Rear wheel flange cracks (update: Recall issued)

Would that be the spacer ring? There is not a seal as part of the replacement for the flange. You haven't removed a seal, and there is no where for a new seal to actually seal anything.

Edit: Is that even the diagram for the 1200GS? Or is the picture shown in reverse or something?

Not sure how to insert a drawing, but that looks a lot different the the one for the R1200GS that I have seen. See this site

http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51556&rnd=04302013

That's the original diagram. It shows the assembly sequence associated with the now superceded alloy flange. The seal (or o-ring) is/may be required when re-fitting the original alloy flange. But if you are installing the replacement steel flange, all you need is the flange plus spacer (which is not shown in the diagram), and maybe a replacement circlip if you butchered the original during removal.

That was from the maxbmw site. Diagram# 33_1265 for the 05-07 GS. Perhaps you are looking at 33_1224? I don't know what is correct here; I merely posted what I found.

As mentioned and shown by farcall, all you need is the flange and spacer ring.

That is all I needed.

Jim

I wonder....

The original style flange had a solid aluminum lip that sat near the seal in the FD housing. One of the mid style versions used a fiber lip as part of the flange. It is the flange on top of the following pic.



I don't know what is supposed to come with the newest steel version. I would expect something to perform the same function as the fiber or solid lips on the earlier versions.

I would suspect the spacer does the function of keeping large debris from entering the area between flange and seal.

Not to mention keeping the wheel from wandering up and down the splines with the narrower flange!

Jim

That was a given...

Just replaced the rear flange on my 05 yesterday and was wondering what the fiber part of the spacer was for, it looks like it may be to protect the drive bearing/seal from heat during the installation, the metal part fits snug and obviously will keep most contamination out.

My flange swap was a bitch, not much trouble getting the old one (4 cracks in wheel lug portion) off but after thoroughly cleaning the shaft and heating the new steel unit in the oven @400F for an hour, I was only able to get it about halfway on before it stopped, had to build a makeshift installer from thread-stock and a bunch of hardware, and then it took cooling the inside of the shaft with dry ice and heating the flange with a propane torch half a dozen times to get it to seat all the way.
I was having visions of having to remove the drive and get a BMW dealer or machine shop involved, it sure wasn't as easy for me as some have reported.

Right about here is when all the good time stopped and things got difficult.

Glad, sorry for you, to see I am not the only one who had trouble getting the new one on.

Jim

OK, so here are the results, 1 month later.

Got the new flange and spacer ring, installed the spacer, heated the new flange and put it in. The rear wheel had some play after the install, but not as much as the old flange.

Some play would later result in much more play, so that could not be good. It was not. 500 kms later, the wheel had the same amount of play as with the old aluminum cracked flange...

So I had some aluminum electrodes(sort of like soldering stuff) that you heat the part you want to put the liquid aluminum on and get a thin layer of coating on the flange spline surface. I had nothing that would get me the needed 400 degrees so I went to a local welding shop, and have them do the work.

The most experienced guy there did not like the solution :) Good thing we tested that on a raw piece of aluminum first, instead of the flange... The needed heat would first destroy the aluminum piece, rather than to get the electrode to melt. So it was not the solution...

Instead, the welder gave me this paste like grey stuff, 2 plastic jars, each containing something (that I still don't know what) that needed to be mixed together in 3/4 parts of the main product and 1/4 parts of the second (perhaps a catalyst?), apply it on the surface and have it dry for 48 hours.

Since it was the last thing I could try, I did it. Cleaned everything good, put in the spacer ring, then applied the grey mixture on the FD splines, put in the new upgraded flange and left it untouched for 48 hrs, as told to. (the flange did not need centering, since it was not that loose on the splines; in case it would need, I would have used a thin copper wire and have that work as a spacer to equally distribute the difference between the flange and the splines).

Then I left for a 2 week trip to Nordkapp :)

In the meantime, the owner of the bike also went for a 5k kms trip trough Europe and the flange still looks solid, there is no play in the rear wheel and it looks strong.

Just wanted to share this with everyone else :)

Thanks,
Dan Cata

So I have a question about this ... mine has cracks on the rotor bolts and it's the aluminum flange ... my mechanic loaned me an extra flange to test on, seeing I'm also a weldor ... haven't touched it yet because I keep going back/forth on best way ... which I believe is as follows:
1) plug weld rotor bolts
2) drill/tap new rotor bolts

I also thought about:
1) grinding cracks
2) reinforcing/hard surfacing cracks

Any experience with this?

Are these things cracking due to normal use? or are you guys (or dealers and repair facilities) using impact wrenches on your wheel/rotor bolts?

Dave
Atlanta, GA
2005 R1200GS

Normal use.

Just normal use. I just replaced the flange on mine (gave the dealer my final drive and had them press it in). 60k miles and All brake bolt holes were cracked. That with the new driveshaft and it was an expensive day!. My bike had an output shaft seal leak and I thought I was gonna dig in there and just replace a seal. Yeah right! I recommend everyone inspect this flange often.
Andy

So I had seen this thread pop up here and there flipped through it. Well I just had a new rear mounted on the rim and figured I'd inspect mine. So after cleaning it up I discovered all the brake ears are cracked and 4 of 5 wheel lugs.

I picked the bike up (2005 GS but midish 04 build) with 25k miles, and now have more than double that. This would be the third tire I've mounted. Also the bike had the rear rotor replaced at 18k by a dealer and needs a new one again.

Other than all the above crappy stuff I just put on new pads to nurse the rotor to spring. Looks like $500 in parts, and a bit of reading. So by the time I'm done with the big service (brake bleed etc) BMW should be able to certify me as a BMW mech. I would like to thank Jim for the invaluable assistance he has provided, albeit unknowingly.

That all said if this thing didn't see 2-3x the use of my other bikes I would question the maintenance it needs.

Last week it was u-joints on my 05 gs.Today i took the rear wheel off and found cracks on the disc mounting ears.Looks like i know what i will be doing Monday.Bike has 79,800 miles on it.

Max BMW had parts to me in a week. It was $340 ish for parts.

I took the old one off before it got too hot this morning. It turns out my 05 (04 build) is an early hub with the pressed in nuts so no real surprise it's cracked. A closer look shows EVERY lug, wheel and disk, is cracked.

I got an axle puller and a front drive hub puller from autozone. The front hub puller bolt pattern is too small but I needed the bolt to use on the axle puller. They typically send the axle puller with a slide hammer. I didn't like that idea. I did have to make an insert for the tool to press on. I used 1/4 Aluminium. The insert took longer to make than pulling the hub.

A smaller red bull can (8 oz?) slides right inside the axle. So I filled 2 with water and froze them. I split but the other worked like a charm.

Ill rejig the puller to try and use it like a press and Tomorrow comes the install! Ill try and take a picture of what I come up with if I can get it to work.