Drive Flange Advisory..

[Seaking]

At 135,000 miles on the odo, I had my bike in the shop for some work and found that my drive flange was severely worn.. Luckily, the shop had recently parted a RSV that met hard times and replaced mine with the salvaged piece for a great price. Wow, what a difference in ride. Very noticeable! Took the slop out of the drive train. Hard to explain what it felt like before but you could feel the drive train taking up slack whenever you put it under load with acceleration or engine compression braking, not matter how gentle you are with it. After the swap, the bike feels even more sure footed in the turns. I had thought that perhaps my swing arm bearings needed attention but they were fine.. It was the drive flange knocking against the gears in both direction.

 

In the photos below, you can see how much wear there is on the old compared to the new.

 

So next time you have your rear wheel off, have a look at the drive flange.. is it in good shape or looking like mine did?

 

What it should look like..

 

 

What mine looked like after 135,000 miles..

 

[Motiv]

How did the mating part in the final drive look?

[Great White]

I'd say that qualifies as abnormal wear!

 

We're the splines dry? Ie: no grease?

[Ace]

I'd say that qualifies as abnormal wear!

 

We're the splines dry? Ie: no grease?

 

I agree, that is abnormal. When I still had my '06 at 102,000 miles you could still see the machining marks.

[Seaking]

Considering that this was a used bike when I bought it, not sure what the previous owner(s) might have or not have done to this bike in the first 2 years of it's riding life.. seeing how black the fuel filter was with only 20K miles on it, I would hazard to guess it's been abused in it's early life.

 

The other mating part of the flange is pristine looking. Its also usually the toughest part of the two pieces on all bike (project Suzuki bike has this same issue). Since I've had the bike, everything has been properly and frequently lubed as per tech bulletins and manuals.. And to be fair, I don't hammer down on throttle or compression braking.

 

The only other factor is the VMax rear diff I unstalled a few years ago.. Though back then I don't recall seeing a lot of wear on the flange. I shouldn't think it would lead to premature wear and tear on the RSV parts..

 

What ever caused the premature wear out of the flange, I'm glad I got it changed out as the ride is even better now.

[djh3]

I would think if you (or someone) was in there a couple years ago changing the diff you would have noticed something going on with that kind of wear. That thing looks like it was not installed all the way. And with the blue color indictes no lube.

[N3FOL]

Wow! That 2nd pic really does appear to be worn out. Glad your shop was able to get it fixed.