Final drive& drive shaft HELP!

[theportunionkid]

My 83 venture just quite going forward, lots of grinding. about an hour surfing thru tech talk (1st gen) pointed me to isolate problem. Drive shaft were it meets final drive. shaft and coupling gear toast. Drive shaft easy but coupling gear looks pretty tricky, per tear down instructions in manual. Can one get the coupling gear off easily? Manual exploded view looks like yea maybe. Then the big question locate parts. Big thanks in advance.

[RDawson]

Those final drives are usually cheap on ebay. Be a lot easier to just swap in another one. 

[theportunionkid]

Thats what I was thinking neither part is available  thx. 

[theportunionkid]

thx again RDawson got both shaft and final drive delivered for $58

[RDawson]

8 hours ago, theportunionkid said:

thx again RDawson got both shaft and final drive delivered for $58

Cool. If you haven’t yet look in the read only tech library how to grease the hub, pins, shaft, etc. It should set you up for many miles of smiles. 

[saddlebum]

@theportunionkidBefore you spend make sure it is actually the final drive as It may not be the final drive. It could be in the transmission. Marcarl and I recently helped Uthred with a similar issue. We found the problem was in the transmission. We ended up pulling the power train out of the bike and using the parts of another power train with a blown engine we we combined parts to make one good power train, The part that had failed was the Driven Cam part #3 in the middle drive gear diagram. It had split and was slipping over the splines on the shaft in the transmission. Pull back the rubber boot and check to see if the drive is turning or not when the slipping takes place. if it turns the issue could very well be in the final drive but if it is not turning when the slipping takes place it is likely in the transmission. A third possibility is a broken Driven Cam Spring part #2 in the middle drive gear diagram. In our case it appeared the transmission may have been run low on oil causing the cam to seize on the shaft and then split when suffering a shock load such as a missed or hard shift. we were able to grab the back wheel and turn it while in gear and watch the yoke at the transmission connection to see whether or not it was turning, while we turned the back wheel. On another note on my own bike some years ago the threaded portion of the final drive pinion shaft snapped off during an aggressive shift but I did not loose drive though I would imagine it would if I let it go like that for too long.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by saddlebum

[Squidley]

I have also seen where the output shaft of the engine has snapped. The bike still drove, but made an awful racket. That would require the muddle geat and output shaft to be removed...0.02

[theportunionkid]

@RDawson @saddlebum @Squidley Thanks so much for the help. I got her put back together all seems good. Test drive was relatively short but she's quieter and shifts better than she ever did. Squidley had the output shaft brake off at the nut that holds the U-joint on at 27,000. Wasn't real noisey but she would still go for about 3,000 then the seal started leaking. replaced. Saddlebum I did check that. My harbor freight stethoscope sure helped isolate the noise.  

Not sure of the best way to put the drive shaft back in but my rubber boot is extremely difficult to put back on. So I thought I would pass along a trick.

I take a long screw diver stick it in the drive shaft housing lift the output shaft up were it comes out of the u-joint then I slide a large zip tie (3/8" wide that's long enough to reach) under the output shaft then pull the screw driver out. That holds the output shaft up just enough that with just a mild amount of profanity applied you can wiggle the driveshaft in then slide the zip tie out while holding the driveshaft in place so it doesn't drag out with the zip tie.  

Once again thanks so much for the help. With out this wonderful site and the great people that belong my venture would have been long gone.   

 

 

 

 

 

[RDawson]

You’re welcome for the little input I had. You’re more than right about this joint, I’ve learned more about these bikes here than I ever imagined. 

[saddlebum]

Glad you got her done. Now enjoy!         

[larrydr]

I have my 83 Venture getting near to put back on the road ...As I read this entry it hit me this is what I needed to do  , as always is the time you spend on little things like applying grease to splines and fittings can save you from some major down ..I now know what I will be doing tomorrow ...I normally have used a light coating of grease on the drive shaft splines or is there something that is better than ordinary  automotive grease

[Squidley]

18 hours ago, larrydr said:

I have my 83 Venture getting near to put back on the road ...As I read this entry it hit me this is what I needed to do  , as always is the time you spend on little things like applying grease to splines and fittings can save you from some major down ..I now know what I will be doing tomorrow ...I normally have used a light coating of grease on the drive shaft splines or is there something that is better than ordinary  automotive grease

Larry,

I've been using a good quality wheel bearing on the Ventures I've owned for over 15 years. Some of the guys add moly to it, but good high pressure wheel bearing grease has never let me down.

[frankd]

On my 83 I used to get about 20,000 miles on the back tire, and after I trashed the first coupling/driveshaft, I started pulling the back wheel at about 10,000 miles to replenish the grease.    At 10,000 miles, the coupling was almost dry.    I started out using a quality wheel bearing grease and switched to a thick moly grease.     There wasn't a drastic amount of difference.

[cowpuc]

Here is what worked in my case:

 

[larrydr]

When I bought the 83 from the guy he gave the back wheel  he had removed ( after reading this topic I can see why the wheel looks like it does ),  problem does looks like it was caused by the lack  of grease  ..I can see why I will have to go over a couple things before my 83 is ready for the road ..When the 83 is on the centre everything feels good when turning the wheel by hand , I can tell you now I will pull the wheel and check whole drive assembly 

[saddlebum]

I use volvo spline grease 1161247 also sold under part number 1161246, I believe the difference is one is a grease gun size tube and the second is just a small tube. This stuff we use on clutch and drive splines of Volvo class 8 trucks and heavy equipment. It is a heavy paste grease and I find it works super on the our rear drive splines and drive pins. Also used by Mack trucks now that they are owned by Volvo. I also believe Volvo Penta uses it as well for marine use on the drive components.