Old board member, hello, and I broke my Valkyrie’s driveline

[John97]

I'm John and I have a 97 Bumblebee. I'm not new but couldnt use my old handle anymore. I was tonyfan70 and I attended the Inzane in Eureka Springs AR 10+ years ago when my bike was purple. I have a problem I would like to maybe get some help with. I have read myself to blindness I feel both back on the old board and currently.

Couple days ago my Valk developed bad vibration and I guessed ujoint. Got home took it apart and I lost the splines on the rear of the propshaft and pinion joint. 62k and until the most recent tire always used the old Honda moly w/ no problems. Last time used Moly 77 which I read now is recommended for wheel and hub but not for propshaft splines. I'm trying not to beat a dead horse so...

My Clymers doesn't give torque as the state rear end needs too many specialty tools. I think I see the pinion joint still available do took the big nut off. I didn't touch anything else so when I get one how tight is the nut supposed be?

I don't see any other damage and have cleaned everything thoroughly to check. Is there anything that would have damage I'm missing or that I'd need to get? I know the three orings & fluid and moly grease. I'm unemployed at the moment and am trying to not spend on things that aren't totally necessary. Is there a need to get the entire rear end? If so why? How would I not get a junk shaft? I mean someone could use pics of good splines and get my money and send me one like the one I have.  Do I need to be concerned about being bent and how would I check? I know GW shafts are an inch longer but other than side by side comparison I couldn't tell a difference. I'm going to hit the classifieds here now that I'm able but I've seen some on eBay and having to source parts there makes me uneasy. But surely nobody here would be shady...right lol? My hopes are here because I have history with many on the old board and everyone I met in Arkansas was great. I'm pretty disappointed in myself though because for 50,000 + miles I thought I wasn't going to have this issue and was doing the right thing but obviously I wasn't.  Forgot to mention I can hold the pinion joint in one hand and the driveshaft in the other make the unit jump a couple splines but I still got it home with only a couple loud clanks whenever I took off.  Was about 50-60 miles from vibration appearing and back home.

So I'm asking for anything I need to hear or obtain to get the machine I've had for 15 years going against. My Uncle bought it new and I'm keeping it forever. I may become unable to ride in the future but it'll look good in my living room then.

[sandy]

The pinion nut is tightened with an impact driver. At least that's how my local shop does it.

[John97]

Well that helps then. I looked at the exploded view and it doesn't look like it's the type of thing where I'd be tightening it down and setting the depth or anything. Just looks like it tightens and that's it. If that make sense...

[Hook#3287]

This?

[John97]

Yes! The Clymers I have and any of the parts fisches I looked at had torque specs for the nut (#1)

I have calls to make Tuesday when the shop I worked at is open. From what I see the pinion joint is available and the superseded number for the prop shaft (40201-MZ0-A00) is is well. That's the number for the 98-03 Valk. I read that in my absence from here that members would see the shaft being available and in stock but after ordering and paying they'd get an email saying it was on back order with no date available to get back in stock. I get a substantial discount being a prior employee so I'll see what they can get.

The 1500 wing prop shaft, unless I'm mistaken, is the same on both ends but roughly an inch too long for a Valkyrie. I can locate the wing shafts all day long, there's a trike builder not too far away. Why can't length be removed from the center of the wing shaft and then weld it together have it balanced? There must be a reason it can't be done or we'd be doing it, I can't be the only one desperate enough to wonder. In the meantime I adjusted my valves. They were done ~12k and I've procrastinated for the next 50k, I can't let it go anymore. 1 intake and 2 exhaust were off but it's all good now. Runs great like usual just wish it would move!

[John97]

Got my bike back in the road about a week ago. Installed the shaft listed for 98-03 and new pinion cup. 3 orings. Cleaned off but did not reapply anything to the driven flange pins. Moly grease where required and moly paste for the final drive splines. Torqued per manual and did the axle nut/4 nuts the correct way. New synthetic 85/90 in the final drive. New seal packed and installed on drive shaft. Test ride successful.

Thanks to Hook and Sandy for being helpful enough to respond to my queries. I appreciate it. This board is not what it used to be that's for sure.

[Heathen]

I adjusted my valves. They were done ~12k and I've procrastinated for the next 50k, I can't let it go anymore. 1 intake and 2 exhaust were off but it's all good now.

What means this?  I feel so stupid, there is so much I need to learn to care for one of these aging machines.  I have a new-to-me 99 standard, that I'm currently attempting a carb job on with the help of youtube university.  I'm in way over my head.   

What valves need adjusting?  Where do I learn about this?  And is there no end to the stuff I must learn to maintenance this beast?  haha!

Thanks,   Sam

[HayHauler]

I believe that the valves should be checked if there is excessive noise coming from the head(s).  Other than that, they should easily go to 75k to 100k miles without needing an adjustment.  If oil changes are done at the 5k mile intervals, you should be good to go.

I checked mine at 110k and 2 exhaust and 1 intake out of 12 valves were very slightly out of adjustment.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[h13man]

My 1st. adjustment and they were  on the top limit thus I went to the low limit but never really made any noise before adjustment. Did I ever mention how easy these bikes are to work on? No deep issues yet but hopefully the next owner will appreciate the bike as much I do.

[hubcapsc]

Try to torque the pinion cup nut to the right specification. I refurbished
a couple of final drives. On one of them I had gotten a friend of mine
to install a pinion cup at a previous time. He asked how tight. I didn't know.
I said "plenty tight". That was too much! I couldn't remove the nut later. I
had to carry the final drive over to the NAPA machine shop guy, his giant
compressor and good tools got it off.

It is probably hard to tighten the nut to the right torque. It seems to me
(I don't know anything about fancy torque wrenches) you need to defeat
several degrees of freedom within the final drive in order to stop the
shaft you're trying to tighten the nut on from spinning. Or the whole
final drive from trying to spin.

I built a rube goldberg machine:



The machine exploded the time I tried to use it to remove the too-tight
nut.

Over at Stanley Steamer's we just fiddled around with some clamps while
positioning his final drive on some steps. I think we actually screwed
a block into the step to keep the final from trying to spin around.

-Mike