need opinions on a used final drive

[Brian]

I saw this final drive for a 97 on ebay. The seller claims it came off a bike with a little more 70,000 miles. It came with the drive shaft everything including shipping was $350. On my inspection the drive shaft and pinion are like new. The female portion for the rear hub appear to have about 1/3 of the splines worn off. The seller does have 14 day return policy. It came today. Is this amount of wear normal for this amount of miles? Has anyone ever rebuilt their final drives? The gears in the final drive are smooth feeling.


Even though my splines are like new currently I thought I would start to acquire spare parts. I look forward to your opinions. Thanks,

[Jeff K]

Those splines are trashed. I'd walk away.

[macdoesit]

Pic looks blured, hard to tell.

[Brian]

Pic looks blured, hard to tell.

I tried many shots this was the best I could do without digging out the tripod.

[Brian]

Those splines are trashed. I'd walk away.

This is my thought, that's why I asked if anyone has rebuilt their own final drive if the splines are available from Honda.

[Jeff K]

Gotta use the macro setting up that close

[Valkpilot]

Those splines are trashed. I'd walk away.

This is my thought, that's why I asked if anyone has rebuilt their own final drive if the splines are available from Honda.

Honda won't sell just the drive splines.  They come pressed into the ring gear and you have to buy it plus the pinion gear as a set.  You also need to have a driven hub (star hub) that matches the new splines.  Cost from HDL totals between $400 and $500, then involves disassembly and reassembly of the final drive.  You've got to shim the assembly properly so that the ring and pinion gears mesh correctly.

I know Ricky-D has re-built a final drive.  Maybe he'll chime in with some advice.

[olddog1946]

Junk

[Brian]

You know the sad part to this is I sent the seller a question asking for a picture of the splines. His reply was, if the splines were questionable he would have shown them in his ad. It's evident he doesn't know. I am sending this back on Monday. At least the seller does have a 14 day return policy verses Pinwal.

Thanks everyone.

[hubcapsc]

You know the sad part to this is I sent the seller a question asking for a picture of the splines. His reply was, if the splines were questionable he would have shown them in his ad. It's evident he doesn't know. I am sending this back on Monday. At least the seller does have a 14 day return policy verses Pinwal.

Thanks everyone.

My experience with Pinwall is that he'll quickly make
things right if you get something from him that wasn't as
represented in the ad. They sent me a crummy final drive once,
and refunded me right away when I let them know. They paid
to have the crummy drive picked up from my house. Another
member posted about a part that arrived busted, Pinwall
straightened it out right away... most of the stuff I've gotten
from there is very usable, including the final drive I got for
my bike when I first got it...

You should be able to find a real good final drive for $350, so
hopefully that guy will take that one back...

-Mike

[Ricky-D]

Those splines do not look that bad to me,

and with a good cleaning and grease

will give you many tens of thousands of

miles of trouble free riding. I've been

riding on worse for two years now, 20k

miles and no problems.

***

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

I saw this final drive for a 97 on ebay. The seller claims it came off a bike with a little more 70,000 miles. It came with the drive shaft everything including shipping was $350. On my inspection the drive shaft and pinion are like new. The female portion for the rear hub appear to have about 1/3 of the splines worn off. The seller does have 14 day return policy. It came today. Is this amount of wear normal for this amount of miles? Has anyone ever rebuilt their final drives? The gears in the final drive are smooth feeling.


Even though my splines are like new currently I thought I would start to acquire spare parts. I look forward to your opinions. Thanks,

Wish the picture was alittle clearer but they don't look that bad to me if I needed one I'd give $350.00 shipped to my house for it.

[hubcapsc]

Wish the picture was alittle clearer but they don't look that bad to me if I needed one I'd give $350.00 shipped to my house for it.

I think the blurry picture is like one of those optical illusions...



At first, I thought the splines looked OK, but something was still
funny looking... then the whole picture reversed on me, and now I
can see that the splines are all worn off, like the OP said...

RickyD is probably right that a worn drive will go a long way if
given proper maintenance... but a $350 drive doesn't have to
be a worn drive...

-Mike

[Jeff K]

Wish the picture was alittle clearer but they don't look that bad to me if I needed one I'd give $350.00 shipped to my house for it.

I think the blurry picture is like one of those optical illusions...



At first, I thought the splines looked OK, but something was still
funny looking... then the whole picture reversed on me, and now I
can see that the splines are all worn off, like the OP said...



-Mike

I saw the same thing

[mellowyellow#7933]

First look, splines badly worn then all of a sudden look good but alignment way off. Copied pic, reduced size, badly worn, enlarge, back to square.
I think orig opinion badly worn is the right one.

[Earl in Pensacola]

Mine looked like that at 83K, when Honda replaced everything under warranty.  Originally the '97 had three years (bumper-to-bumper) warranty, plus I had bought an additional 3 years.  Mine had never been properly serviced even though all tire changing had been done at various Honda dearlerships.  The very most any one them had done, was to wipe off the end of the drive shaft spline, dab on some grease and button it up.  Now at 249K, the gears still look almost like new (!!) and that's because "Chris" has pretty well taken over that part of servicing my bike and he knows every nut and bolt of the Valkyrie.  He knows and uses all the torque spec's, assembly sequences and proper lubricants.  I might mention that I check the drive-line only when it's time to change the tire and I average between 18 and 20K per rear tire.
Conclusion:  To me it looks a little too worn for that price--For about $150.00, I'd keep it, as you can get a few thousand miles out of it with proper service, lubricants & "O" rings etc.   IMHO

[Brian]

Since am I getting a lot of really good feedback here I will try to get a clearer picture posted here tomorrow for you all to reveiw if the sun is out.The seller is another used parts supplier called Sun Coast Cycle Sports.com.  Has anyone dealt with them before? All would not be lost as the drive shaft and pinion cup have splines that look like new. The seller may be willing to deal if I were to keep the shaft at a price. The other final drives I have seen used for this same money did not come with a drive shaft.

Thanks again,

[wild6]

A new shaft at HDL is $48.

[Chrisj CMA]

Since am I getting a lot of really good feedback here I will try to get a clearer picture posted here tomorrow for you all to reveiw if the sun is out.The seller is another used parts supplier called Sun Coast Cycle Sports.com.  Has anyone dealt with them before? All would not be lost as the drive shaft and pinion cup have splines that look like new. The seller may be willing to deal if I were to keep the shaft at a price. The other final drives I have seen used for this same money did not come with a drive shaft.

Thanks again,

It took me a while to see the right thing.....it was a visual illusion there for awhile.  Finally I can see the damage, dont bother send the mess back, its toast

[wild6]

Just did rear end service @ 101,000 miles.
Here's what good looks like:

[Brian]

wild6, your splines look like mine and I only have 13,300 miles. Good maintenance pays. Thanks for the post.