Final Drive

[GSLove]

Hi This is my first post to the GS Forums and I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge about using different final drives from different years. I have an 82 GS1100GKZ and when I took the back end apart I noticed that my final gear was in terrible shape, so I am trying to find a good replacement.

I did find a decent one on E-bay from a 79 850, but I don't know if the 79 850 will fit my 82. For information my bike has a 17" rim vs the stock 16".


This is what the final gear looks like on the differential side and the wheel side looks about the same, terrible! Only 84K on the bike.

 

[Guest]

Splines will be the same. Not sure about the 450GA and 650G units, but the splines from the '79 850 all the way through the 2017 Boulevard series are all the same part number. Just try to avoid the '82 units, which have a gold appearance, like yours.

Actually, taking another look at your picture, you have the drive splines in the final drive unit pictured. What usually fails is the driven splines in the wheel. Those are a lot easier to replace. You will want to check those out, too.

The final drive unit itself is a bolt-on replacement for 850, 1000 and 1100, but the '83 units have a slightly taller ratio, 2.9 vs 3.1, which will lower your revs slightly.

 

[Nessism]

The photo shows the actual final drive unit. Those units are typically very robust and last the life of the bike. The splines are supposed to be lubed with heavy moly grease. The wear suggests that this detail was overlooked though. Sadly this is all too common; many people practice the FUF (forget until failure) approach to maintenance.

The final drive units for the bigger 850/1000/1100 bikes all interchange, in fact, they identical other than (as mentioned), for 1983+ the gearset inside the housing is a taller ratio. Since your bike is an '82 that won't be a concern though, unless you want to try the taller ratio unit on your bike. The final drive splines never changed over the years, it was the driven spline in the rear wheel that did. The early splines were black and very robust. Starting in something like '81 though Suzuki used a different heat treatment process and those splines fail. Even when they do though they rarely wear out the splines in the final drive unit though. At any rate, if your rear spline in the rear wheel is goldish colored I'd just replace it straight away, along with the final drive. Final drives are dime a dozen on ebay, in fact it costs more to ship the thing than purchase it.

Good luck

 

[GSLove]

Thank you for all the great advice you guys are awesome! The spline in the rear wheel is definitely finished as well, so that will need replacing. I was going to check the availability of the rear wheel spline from my local parts supplier who is currently listing it for a price of $211 CAD according to the parts fiche.

 

[kochic]

I have few black drive spline, just PM me.
I'm in canada too.
Marc

 

[GSLove]

Thanks Marc, PM sent!

 

[Nessism]

The black 850 driven splines are good ones. Exception being the very early type that were recalled. Those use separate bolts as I recall and the casting is not as robust as the later type.

 

[GSLove]

New final drive and mating wheel drive on the way. Final drive from an 80 GS1000 and the mating drive from a Suzuki VS800GL. Well see how everything fits together, fingers crossed!

 

[GSLove]

I just received the wheel side of the final drive today and I was wondering if the height difference (roughly .1875" or 3/16") from my old one compared to the one I received matters?
The part number that I purchased was 64680-45113 which apparently replaces 64680-45112 (originally on my bike). The only difference is the height because as you can see it fits perfectly in place and the spline line up as they should.

 

[kochic]

This is the part suzuki send you when you order a drive flange.It fit all drive shaft bike from 1979 to 2017.

Marc

 

[Redman]

Hi This is my first post to the GS Forums and I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge about using different final drives from different years. I have an 82 GS1100GKZ and when I took the back end apart I noticed that my final gear was in terrible shape, so I am trying to find a good replacement.

I did find a decent one on E-bay from a 79 850, but I don't know if the 79 850 will fit my 82. For information my bike has a 17" rim vs the stock 16".

View attachment 52561
This is what the final gear looks like on the differential side and the wheel side looks about the same, terrible! Only 84K on the bike.

Hum... my experince, and seemily the expereince of others here, is that the splines on the hub in the wheel (called "joint assembly" on microfisch) can and do wear* but the splines on the final drive survive without wear, even after the wheel hub has worn and then completly strip out.

* especailly the original 1982 ones. Earlyer years and later years and new replacment one not so much, if properly greased.

About the final drive, I half recal that some years of GKs had a somewhat differetn gear ratio.

Yes, If look at original Suzuki microfisch (sheet D9, Propeller Shaft & Final Gear) , can see that is a part number for the "final bevel gear set" for GKZ/GK2 (1982/late 82) and and a differnt part numnber for GKD (83).

And on the microfische (the plastic film, take to library viewer/printer, not what might be online at some parts supplyer) is an other column of info of "remarks" (maybe not online). And the remarks are "NT:11/34" for the GKZ/GK2 part number 27300-45811
and "NT:11/32" for the GKD part number 27300-49810.
I would think those ##/## numbers are gear ratios (Number Teeth?). I dont know what such ratio numbers would be for nonGK 1100s or other G. But maybe you can check the part numbers.

 

[Steve]

About the final drive, I half recal that some years of GKs had a somewhat differetn gear ratio.

Yes, If look at original Suzuki microfisch (sheet D9, Propeller Shaft & Final Gear) , can see that is a part number for the "final bevel gear set" for GKZ/GK2 (1982/late 82) and and a differnt part numnber for GKD (83).

And on the microfische (the plastic film, take to library viewer/printer, not what might be online at some parts supplyer) is an other column of info of "remarks" (maybe not online). And the remarks are "NT:11/34" for the GKZ/GK2 part number 27300-45811
and "NT:11/32" for the GKD part number 27300-49810.
I would think those ##/## numbers are gear ratios (Number Teeth?). I dont know what such ratio numbers would be for nonGK 1100s or other G. But maybe you can check the part numbers.

Yes, the "NT" is for Number of Teeth. All of the shafties from 850 to 1100, from '79 through '82 shared one part number. It had the 11/34 ratio or 3.1. The '83-and-up 1100s (G, GL and GK) all got the 11/32 ratio, or 2.9.

.

 

[MikeS]

> "This is what the final gear looks like on the differential side . . ."

Thanks for posting the picture. It shows just where and how the wear starts.

My '82 with gold driven spline is holding up fine at 39K. Almost all of my driving is around the city/county of San Diego - so it's stop-start, accelerate, etc. Some freeway of course, but it's mostly drivetrain high-stress driving. I'm looking at a tire change just about anytime. I've got a good 1000 miles left on the rear but when they get worn is when flats occur so it could be anytime that I get a chance to look at my spline. I'll report back. Seems like some of the gold colored splines are more durable than others. It seems we can't reliably go by color nor by year. Supposedly '82 was a bad year I think I've read. So far, the spline is doing fine.

I have my '79 in the back yard sitting under a tarp so if I ever need to replace the spline I know where to go.

Mike