Is this the end? Possible transmission failure

[Guest]

Hello,

Went on an afternoon ride today with my 1982 GS1100GK (~17,500 miles on the odometer). After less than 5 miles the bike slowed down and it felt like there was no connection between the engine and the wheel anymore. Revving the engine did not result in acceleration but in loud grinding noises. I was not able to ride the bike anymore and had to call AAA.

Using the gear lever resulted in changing numbers on the gear indicator but I was not able to ride the bike anymore. This does not seem to be a slipping clutch. I adjusted the clutch a few weeks ago according to the shop manual and the clutch worked fine afterwards for a few rides.

This failure today occurred without any warning and I am wondering what the cause is. I very much hope this is not the end of my beloved GS!

I would appreciate your input and advice.

 

[rphillips]

Probably splines in rear hub. do a search up there at top right, should be plenty to read about it... Not near as bad as transmission.

 

[Grimly]

Rear hub splines the most common (having said that, it doesn't happen all that often). Followed by the stub shaft on the secondary drive fracturing, but that usually clanks and rattles, so you know something is wrong. Actually losing drive totally down to a major internal fault is very rare.

 

[Nessism]

The rear spline, in the wheel, is guaranteed to fail. Suzuki messed up with the material hardening for a few years, but fixed the problem and now offers good parts.

JOINT

64680-45113

https://www.partzilla.com/product/suzuki/64680-45113?ref=d5d3c122c1eea3694337e97077f34bd5cb5bd9ce

The other part that sometimes fails on the 1100G is the secondary drive gears. That's far rarer though. When they go, you have to replace the driven gear on the backside of the engine. I'd replace the rear spline regardless, and tackle the secondary drive gear as necessary.

 

[dpep]

Been there, done that. The bad splines started with the '82 models. The mean time between failure has seemed to be around 30,000. 17,500 is early but it would depend upon how it was ridden (and if the speedo is the original).
.

 

[Guest]

Great, thank you everyone for your quick response, this doesn’t sound as bad as I thought. Will remove the rear wheel ASAP and inspect the spline.

 

[Nessism]

The spline requires a special high moly grease, that most owners don't know about. Application of said grease at tire change intervals seems sufficient for the need. If you search the internet you will find lots of info about different suitable spline lubes. This is a good one with 50+% moly...https://www.amazon.com/Corning-Molykote-Lubricant-Silicone-Container/dp/B00B3UUFR4/

 

[oldGSfan]

The spline requires a special high moly grease, that most owners don't know about. Application of said grease at tire change intervals seems sufficient for the need. If you search the internet you will find lots of info about different suitable spline lubes. This is a good one with 50+% moly...https://www.amazon.com/Corning-Molykote-Lubricant-Silicone-Container/dp/B00B3UUFR4/

Always impressed the solid knowledge you know and share! I recall when I had an Isuzu Trooper the rear diff started whining and the shop put some more moly (I think) and the noise went away. I feel like my Willys Dana 44's could use bacon grease, that truck is so simple and stout.

 

[Redman]

Great, thank you everyone for your quick response, this doesn’t sound as bad as I thought. Will remove the rear wheel ASAP and inspect the spline.

yep
hub IN rear wheel is likley culprit. We call it Hub, in microfiche is called joint assembly.

I have seen it occure on other bike, and caught it before actually happened on my GK.

yes, remove rear wheel to inspect. But you need to understand that the area the wears and then fails is not the area you will see. What you see may look okay, but need to look/feel past that, further in.

the replacement OEM part has been available (and is improved since the 1982 version).
Another option is sometimes can find a rear wheel on eBay that still has the hub, listed for lot
less than a hub itself (only if seller ignorant of the value of the hub).

So, learn about this hub, and how to replace it, and about the moly grease (50 or 60 percent, not 2 or 5). And then inspect and regrease hub every time the rear wheel is off.

 

[Redman]

Are a lot of different aspects that you need to learn about this rear hub. And are lots of posts/threads about it.

But relative to the aspect of the wear pattern on the hub, here is photo of my hub (top) that I caught before it completly failed (as comapred to a new one).

Note how the wear is not all the way across the splines. The wear area is where it mates up to the spines on the final drive. THe erea that doesnt wear is the end you will see when remove the rear wheel and look at the hub. You need to look further into the wheel, or feel with stiff wire or something.

How to remove the hub from the wheel is another subject.

 

[Guest]

I seem to recall something about gold vs silver gears to distinguish between the proper and the weaker version?

 

[Grimly]

I seem to recall something about gold vs silver gears to distinguish between the proper and the weaker version?

Early splines were all-black, they were almost indestructble. For a couple of years (81,82,) the gold-coloured gears were either made of an inferior material or lacked proper heat-treatment. Those are the ones that peg out early.
Later splines are silver-coloured and are the ones in current production fitted to some boulevard cruisers. They've not yet given any trouble, and theyve been around a long time now.

I'll point out that even the best splines will take it badly if they're never lubed and run in harsh conditions.

 

[Nessism]

The earliest of 1979 850 splines (black colored) were recalled, because the hardware holding them into the wheel could loosen up. If properly managed, though, they are perfectly serviceable. These were replaced by the "good" black splines which were indestructible. Sometimes you can buy a used rear wheel from ebay, with spline, and save some money that way compared to buying a new silver spline from Suzuki. The bad "gold" splines ran for several model years. I don't know the exact time frame though.

Edit: here is a good spline in this 850 wheel
https://www.ebay.com/itm/291623564656

 

[craz1]

And another example

 

[alke46]

Sure glad I finally wised up and started using chains.

 

[Guest]

Good info and pics! Thanks. Can't always trust the grey matter, it's getting pretty old and grey, lol

That last set made me cringe

 

[Guest]

…and another example! A new hub and Mo paste have been ordered.

I will clean the splines from the final drive gear thoroughly to remove debris.

Thank you again for your help!

 

[rphillips]

Ain't "we all" glad it weren't the Tranny? This is rather minor compared to that.

 

[Guest]

Ain't "we all" glad it weren't the Tranny? This is rather minor compared to that.

True story! 987654321

 

[GabrielGoes]

Excellent read I have learned a lot from this thread!