Final Drive Was Leaking Gear Oil

[ringadingh]

I went for a short ride on Saturday, and when we returned home I noticed that my rear wheel was covered in gear oil. Since it was not dripping out at the driveshaft boot. I figured it was one of the other seals in the final drive rather than the more common pinion shaft seal. I removed the wheel and final drive unit and after checking determined that it was the inner ring gear seal, the hardest one to replace. I checked in my manual to see what I was up against and decide to give it a shot.
I started by removing the lock collar that holds the pinion gear in the case and then pulled it out. I replaced the pinion shaft seal since I had it apart already with a standard seal from the bearing supplier, its a standard 40x52x7 nitrile seal an $8.00 part.


Then I removed the bolts that hold the ring gear assembly together and pulled the ring gear out of the case as well.


Once the case was empty you can see the bearing and seal in the bottom of the hole, in the last picture. I removed them both and replaced the seal with a new one. It was available at my local bearing supplier for $7.00 its a standard 35x47x7 nitrile seal. If the inner ring gear bearing needs to be replaced that will be a dealer item, since it is an automotive type p/n and isn't available to industrial suppliers.Then it was just a matter of putting it back together again. Its not that bad a job once youve done it, but it was quite intimidating while I read up on it. As long as you pu it back together with the shims in the same way it came apart it should be fine. The pinion gear and shaft comes out all together so there is no preloading or shimming required, its the same for the ring gear assembly, as long as you dont dissasemble any further it fine.
I mounted the final drive and wheel back on the bike and filled it with oil. After about a 25 mile ride around town and on the highway everything looks and feels ok so far. I'll keep my eye on it for a bit and see if it stays dry. There is only one more seal that I havn't replaced yet, and its the large outer ring gear seal, it looks good so far, but when the time comes it looks like an easy one to replace, you could probably do it on the bike if you had to. I was told that it is also a dealer item, just like the inner bearing is.

[Scoot]

Ring!!! your alot braver than me.

But good job on describing what you did I will be bookmarking this.

Thanks

[Yellow Jacket]

Good job! Made it sound very easy.

[towering]

Thanks for the details.

[Idaho]

Ring boldly goes where no one has gone before..........and leads us out of the dark.

WAY TO GO.

[VulcanE]

Congrats on a job well done Ring. Does make you feel all "warm & fuzzy" inside when you do it yourself. After you ride it 25-30 miles, feel of it with your hand just to make sure it's not heating up.

[ringadingh]

Originally Posted by VulcanE

Congrats on a job well done Ring. Does make you feel all "warm & fuzzy" inside when you do it yourself. After you ride it 25-30 miles, feel of it with your hand just to make sure it's not heating up.

I did check itas you said, as so far its all good.

[dogdoc]

thx for the pics and write-up Ring.

[cactusjack]

Very impressive! Pictures are always good.

[macmac]

Very nice bit of work and outstanding pics... My hat is off to you Sir.

Yer most humble and Obt servant Mac.....

[cyclecat]

Can you tell me what you used to pull the bearing out of the final drive to replace the seal underneath? Can you post a picture of the gear puller you used? I had to change that same seal on my Ruby 2 years ago and we could not find a gear puller the right size so we invented a type of slide hammer to remove the bearing. We went to numerous machine shops and no one had a gear puller small enough to get in between the bearing and seal. We had the largest stealer in Southern Alberta tell us they never pull that bearing, because there is no puller for it, they just replace the whole final drive and charge people $1500.00 for the new final drive. I can't believe anybody being dumb enough to pay for a new final drive but unfortunately most people believe what the stealers tell them.

[johnb]

Excellent! Great job documenting the work. I envy your ability to take on the job. Hats off to you.

[caddman11]

Great pics and write up---really appreciated. Gives me an idea of something I'm going to have to do down the road.

[ndbigfish]

I don't know about "warm and fuzzy" but I'm glad to see you were able to fix it and save the approximate <s>$1,485 </s>in parts. Excellent. Thanks for sharing your success.
Just checked the price for the OEM Final Drive......$1,866.97

[ringadingh]

Originally Posted by CycleCat

Can you tell me what you used to pull the bearing out of the final drive to replace the seal underneath? Can you post a picture of the gear puller you used? I had to change that same seal on my Ruby 2 years ago and we could not find a gear puller the right size so we invented a type of slide hammer to remove the bearing. We went to numerous machine shops and no one had a gear puller small enough to get in between the bearing and seal. We had the largest stealer in Southern Alberta tell us they never pull that bearing, because there is no puller for it, they just replace the whole final drive and charge people $1500.00 for the new final drive. I can't believe anybody being dumb enough to pay for a new final drive but unfortunately most people believe what the stealers tell them.

There is a puller available for that bearing according to the manual, it is a slide hammer, Im not sure what the end of it looks like though. I used a brass drift punch and carefully tapped it out.
After prying out the damaged seal, and replacing it with the new one, I tapped the bearing back in carefully. Its a fairly robust bearing for its size with a sturdy outer race so I figured it could stand some gentle tapping.
I cant see anyone replacing the complete final drive for that seal alone, Even if they sold you a new bearing and seal, why couldn't they tap out the old bearing and seal and press in the new ones.
I guess if people don't understand what is involved, they are at the mercy of the dealer.