bracing it while I loosened the nut. They looked pretty good so I put them back and didn't replace them. I think it might be the shaft bushing and that's what I will look at next.

Decided to pull the drive unit apart finally and tonight was spent trying to loosen the nut on the clutch. No love there. Tried everything including buying an el cheapo impact wrench at HF and wasn't able to loosen that damn nut. I hit it with penetrating oil a few times and also with the torch, no luck. I'll let it sit over night and hopefully tomorrow will bring better results. How the hell do you guys loosen that sucker?

I'll have to double check my service manual tonight, but....Maybe it's left hand thread?

I put the socket on the nut, put a breaker bar on the socket, put a 30 inch steel pipe over the breaker bar, sat on the scooter and stepped on the brake with my right foot and the pipe with my left. It's better if you have someone else step on the brake because then you won't fall off the bike when the nut turns. Use Craftsman tools so if you bust something they replace it. It's not a left thread.

Thanks for that! I prefer to wedge something in the wheel to keep it from spinning. The brakes just don't have as much leverage. But, whatever works, works...

I'm borrowing a tool to hold the cover in place and then I'll use the breaker bar to get this sucker off. I was pretty sure it wasn't a reverse thread but thanks for verifying that Wentwest. It'd be easier with two people that's for sure. I'll tackle it again tonight and that suckers coming off.

Finally! Got the clutch housing off with a spanner wrench and breaker bar. The gears look good and the axle also appears to be straight. The middle gear bearing is missing on bearing (they are rods not balls) and there is play in the axle (see video link below. The axel bearing spins freely but the play bothers me and is a problem I suspect. The bearings on the outside of the axle bearings are ball bearings and they look pretty good. It's pretty clean in there for a bike this old. Hopefully the video shows the play in the axle and that's the problem since I don't want to tear this apart without fixing the issue.




Not sure if you can see the play in the axle but it's about 1/8" at the end when I push it back and forth. Guessing that's the problem. The axle seats in nice and tight so the play is in the bearing itself.

Video link goes to photobucket, but the video is not playing. Says "video not found"

Sorry about that, you tube is messing with me and this is the only way I could link it. Anyhow, it's got play in the bearing and the axle although seating tight is able to move when I push it sideways. Seems to me the problem is that bearing.
I'll try to post on You Tube again.

Let's see if this works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdgvSH4Nn1c&feature=youtu.be

That YT link works great. Unfortunately I have nothing to offer about the shaft, sorry man.