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Broken shaft - what to do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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Got some bad news on my '82 GS650L today. First, the background. It was given to me by a friend last fall in non-running condition. I've been working on it, nursing it back to health. Still needs a carb cleaning, but it runs and I've been riding it. An oil leak has been getting worse and worse, though. Upon finding that it was leaking from where the driveshaft goes into the tranny, I decided this was beyond my ability and took it to the local shop. They opened it up, found a loose u-joint and a worn driveshaft, which needed to be replaced. They scoped out a replacement, and were all set to reassemble and get me back on the road today.

That's when they found that the shaft that the driveshaft itself attaches to - the output shaft from the transmission, I suppose - was sheared off! The outer inch or so of the shaft was just floating around loose inside the splines of that end of the driveshaft. Must've been like that when I was given the bike - I can't think of any riding I've done that would've broken it, nor any way the shop could've done it. They were amazed the bike even moved for me. Seems like that shaft needs to be replaced, which would probably involve an intensive disassembly of the transmission. That's $$$ I don't have growing on trees. :(

The other other factor here is a *gasp!* Honda CB650, in perfectly good running order, that he's looking to sell for $600. As much as I'd love to finish the restoration project, if it's going to cost more than a bike that already runs well, I'm hard pressed to proceed further. Plus he can return the $200 driveshaft he got for me and not charge me for it. That's 1/3 of the other bike, right there.

These guys are good, but they're not exactly GS experts, so I turn to you for advice. Is damage like this worth having repaired? Or would I be better off snagging the CB650 and cutting my losses on the poor GS? The GS is my first bike, and I haven't even ridden it 1000 miles yet. Right now, I just want something basic that I can actually ride. The CB650 qualifies. But if a fairly simple repair on the GS is possible, I can do that, clean the carbs myself, and ride off into the sunset.

Any suggestions?

I did try to convince the guy to pull the motor out of a GS1000L I saw in the showroom and drop it into my bike, but he didn't seem too keen on that. :twisted:
 
It's a tough call to make! Being that you are having the work done, (expensive repair) sad :cry: to say it would probably be better to part it out and put the money towards the Honda
 
This can't be true..a shaft drive with troubles, and worn out???

Sometimes it might be easier to swap over where possible...less expensive
 
Saaz, I did joke about swapping the GS1000 motor in... ;)

Yeah, it's a shaftie with a problem. :) No idea how it could've happened - must've been a pre-existing condition when my friend gave it to me. Even he couldn't have been aware of it unless he opened it up himself, and if he was that mechanically inclined, he would've fixed it himself and kept it. :) If it's something the will require opening up the motor, this type of rebuild is more than I feel comfortable doing myself. That, and I was planning to actually RIDE a bike this year. Bugger. :(
 
Zook said:
Yeah, it's a shaftie with a problem. :) No idea how it could've happened - must've been a pre-existing condition when my friend gave it to me. Even he couldn't have been aware of it unless he opened it up himself, and if he was that mechanically inclined, he would've fixed it himself and kept it. :) If it's something the will require opening up the motor, this type of rebuild is more than I feel comfortable doing myself. That, and I was planning to actually RIDE a bike this year. Bugger. :(
Click to expand...

This sounds similar to what happened with my brother's GS1100G once. It had over 100,000km on the clock - touring and commuting. He was a mechanic and religiously maintained the bike, although the odd hard blast was hard to resist of course.

Anyway, his drive broke during or soon after a 1600km run from Melburne to Queensland. The cause was a flaw in the metal which worked it's way out from a machining mark until the piece broke. It took years and many kms to fail.

The thought of something like this breaking catastrophically at speed......
 
In your post you said you were having someone do the work. IF you can do it yourself It would be fixable if you can find a used gear assembly, It's not real hard to replace , just takes time and No you don't have to take the engine apart
BASIC
Remove the wheel,differental,swing arm, unhook motor mounts, loosen the casing bolts in the area of the gear assembly, remove the mounting bolts, raise the engine 3/8-1/2 in for clearence. You will have to pry on it a little to get it out then put it all back together
 
That second one is it:

i-1.JPG


I also need a driveshaft (the first one), but there's no point getting that without the other part. Now that you've found a good pic to reference, the problem is that the threaded portion, on the lower left area of the pic, broke right off inside the driveshaft.
 
Zook said:
That second one is it:

i-1.JPG


I also need a driveshaft (the first one), but there's no point getting that without the other part. Now that you've found a good pic to reference, the problem is that the threaded portion, on the lower left area of the pic, broke right off inside the driveshaft.
Click to expand...

What about extracting (in one piece) the threaded part and welding it back on???

Would something like that hold???
 
These things can happen, even to BMWs and newer bikes. If you do it yourself you save money, and appreciate looking after the beast's mechanical health :)
 
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