Grinding in 5th

[Philthy]

1999 Valkyrie I/S with just over 40k miles.

For the past few months...not long after I had tires put on at a place that usually services Harleys...I started feeling a slight rumbling in 5th gear, sometimes.  Two months ago trustworthy Honda dealer very familiar with Valkyries took a look and a ride and said it was just drive lash.

Today I started feeling some serious vibration at around 77 mph.  I went a bit faster and suddenly I start slowing and hear and feel a loud, nasty grinding going on.  Let off the throttle, slow down a bit, and everything is fine.

I gunned it again, and same thing happened.

I pulled over to look things over, saw no problems, got off the freeway and called a tow truck.

While getting off the freeway I tried gunning it in 4th and 3rd and had no problems.

The trustworthy dealer opens on Tuesday, so I'll have to wait until then to see what's what.

I'm very much hoping it's the final drive or something not-engine-transmission-related.  I'd hate to be the one guy who killed a 300k mile bike in 40k miles.

CS

[Michvalk]

My first guess would be splines on the driveshaft at the pinion. Most people don't pull the rearend and remove the driveshaft from the pinion to grease. Those can get rusty and start to jump from tooth to tooth. Just a guess

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

I second the pinion and drive shaft. I stripped mine on a hard up shift into sec leaving a redlight. It never made a sound until it let go. If it is this only about a hundred dollars to fix.

[sandy]

Of course while the drive unit is out, check the U joint.

[Ricky-D]

Yep, pretty common symptoms of the universal joint going south.

I'd attend to it immediately.

***

[Chrisj CMA]

Here is another thing (unless you know and trust the mech at the dealer) You should fix this yourself.  You will PAY bigtime for this type of work usually to find out the mechanic bungled it up anyway.  This is easy, you finding the parts you need will be loads cheaper than the dealer.....in fact if its the drive shaft and pinion cup.....you can get the parts from HDL for a tad or 100 bucks.....when the dealer gets done you will owe them hundreds more than that and still wont know if they did it right (they frequently dont)

[Philthy]

Thanks for the advice!

My dealer is a good guy.  Of course I have to pass two closer dealers to get to the one that won't rip me off or take three weeks to look at it.

There's still the issue of 'dealer' pricing.  He's cool enough that he might let me buy parts on Ebay.

Heck, once his mother gave me a ride home after I left my bike there.

CS