Just another FINAL DRIVE nightmare....with a twist

[Pcfly]

Jeezus dude.......we understand your not a happy camper but lighten up a bit!!

Yes, it's odd two bikes, two different years, at the same point in the road suffered the same failure.....that's the main point so back track from there! Sounds like the last service the bikes went through were bad; has nothing to do with the terrain IMHO. Sounds like the drain plug was lost or loosened and you lost oil?! On a very grimy dirt road it's hard to mistake oil from dirt back their.....I had this happen before while riding hard in Death Valley. I had the thing checked out and re-oiled. My point is if you drain oil from the exact same engine, FD, or whatever, near the same time/point, chances are a failure will occur very close to one another. This sounds more your problem then any other plausible scenario. Just my 2cents.

[Anorak]

Originally Posted by Pcfly

Jeezus dude.......we understand your not a happy camper but lighten up a bit!!

Yes, it's odd two bikes, two different years, at the same point in the road suffered the same failure.....that's the main point so back track from there! Sounds like the last service the bikes went through were bad; has nothing to do with the terrain IMHO. Sounds like the drain plug was lost or loosened and you lost oil?! On a very grimy dirt road it's hard to mistake oil from dirt back their.....I had this happen before while riding hard in Death Valley. I had the thing checked out and re-oiled. My point is if you drain oil from the exact same engine, FD, or whatever, near the same time/point, chances are a failure will occur very close to one another. This sounds more your problem then any other plausible scenario. Just my 2cents.

Sounds like we can't make any educated guesses until we have more information. But, the uneducated are free to add as much speculative background noise as possible.

[Adrian7073]

Sounds made up.

[Foot dragger]

Originally Posted by BobbySands

Bog off down the thumpers forum, toad.

why haunt a forum about a bike you cannot stand?

Touchy,Touchy, Its only a bike.

[FOREVER HANDSOME]

Originally Posted by bobbysands

bog off down the thumpers forum, toad.

Why haunt a forum about a bike you cannot stand?

+1

[Pcfly]

Originally Posted by Anorak

Sounds like we can't make any educated guesses until we have more information. But, the uneducated are free to add as much speculative background noise as possible.

Is it me or is it stuffy in here?? Not sure how to take this.....Spark-plug.

[ontklrrider]

You can debate clean vs dirty oil, the kind of oil, bad design, dusty conditions, overloaded bike etc. The fact remains that this is an unacceptable problem that BMW has to set right. My expectations, with over 35 year of touring, and many different bikes is that nothing more than a fork seal or flat is acceptable. My son and I just completed a cross country trip of 12000 kms on an 86 concours and an 08 KLR. No issues (again). My friend has over 350,000 km on his concours and not one trip breakdown. Maybe its pure luck, but that is what I have come to expect. I have wanted the BMW GS for years and its these threads (and price) that keep me away. I do believe I will be ordering the Super Tenere for next season.

[Pcfly]

Originally Posted by ontklrrider

You can debate clean vs dirty oil, the kind of oil, bad design, dusty conditions, overloaded bike etc. The fact remains that this is an unacceptable problem that BMW has to set right. My expectations, with over 35 year of touring, and many different bikes is that nothing more than a fork seal or flat is acceptable. My son and I just completed a cross country trip of 12000 kms on an 86 concours and an 08 KLR. No issues (again). My friend has over 350,000 km on his concours and not one trip breakdown. Maybe its pure luck, but that is what I have come to expect. I have wanted the BMW GS for years and its these threads (and price) that keep me away. I do believe I will be ordering the Super Tenere for next season.

Don't worry.......they started a "FD failure" thread on the S10 forum too.

[Emoto]

Originally Posted by Pcfly

Don't worry.......they started a "FD failure" thread on the S10 forum too.

[rebelpacket]

Originally Posted by Englishmatt

As a former KTM 990 owner, I've taken crap over the past year about the final drives...and I've defended it everytime. Now with both bikes coming home on a trailer I look like a chump.

