Rear wheel dampers... long read.

[Art708]

  Several months ago I needed to sell one of my bikes. I listed the valk and the ST for sale and the ST1300 sold quickly. I was working on something else and so I took my bike to an independent shop...big mistake.  I asked them if they were familiar with the Valkyrie and the assured me that they had worked on many of them. I took them fork seals, dampers and told them to service the final drive, change brake and clutch fluid, install fork seals, 2 new tires and service the final drive and put in the new seals.  I went on the 3 day trip and the bike had a lot of slop in the driveline...suspected the U-joint even though I had replaced it a couple of years ago.  I bought new joint, seals, O-rings,  and dampers to put in before we take another trip soon. When I pulled the wheel off last week and removed the damper plate the dampers were almost gone and the rubber that was left was all crumbly. I decided at that time that the joint wasn't the problem and serviced it and put in the new dampers....fixed the problem nicely.  Evidently they didn't put the new dampers in last year.  Dunno what caused them to get crumbly and brittle but it was scary looking.

[Bronxboy]

This is a fine example of why I do my own service. If I am going to have a problem or a failure, I have no one to blame but me.

The bike I have now was supposedly taken care of by a Honda Dealer when the previous owner had it . That's why I just replaced the entire drive line on this bike. Obviously they say they grease the splines and go over everything, but there Scumbag Liars 

[Art708]

this was the first time I ever had a shop work on the final drive ever since the first Valk I owned. It will be the last time.

[OLDFRT]

Because I have absolutely NO mechanical ability, I ask people that I trust where to take my vehicles (both 2 and 4 wheeled) for work. I have a great shop in Crystal River for the Harley (NO, it is NOT the Harley Dealer) and Grumpy does all of my Valkyrie work.

[Steel cowboy]

I agree with Nick, I do all my own work on my bikes too. Did all the rear maintenance on the bike this spring, I even replaced both tires. But I understand Don's plite too, I would not try to do something out of my comfort zone. My company vehicle is a F550 double knuckle boom and can only be serviced by ford. It had to have a new engine installed 2 years back because the mechanic did not replace the bent pushrod and when it gave way it cause catastrophic failure of the internals.

[Robert]

FYI there was a guy on the board that made custom silicon dampers. When new they were really great tighter and better cushioning than oem ones. The problem was they broke down in time and crumbled leaving a big space that accounts for the slop in the driveline. Most of the OEM ones dont need to be replaced and when worn wont crumble but will shrink. So it would not be a usual repair but more than likely they did not grease the drive shaft since if they did they would have seen them crumbled. Something I would do is grease the splines while at it.

[Jess from VA]

He has passed Robert.  That was only his first batch (or just some of them).  They were polyurethane.  Mine have held up and served well for years and years.

[Robert]

He has passed Robert.  That was only his first batch (or just some of them).  They were polyurethane.  Mine have held up and served well for years and years.

Yes he was a lawyer from Indio also if memory serves. I bought mine way after the first batch. I had to wait until a later batch to get them since he ran out but they did the same crumble type of thing.  Luckily I had the originals that I put back in and all was ok. I first noticed it on my rear rim as what looked like dirt or black specs.