Paralever u-joint woes

[The Mighty Gryphon]

A friend with a K100RS with a Paralever has had the front u-joint on the drive shaft fail after 128,000 miles.  BMW just raised the price on a new driveshaft to $1025 which indicates to me they don't want to sell them anymore(to me or anyone I know)

Looking on eBay, there are shafts available, but nearly everyone has somewhat worn splines which makes me leery of the condition of the joints which, from research over the past couple days, aren't as robust as we had thought they were.

My friend is an old farmer who has lots of experience with u-joints on agricultural equipment.  We think the old joints can be replaced, but the swaged caps make us wonder on how to approach repairing them.

Has anyone here had experience with this repair?  Any tips on doing the job?   Specifically grinding out the swages that hold the caps in place and centering the joint in the yokes. 

Also, the shaft rotates at a rather high speed, higher than most other applications.  Does anyone have a source for a good u-joint for the job?

Is there a shop that has done these shafts?  Bruno has been mentioned on other forums, but his shop is closed now.  The local guys he has called don't want to touch his shaft because of the swaged caps.

[Laitch]

This North Carolina outfit mentions driveshaft repair and K models on this page.

[Chaos]

I copied this from a previous post, not specific for a paralever but some of the shops might be promising....

As I attempt to find a suitable (and reasonable $) repair for the splines on a K75RT driveshaft/final drive, I’ve come across a lot of older information, so I thought I’d give a current update of where we are today (3/14/2018). Please let me know if I have missed anything!!


Brand new OEM:
Buy a new driveshaft (~$365) and a final drive (~$824) from BMW

Repair:
Hansen’s BMW in Medford, OR - they repair the final drive only. The base price for new pinion shaft splines ONLY is $220 if you do some disassembly work. On an older final drive (above 30k or so), they will also replace the pinion gear and seals. They also sell a brand new BMW driveshaft with a 2-year warranty (~$330 for driveshaft because of 10% discount w/drive repair).
Side note: Craig (proprietor of Hansen's) also said that he accepts final drives from BMW and Independent Shops, so if you don't want to tackle it yourself, you can have someone else do the dirty work for you. He tries to get them back out of the shop in 2 weeks or so.

Bombers Beemers in Durham, NC
They offer a full rebuild of the final drive with new pinion shaft spline, new drive shaft, clean and reseal. ($989.95 with 1yr/12k warranty - it is noted that the metal in the new drive shaft splines are supposedly better quality than original)
 

Used:
Check the MOA Market place, iBMWR, or eBay
Check your local swap meet or motorcycle parts breaker
**I’ve noticed that the quality on eBay has not been the best, as most are used parts with significant wear. You can see that some eBay sellers deliberately choose not to show the actual splines, in an effort to hide their poor condition!!**

Other repairs:
MachineService in WI - They only repair the u-joint on the drive shaft, which isn’t generally a problem on the K75/K100
Oshmo in Van Nuys, CA and Hendersen Precision in Big Oak Flat, CA - Seem to only repair /5 /6 /7 model final drives or u-joints in R100's

Old places no longer providing new/repairs:
Brand new:
Ted Porter’s Beemershop and Bombers Beemers sold the Emerald Island (EI) rebuildable driveshaft, but they are backordered for redesign (no known date of when that will be)

Repairs
Bruno’s Repair in Canada (closed down last year)
Motobins.co.uk Driveshaft repair (Website notes UK Customers only – have not heard back from my i

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Just got a reply from Pete Bombar.  He advises a new driveshaft from BMW for $1025.  That is what we got from the local BMW mechanic.  Seems the swaged caps spook people.

There are threads on the interweb that talk about replacing u-joints on R bike shafts.  It doesn't sound too difficult as long as I can get a joint that can handle the high rpm's. 

We have all winter to get a repair done, so no rush.  Either we find someone who will do it, or we can find out how to do it ourselves.  Still, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to post them.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

BTW, in reading a number of threads on the subject it looks like it's a fairly common problem with the Paralever.  Various causes are speculated on, from leaky rubber swing arm boots, to old grease in the permanently lubricated joints, to improperly phased u-joints.  Problem seems to go across the entire BMW product line wherever the Paralever is used.  A couple failures were reported to have happened on 2004 and later bikes that were only 4-5 years old.  Someone mentioned that there were a fair number of warranty claims for bad shafts on the K1200 in the 90's.