Some serious negative mechanical karma voodoo points for talking up your motorcycle to friends. Talk all you want about how fantastic it handles. As soon as you start talking about how mechanically sound it is, it'll blow a piston on you, or pee oil on your garage floor.

[JV]

Seal failure with some of this shit thrown in doesn't seem like it would help matters.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/art...ds-1460145.php

[John Smallberries]

Originally Posted by Englishmatt

Here ya go...feast on this.

My bike is a 2010 GSA, my brothers is a 2009 GSA. July 2nd we left Atlanta, GA and ran up to Prudhoe bay.
At the start of the trip my bike had 13K, his bike had 8K.

Matt.

I'm curious about BMW's venting strategy. I believe they had a FD vent and remote hose on the older 1150 bikes. My '05 1200GS has no FD vent at all. Sometime within the last year, vents started showing up with no remote breather hoses. The new vent looks much like the one that is on the transmission of my '05.

Did your '10 GSA have this vent? I expect the '09 did not.

Did either leak oil to any noticeable degree before the no-drive failure?

[TooTallRacing]

If you've never done anything more than taken your GS/A on long touring rides, with occasional gravel road excursions, you'll not understand the beating these bikes took along the Alaska, Yukon and BC roads. You'll not understand how remote some of the places are in this country and just how unsettling a final drive weakness is when you are 400 miles from any town, not to mention cell phone coverage to even call for assistance.

This is so true.

I own a 07 GSA and have also just returned from Alaska. While performing my post trip maintenance and inspection I noticed play in the rear wheel. I drained the FD oil and it looked great, and there was no metal fragments on the speed sensor.

While researching the issue I received good advice from two inmates (rebelpacket, JVB). I was told to apply the rear brake and see if the play went away. If the play was still present when the brake was on it could be paralever bearings or swing arm bearings.

I have found that the swingarm bearings were toasted, and one paralever bearing was questionable at best. I am current waiting on replacement bearings so I have my fingers crossed.

If it turns out to be a FD issue I will ship it to largiader and he will make it better than new.

My bike has 57K on it.

The roads up North are brutal. My air filter was filled with a very abrasive grit.

Good Luck with your bike EM

[Englishmatt]

Originally Posted by Pcfly

Jeezus dude.......we understand your not a happy camper but lighten up a bit!!

Yes, it's odd two bikes, two different years, at the same point in the road suffered the same failure.....that's the main point so back track from there! Sounds like the last service the bikes went through were bad; has nothing to do with the terrain IMHO. Sounds like the drain plug was lost or loosened and you lost oil?! On a very grimy dirt road it's hard to mistake oil from dirt back their.....I had this happen before while riding hard in Death Valley. I had the thing checked out and re-oiled. My point is if you drain oil from the exact same engine, FD, or whatever, near the same time/point, chances are a failure will occur very close to one another. This sounds more your problem then any other plausible scenario. Just my 2cents.

Thanks for the laugh!!! The theory of a loosened or lost drain plug, on both bikes is priceless! Truly thinking outside the FD box and I appreciate it.

Not sure why I didn't think to look and make sure I still had the drain plugs in both bikes...

For your scenario to work....BOTH bikes would have had to have lost the fluids at the same time. If you read my originial post, you'll see that I had the outer seal go bad in BC and Vancouver BMW replaced it and the FD oil.

I should be hearing from the dealer tomorrow....I'll let you all know what they say. It does make sense that dirt/sand/grim etc...may have entered via the boot and worked it's way into the FD housing. That's some what logical.

If that turns out to be the case, I'll know next time to pull the boot back and blow out any shite after riding the Dalton.

Neither the '09 or '10 have external venting...unless I'm missing something.

[Renegade_Azzy]

Originally Posted by mcstark

Thank you Yamaha for making that bike. Now people will stop calling the GS-series ugly. A face only a mother could love.

Or Kamen Rider fans, but I digress.....