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Dreaded Final Drive Failure?


WBoyter

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I'm on the last couple days before returning home to DFW.

Two days ago I was out tooling the forest service roads out on the peninsula around Olympic NP, and a little while after I got back to pavement I started noticed a slight grinding whine coming from the bike when I engaged power. Since I just replaced the front wheel bearings a week ago my first thought was that the problem might be originating from that.

 

Last night I tooled around Lewiston, ID with my helmet off and the cases off to see if I could isolate the sound. I swear it sounds like it's coming from the back end of the bike. I'm going to wait for the Mac's Cycle on the other side of the river to open and have them look at it.

 

Any insight into this? Anybody else have this problem yet? The bike is 13 months old and just clicked over 50k on the clock.

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Rocket_Cowboy
Thanks big'n.

Y'know, I feel a Central Texas RTE should be in order soon...

 

I'm down with that!

 

As a point of reference, we dumped the final drive oil on my 06RT at 12K, and the resulting mess caused concern with my service manual. We're keeping a close eye on it over the next few thousand miles to see if that was just crap built up from break-in, or if it's actively shaving metal off.

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What's it feel like when rotated by hand on the center stand? If the crown bearing is going south you should be able to feel the roughness.

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Don_Eilenberger
What's it feel like when rotated by hand on the center stand? If the crown bearing is going south you should be able to feel the roughness.
Ken - it was my understanding (perhaps incorrect..) that the hexhead rear drive did away with the large roller bearing "crown bearing" design, and went to simple tapered bearings.

 

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.do?model=0398&mospid=49569&hg=33&fg=10

 

Is there a big bearing there I'm missing?

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it was my understanding (perhaps incorrect..) that the hexhead rear drive did away with the large roller bearing "crown bearing" design, and went to simple tapered bearings.
That's true. Poor choice of words on my part. Still, can you feel any harshness in the FD?
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I rolled into DFW this morning around 2am. I'm going to take to Dallas BMW in the morning. And I meant to add that I now have no odo/speedo/ABS either. Are they all linked? I lost it all about the same time. But happily was able to put on the additional 3k+ to bring it home. When I stopped at the BMW in Lewiston, ID the man told me that his tech was ought until yesterday, so I decided just to go for it.

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This is how the thing feels: if I engage power, slight grinding; if I use the engine to slow the bike, or simply slack speed, significant grinding. If I pull the clutch, no sound at all. I made it home on it, but the bike now has approx 54,000 miles on it(13 months old), and I'll take it to the dealership tomorrow. Good thing I bought that extended warranty on it. I guess I'll find out how well they'll back it up. When I met Jamie in San Diego this past March he was very emphatic about me getting it, especially after hearing how many miles I was racking up. Good advice.

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Does this mean that I'll owe you a beer or something the next time I pull through San Diego?
If you DO get to San Diego again, the room's free this time . . . and the beer's on me! clap.gifgrin.gif
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