Rear gearbox splines

[Fastman71]

Back in October I went for a ride with some friends on a nice Saturday morning.  While out, every now and then I felt a strange vibration in the handlebars. 

Sunday I went out again, the vibration intensified.  With 48,000 on the clock, I had the feeling a wheel bearing was in the process of failing.  After pulling off the rear wheel, sure enough, the single row bearing had eaten itself.

Heres the problem: the driving flange that engages the gearbox has damaged splines.

I'm curious about my options here so I'm asking all those wise souls who have had this problem.

If the parts are available, how hard /expensive is it to repair the gearbox?  Also, is this something that can be done at home?

I would swear that I heard that the 1500 Gold Wing rear gearbox is interchangeable with the 1500 Valkyrie.  True or false???

Thanks for your assistance!!!!

Fast (well, not right now) Eddie

[The emperor has no clothes]

The gearbox itself is not interchangeable. But the splines can be pressed out and into the Valkyrie driven gear.

[Ricky-D]

Two different problems.  (1) bad wheel bearing, (2) worn flange splines. Independent problems and not necessarily connected.

Replace the wheel bearing is a must do.

About the splines: Without pictures a solution is foolhardy and replacement is probably premature.  I would suggest to re-grease the splines and continue to ride. You probably have many thousands of miles still remaining in the assembly and fresh grease will improve that outlook. Especially important is to be sure the "thrust washer" is in place.

***

[hubcapsc]

I would suggest to re-grease the splines and continue to ride.

Then, when the splines wring the rest of the way off when you're on the
road, three states from home, you can deal with it then 

Rickyd has replaced his gear set in his final drive with new, and I
have replaced several with good splines pressed out of a used
1500 wing final. Both ways work, reusing the old gear set with
the splines replaced probably requires less skill and/or tedious
fiddling with shims since you can just put it back together like
it was and it will probably still be right...

-Mike

[Paladin528]

I have a 1500 wing final drive here as a spare for the splines.  my question is are the ring and pinion gears actually different between the two?  I have not put a micrometer on the parts but initial look says they look pretty cursed close. 
My intention was to press out the splines when the time came and press them into the original gear so just wondering.

[hubcapsc]

I have a 1500 wing final drive here as a spare for the splines.  my question is are the ring and pinion gears actually different between the two?  I have not put a micrometer on the parts but initial look says they look pretty cursed close. 
My intention was to press out the splines when the time came and press them into the original gear so just wondering.

They're different part numbers. They look so much alike, I put my wing ring gear inside my
Valkyrie final to see what would happen, it didn't seem to spin right... not on the bike or
anything, just put in in there and spun it around by hand... they look so much alike, I
wrote on them 



-Mike

[Valkpilot]

They're different part numbers. They look so much alike, I put my wing ring gear inside my
Valkyrie final to see what would happen, it didn't seem to spin right... not on the bike or
anything, just put in in there and spun it around by hand... they look so much alike, I
wrote on them  


-Mike

+1

Tried dropping a Wing ring gear in a Valk rear drive.  It doesn't spin smoothly and sounds like rats running through empty beer cans.

You have to press the spline cup out of the Wing ring gear and into the Valk ring gear.  Then it's plug and play.

[indybobm]

As for the differences in the ring and pinion gear. The GW1500 has a different thickness spacer between the ring gear and the big bearing as a rule. This places the ring and pinion closer to each other and causes it to drag when the GW1500 ring gear is placed in the Valkyrie final drive case. Make sure that you use the spacer from the Valkyrie ring gear.
the pinion gear for the GW1500 gas a much smaller snout on the gear end end that the Valkyrie. This fits into a roller bearing the final drive case and is very difficult to change.
It is also necessary to find a good GW1500 final drive WITH the drive flange that was used with it. The existing gear wear pattern will help them last longer.

[Ricky-D]

Pretty much, the purveyors of "doom and gloom" always take the most extreme view of the situation, and always say "replace, replace, replace".

Here is my experience regarding the drive spline situation. Let me first say that there has never(on this forum) been reported a failure of the drive splines in the rear drive unit. Read that as never.

Yep, I did rebuild a rear drive unit that I had purchased on EBay. I did that so I'd have it in reserve to replace the one on my Interstate, which had some pretty serious wear which I had observed, and was caused by my neglect to realize that I should service the rear drive properly as described, and deeply explored on this forum.

Okay, I rebuilt the drive unit and set it aside, thinking I can get more miles out of the original drive unit on the bike. I had done a good job of cleaning the splines and re-greased them amply with my choice of grease which is Lubrication Engineers, Almaguard 3752.

I finished riding the remainder of the season and also the following year (with trepidation) especially since I rode out to the ROT rally with a fully loaded bike and my girlfriend on the back. Since greasing the splines I had put over 9,000 miles on the drive, one full season plus another half a season and I finally decided to replace the unit with the one I had rebuilt.

