Drive shaft question

I installed Avon tires today and decided to check the splines on the drive shaft,.. There was a little grease in there, but I stuffed some moly on for insurance. I installed the pumpkin back on as per bulletin and finished putting everything back together. Once off the lift I went to put the bike in gear and heard a strange crunch/clank noise.. bike stalled. I tried repositioning the pumpkin a number of times now and got the rear diff lined up good.. but here's the strange thing.. I can spin the rear tire even if the bike is in gear. I've been reading all the posts here and am thinking that the shaft isn't pushed into the tube all the way.. When I push the drive shaft into the tube is it suppose to seat and not turn? I can't get it to mesh with anything,.. it sort of spins.

Do I need to pop the rubber boot off the top of the drive shaft tube (if I can find it) and get the drive shaft to mesh with the gears using the coat hanger hook trick.. ???

I installed Avon tires today and decided to check the splines on the drive shaft,.. There was a little grease in there, but I stuffed some moly on for insurance. I installed the pumpkin back on as per bulletin and finished putting everything back together. Once off the lift I went to put the bike in gear and heard a strange crunch/clank noise.. bike stalled. I tried repositioning the pumpkin a number of times now and got the rear diff lined up good.. but here's the strange thing.. I can spin the rear tire even if the bike is in gear. I've been reading all the posts here and am thinking that the shaft isn't pushed into the tube all the way.. When I push the drive shaft into the tube is it suppose to seat and not turn? I can't get it to mesh with anything,.. it sort of spins.

Do I need to pop the rubber boot off the top of the drive shaft tube (if I can find it) and get the drive shaft to mesh with the gears using the coat hanger hook trick.. ???

Yes,that's how I do it on our 1st Gen...Good luck,sometimes it helps to step back,have a beer and try it again...

To me it sounds like you didn't get the shaft in the yoke.

Bigbob

Under that rubber plug is actually a U-joint that you have to line up with. Grab the u-joint with the coat hanger, and work the shaft by rocking the pumpkin with your other hand. Make sure you did not tear up the splines or the u-joint when they locked up and stalled the engine.

Big Bob is most like exactly on the right track here ...

You need to remove the rear wheel again, pull the drive shaft out and then using a flash light look up the drive shaft tube and make darn sure you didnt bust the yoke...

It is best if you can get the yoke to move up and down (not side ways)...

Once you get the yoke in this position, put your bike in gear to avoid the yoke from turning.

Make sure molly lube is on the forward splines fo the drive shaft

Take off the left battery side cover

Look down in the area where the side cover was for a small rubber plug on the top side of the drive shaft housing.

It is about the size of a nickle and it pop right out (dont loose it)

Get a wire coat hanger and shape it into a letter "j" (hook)

carefully slip th eend of the J downinto the hole and by "BRAIL" try to HOOK the drive shaft yoke.

You may need someone to pull up on the yoke while your trying to slip the driveshaft up the shaft housing and into the yoke. once you get it into the yoke, you will nto be able to turn the drive shaft because the bike is in gear...

To realign everything I prefer to install ONLY THE AXLE with out the tire / wheel and

tighten the (4) acorn nuts and at the same time make sure you can pull the axle out by hand..it should be "free" if aligned properly. You do not need to install the spacer or caliper support arm when doing this, and no need for the axle nut either..

once axle is aligned, you can now reinstall the rear wheel. Make sure you can not spin the wheel because the bike should still be in gear..

if it does nto tuen, then you can go ahead and reinstall the axle / spacer,nut, caliper support arm, and tighten per spec.

While up on the jack, put the bike in netural, fire it up and carefully while it is idleing, put it into gear. Let the clutch out slowly and the rear wheel should begin to rotate..

if it does,, your ready to ride...

but please shut it off and take it off the jack first....or you wont go far..

Thanks for the replies... Changing the tires was easy... but I regret taking off the rear diff... it's been a real pain the the arse. I thought it would be straight forward... I've put it on and off about 5 times now... so I'm getting good at it. I had thought since the shaft went up into the tube and the four bolts mated right up nicely that I had the pumpkin installed correctly.. until it wouldn't engage the drive line when I put it in gear. After a while I started to figure it out.. but wasn't quite sure of how to proceed. I read through the posts and thought I'd get some more input before loading it on the trailer and calling it quits. I hope to find some time tomorrow for another try... I'll post a follow up. I may be riding the wifes Vulcan 900 next week... Let the good times roll!

Thanks for the replies... Changing the tires was easy... but I regret taking off the rear diff... it's been a real pain the the arse. I thought it would be straight forward... I've put it on and off about 5 times now... so I'm getting good at it. I had thought since the shaft went up into the tube and the four bolts mated right up nicely that I had the pumpkin installed correctly.. until it wouldn't engage the drive line when I put it in gear. After a while I started to figure it out.. but wasn't quite sure of how to proceed. I read through the posts and thought I'd get some more input before loading it on the trailer and calling it quits. I hope to find some time tomorrow for another try... I'll post a follow up. I may be riding the wifes Vulcan 900 next week... Let the good times roll! BTW: What's a busted yoke look like?

It is possible to install the driveshaft so it goes under the yoke AND tighten the 4 bolts..So just keep trying and you will get it to engage properly.It took me 7 tries to get mine in place..I found that if you rest the driveshaft on the bottom of the tube and slide it in on a upwards angle,it seemed to work better.. Good luck !!

I did the same thing a few weeks ago and thanks to Eck () I got it back together. Do just as he says, remove the small rubber plug and "hook" the yoke to align it with the shaft. It is better to get help if you can. I had a friend do the hooking while I slid the shaft in. Everything went together in-a-snap.

When I do mine, and 85, so maybe that makes a difference, although I doubt it, I get the u-joint to face the bottom, or close to it. I then put the tranny in neutral and push the shaft to the u-joint, easy to find seeing as it's at the bottom. While holding it tight to the u- joint I will turn the shaft which at the same time turns the joint. As the two turn togther, there comes a time that they line up and the spline slips into the joint. If it is not alinged properly it will do so on it's own, it only takes about 1\2 a turn to accomplish this.

I'm back! Thanks for the coat hook/yoke yank thing. That was my problem... The drive shaft wasn't engaging in the yoke. Dang man.. I was 99% there so many times... I never thought to shine a flash light down the tube to investigate the problem.. Anyway... done deal. Next time won't be such a chore. On the plus side... looking back I am glad I yanked that shaft out.. I smathered both ends of shaft/gears with moly 60 paste, swapped over to Amsoil synthetic gear oil, cleaned and greased the clutch hub stuff, moly 60 all over the wheel hub gears... Also engine oil changed over to Amsoil 20/50 synthetic, two new Avon Venom tires which balanced nicely,.. cleaned brake components... peace of mind for the rest of the season.

Data point: Stock Bridgestones: 4760 miles,.. rear tire worn (80%) pretty good all over, front tire middle tread still okay, side of tires worn good (80%) and mildly cupped. Brake pads hardly worn. The changing of engine oil made no difference with the chirp, but first ride after greasing the drive shaft was promising... I need to ride it for a few miles but the 1/2 mile test ride the noise was better (less).

Cutting down the windshield also helped improve the air flow and bury some noise. Much better looking over the windhsield instead of through it.

Again,... many thanks for the suggestions. This is a awesome site, and as much as we all can complain about the short comings of Yamaha there isn't a bike out there I'd rather have at the moment. I have to hit the donate button here pretty soon.