I am beginning to feel a little paranoid about my Paralever now.  Scary thing is that there appears to be little warning, mostly being a tiny click when the rear wheel is turned and the progress from good to failed takes place in a couple hundred miles at the most.

[johnny]

greetings...


010.jpg (57.42 kB . 768x576 - viewed 449 times)


011.jpg (107.21 kB . 768x576 - viewed 441 times)


013.jpg (79.84 kB . 768x576 - viewed 440 times)


012.jpg (77.75 kB . 768x576 - viewed 472 times)

its the metal that surrounds to ujoint... its not robust enough in my opinion... its always that metal that lets go and causes a rear tior lock up... that is your challenge... how to build it up effectively...

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,240.msg260.html#msg260

j o

[Martin]

Try a driveshaft specialist. One that does custom shafts and rebuilds.
Regards Martin.

[island_boy]

Impressive, Johnny...  the pictures, THAT road (that's got to be where Leno goes, and Matt Farah from Smoking Tire, etc.).  What a road.  May have to go out there just to ride/drive it...

I digress...

Impressive you didn't lay her over!  And, cool sled they put your bike on to stabilize it on the flat bed!

Reading this thread with curious abandon...   

IB...

[Laitch]

. . . THAT road (that's got to be where Leno goes. . ..  What a road.  .

Leno probably can pretty much go wherever he wants but that's not the road where he is commonly recorded on video piloting his exotic machines. THAT road is Mulholland Drive. It's closer to Beverly Hills and indicated by the arrows in the attached maps. I lived an idyllic boyhood among the mesquite and coyotes across the valley in La Cañada.

[billday]

The Bugatti. 

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Well, he found a fairly nice looking one with low mileage on eBay.  The plan now is to install the "new" one and make a winter project of rebuilding the old one.  Seems that some of the R bike guys rebuild theirs, along with the four wheeler crowd.  Fair number of You Tube videos and other info on the interweb.  Being an old farmer, he has lots of experience with PTO shaft joints.

The big thing will probably be finding the joints.  We figure that BMW probably has some really oddball custom design for the joint that is not commercially available.  Once we get some dimensions, the search will be on for a replacement

[Martin]

A couple of Ozinians have replaced theirs. After the refit they tacked flat washers over the end caps. I'll see if i can get the part number.
Regards Martin.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Martin, welding washers over the caps seems to be the way the R bike guys do it.  I have read on a few forums that some suspect the swaging that holds the caps in place as putting too much pressure on the caps and the bearings in them, leading to premature demise.

That would be great if you can find a joint part number.  Just make sure it's for a Paralever drive shaft that has two u-joints.  One thing he is concerned about is how critical the centering of the cross is and how to get it perfectly centered.  He's pretty convinced that at 5000 rpm an improperly aligned joint could be disastrous.

Right now, it looks like it won't be until December when we get to work on it.  I want to get all the work on my bikes done before he brings his bike over.

[Martin]

I've had a look can't seem to find the post. I'll try a few Ozinians, and get back. There is another method that involves machining for circlips.
Regards Martin.

[Laitch]

My friend is an old farmer who has lots of experience with u-joints on agricultural equipment.  We think the old joints can be replaced, but the swaged caps make us wonder on how to approach repairing them.

Any tips on doing the job?   Specifically grinding out the swages that hold the caps in place and centering the joint in the yokes. 

Starting with this post are descriptions of how to approach disassembly and replacement of staked u-joints.

This outfit appears to offer airhead drive shaft rebuilding at lest cost than new oem. Maybe they'd consider doing the same for K-models.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Thanks for all the information.  I am bookmarking all of it, and passing it on to my friend.  The plan for now is to pull the old shaft when I'm done with annual service on my fleet, which will probably be in December.  The replacement shaft is due about the 16th and we'll be measuring it to confirm the dimensions for the joints. 

Once we get started, I hope to document the job with lots of photos to post here.  We have a Hardy Spicer u-joint kit number(K5-A766) that Spicer identifies as for BMW motorcycles.  The problem right now is finding a place to buy that part.

[Martin]

Gryph if you get stuck I can probably source one and ship to you. Hardy Spicer is an Ozinian company. However as you know freight is the killer. At the moment I'm three states and an island hop from home. But soon as I get back around the 20th I can check it out.
Regards Martin.

[Martin]

Gryph the U/Joint specified is off a Kato Crane. Link to their site is http://www.hardyspicer.com.au/about_us.asp
Regards Martin.