Gotta Hate Other People's Work

[NITRO]

I was having some issues with unusual rear tire wear on my IS. The tire was down to the wear bars in two places and I already had another rim with a CT mounted, so I figured I'd switch them out. This is the first time I've had the rear end apart since buying the bike in late April (6,500 miles since then).

I pulled the rear wheel without problems (dropping the swingarm below the pipes is SO easy compared to pulling the pipes off!). I rolled the wheel out and immediately noticed a lot of very fine "dust" all over inside the final drive. I then checked the flange and there is nasty wear on the flange teeth-- it was defintely not aligned properly when it was last assembled. You can see exactly how the teeth were wearing on each other (I'll post pics tomorrow). The inside of the final drive was dry with no grease left in it.

I pulled the final drive off of the swingarm and, judging by the rust on one of the bolts and the difficulty of removing each of them, I doubt that those four bolts had been loosened since the cycle left the factory. There is a spacer that sits in the final drive which the axle goes through that was rusted in place as well. It took a lot of work to get it out.

I have a like-new (7,000 mile) spare final drive that will go on when Alph gets over here tomorrow night. The cycle only has 34,000 on it! There's no reason this should have happened!

[PatrickDoss]

That sucks, but just a note: if those four bolts holding the final to the swingarm really have never been removed, it's not an alignment issue.  You don't have to loosen them every time; if set in alignment from the factory, they're fine.  I've loosened the 4 bolts only twice in the 84K miles on my Goldwing, to lube the drive shaft.  The first time around 50K.  Splines are perfect.  Sounds like you had a lack of proper lube on the splines, and a bad seal around the spacer.  Or someone's had it all apart before, in which case, yes, you gotta hate other people's work 

[Brad]

but just a note: if those four bolts holding the final to the swingarm really have never been removed, it's not an alignment issue.  You don't have to loosen them every time; if set in alignment from the factory, they're fine.

There sure have been a lot of people who have had problems after setting the torque on the rear axle nut without loosening those 4 bolts.  Some even after the first tire change.  Better safe than sorry.

[Daniel Meyer]

You don't have to loosen them every time;

Yes, you do. If you don't, well, 99% of the time you'll be fine.

But it's the 1 in 100 bike we're talking about.

Come to Inzane and I'll show you why.