Replacing seal on drive shaft

[Yamaha32088]

I have an 88 venture royale and it was leaking diff oil from the front of the housing. I pulled everything apart last night and it seems like the oil seal that is on the drive shaft itself was pretty well roasted. I tried to pull the oil seal off and it broke into pieces. Underneath of the oil seal it appears there is some type of sleeve that looks like it may have been part of the oil seal but it is hard to tell. This sleeve seems to be very tightly seized to the drive shaft so I am not sure if it is supposed to come off or not? All the drive shafts on eBay always have the oil seal installed on them and I obviously need to replace it. Do I need a special tool to remove this sleeve I am seeing? I just don't know if the oil seal should just kind of slide right off. In the photo below I circled the oil seal, circlip and washer I am referring too. I will try to get a photo of the drive shaft later.

 

[frankd]

The only thing I can tell you is that I did change that seal on my 83 and had no problem doing it.   The seal came out easily.     I will tell you that depending on how many miles are on your bike is that you may want to replace the universal joint now.    On my 83 the grease in the universal joint had dried up and the cups were galled at about 100K.   On my 89 with about 80,000 miles on it the grease had dried up and the universal joint had worn to the point that one of the bearings had come out of the cup.    If you decide to replace the universal joint be advised that it only come with 2 caps..    You have to buy the other 2 caps separately (#35) and also  2 ea. of #37.     I think I bought the yoke with the universal joint.    If you don't replace the universal joint at lease disassemble it and inspect and grease it.

[Yamaha32088]

1 hour ago, frankd said:

The only thing I can tell you is that I did change that seal on my 83 and had no problem doing it.   The seal came out easily.     I will tell you that depending on how many miles are on your bike is that you may want to replace the universal joint now.    On my 83 the grease in the universal joint had dried up and the cups were galled at about 100K.   On my 89 with about 80,000 miles on it the grease had dried up and the universal joint had worn to the point that one of the bearings had come out of the cup.    If you decide to replace the universal joint be advised that it only come with 2 caps..    You have to buy the other 2 caps separately (#35) and also  2 ea. of #37.     I think I bought the yoke with the universal joint.    If you don't replace the universal joint at lease disassemble it and inspect and grease it.

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking about doing that while I was in there too because I hear a strange "knocking" noise when hitting bumps and figured it was something in the u-joint.

[Marcarl]

2 hours ago, Yamaha32088 said:

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking about doing that while I was in there too because I hear a strange "knocking" noise when hitting bumps and figured it was something in the u-joint.

The 83s are different than the 88s in that location. I had an 85 so not exactly sure how that works, but somebody else will I'm sure. Let's ask @squidley.

[Yamaha32088]

Here are the photos. To me it appears to be part of the oil seal but I can’t be certain.

[Marcarl]

Maybe @saddlebum will be familiar with that part, or @squidley, both have some smarts.

[cimmer]

The drive shaft seal for the 86-93 Ventures is replaceable and is a very tight fit. The drive shaft gear is greased by the grease in the rear axle gear case. This is different than the 83-85 Ventures.  I had to replace mine when I pulled the drive shaft out as I also was getting a bit of leaking out of my assembly. If I recall I had to cut away the metal part of the seal around the drive shaft that you show in the picture and then drive the new seal onto the shaft. I believe I used a long piece of PVC pipe that was the correct diameter to do the job. 

For you U-joint here is a link to Tech Library with more information..

I hope this is some help to you.

Rick F.

[frankd]

Yes, shaft drive units on 86's and later are different than the 83.     The parts diagram shown has #30, #31 & #33 circled and I thought that the seal you had problems with was the seal coming out of the middle gear unit.     The seal I had to change on my 83 was the midde gear seal and I also replaced it on my 89 when I replaced the U-joint and yoke even though it was stil dry.     Sorry about getting which seal wrong.

[Bob K.]

The metal ring is indeed part of the seal.  It's a tight metal-to-metal friction fit.  Rather than trying to pry the old one off, I used a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to carefully cut through the metal ring.  I lubed the new one a bit to aid re-installation & used a flat blade screwdriver to carefully tap the new one into place.

[Yamaha32088]

Thank you for the info

[saddlebum]

@Yamaha32088Rather than trying to cut it off I remove sleeves like that were ever that type of seal is used by A) tapping on the sleeve with a small ball peen hammer or I round the end of a chisel and gently tap  like I am trying to cut across the ring, which it wont it will just dent and flatten the ring. What both methods do is flatten the ring material more and there by causing the ring to expand (grow in size). Continue working your way around the ring until it expands to the point were it easily slides  off. Any kind of cutting method all to often results in nicking or damaging the shaft. If you already cut it off and nick the shaft coat the seal area with https://www.permatex.com/products/gasketing/gasket-sealants/permatex-form-a-gasket-no-2-sealant/ . Any mess or excess can be easily cleaned with alcohol.

Also if the outer diameter of the new seal is rubber or rubber coated, coat the diameter of the seal and the bore it fits into with gear oil. Don't force it in dry. If it is a bare metal outer diameter, just give it a thin coat of Permatex 2 or red silicone. If it is metal with a coating on it put it in dry.

Edited April 27, 2021 by saddlebum