To my surprise the original unit had shown no more additional wear, regardless, I went ahead and changed out the drive with the rebuilt one. That was a few years back now, and I have no interest in determining exactly how long ago that was.

So what I am trying to say is: Spline wear is not an emergency situation, and cleaning and greasing the splines will surely give you many more miles of riding enjoyment. With no pictures of the splines available to actually see the amount of wear on the splines, it is ridiculously assumptive to suggest they should be replaced, and inflammatory to infer you'll be stranded miles from home because the teeth will wring off. Like I said, the purveyors of doom and gloom pollute every facet of this forum with their negativity.

***

[hubcapsc]

As a longtime polluter of this forum I'd like to say that worn splines suck, so
do OEM valve stems, they'll leave you on the side of the road. And if your
forks start leaking FIX THEM, don't just run them until there's not enough fluid
left in them to leak anymore...

-Mike "but that's just my opinion...  "

[The emperor has no clothes]

As a longtime polluter of this forum I'd like to say that worn splines suck, so
do OEM valve stems, they'll leave you on the side of the road. And if your
forks start leaking FIX THEM, don't just run them until there's not enough fluid
left in them to leak anymore...

-Mike "but that's just my opinion...  "

I'd say those opinions are pretty hard to argue with. 

[hubcapsc]

As a longtime polluter of this forum I'd like to say that worn splines suck, so
do OEM valve stems, they'll leave you on the side of the road. And if your
forks start leaking FIX THEM, don't just run them until there's not enough fluid
left in them to leak anymore...

-Mike "but that's just my opinion...  "

I'd say those opinions are pretty hard to argue with. 

You must be new here 

-Mike

[Houdini]

Pretty much, the purveyors of "doom and gloom" always take the most extreme view of the situation, and always say "replace, replace, replace".

Here is my experience regarding the drive spline situation. Let me first say that there has never(on this forum) been reported a failure of the drive splines in the rear drive unit. Read that as never.


So what I am trying to say is: Spline wear is not an emergency situation, and cleaning and greasing the splines will surely give you many more miles of riding enjoyment. With no pictures of the splines available to actually see the amount of wear on the splines, it is ridiculously assumptive to suggest they should be replaced, and inflammatory to infer you'll be stranded miles from home because the teeth will wring off. Like I said, the purveyors of doom and gloom pollute every facet of this forum with their negativity.

***

About a month after I bought my first Valk a fellow member came over and helped me go to the darkside.  He showed me that the splines were worn and needed to be replaced ASAP, we cleaned and greased them and put it back together and I was going to change them later. 

About a month later and about 80 miles from home it completely failed and left me sitting on the side of a long road in the middle of nowhere, kinda emergency-ish, I ended up calling a tow truck to get home.

Some may call it doom and gloom, I'd call it good advice, but start shopping for a replacement gear or pumpkin ASAP, better to have a spare and not need it than need a replacement and not have it.  Without a picture to see how bad yours are I wouldn't follow the advice of someone that is clueless to your situation.

I did not publicly share my tow truck ride and $1500 repair bill.

[Fastman71]

Thanks for all your help here.  The one question I have is this: everybody says you can press out the splices from the rear gear, but I'll be doggoned if any parts breakdowns show it.

Also, I've decided to get another gearbox as my brother and I both think fixing it properly is better than halfway doing it.  The thought of being broke down a long way from home doesn't thrill me.

I also have New metal valve stems, a desmog kit and I'm thinking about New tires too while I have it apart.

Thanks for your help and I hope to meet you at Roanoke!!!!

Fast Eddie

[hubcapsc]

The one question I have is this: everybody says you can press out the splices from the rear gear, but I'll be doggoned if any parts breakdowns show it.

They don't intend for you to do it. But you can see that the flange is the same part number,
and if you look at the ring gear, the splines are pressed in. I did it after hearing about it here,
it works 

You have to be careful to get 1500 wing finals that aren't worn, and you can probably get the
flange that goes with it. They're real cheap sometimes - have you got any trike shops near
you? I got flanges and a good drive from a nearby trike shop, some other drives from ebay.

-Mike

[old2soon]

Thanks for all your help here.  The one question I have is this: everybody says you can press out the splices from the rear gear, but I'll be doggoned if any parts breakdowns show it.

Also, I've decided to get another gearbox as my brother and I both think fixing it properly is better than halfway doing it.  The thought of being broke down a long way from home doesn't thrill me.

I also have New metal valve stems, a desmog kit and I'm thinking about New tires too while I have it apart.

Thanks for your help and I hope to meet you at Roanoke!!!!

Fast Eddie

                     Do not KNOW if he has any ready to swap But git hold of Grumpy in Fl and P M him. At one time he was doing the press out press in from his shop. NO I do not know his pricing. RIDE SAFE.