This could have been bad :yow (K1100RS rear drive question)

[Wescoe]

Hello all wiser than I motobrickers. I came out to my bike yesterday and luckily noticed what appeared to be a missing nut on the exterior of my final drive. After quickly consulting the fiche, I learned there is supposed to be a hex nut there (I'm not crazy) and that the part it fastens to is a bearing race for the interior of the rear drive assembly.

A few observations...I'll assume I'm lucky I noticed this before that bearing race backed all the way out. As is, it was figure-loose, so I returned it to "finger-tight" for the time being.  I'm also assuming major damage hasn't been done as the last time I had it out was a long and spirited ride, probably what caused the nut to back off.

I've ordered the replacement hex nut from BMW and it should be in tomorrow. How can I properly fix this situation? I looked in the factory manual and I was not clear on how that bearing race should be set. Is this something I'll need to disassemble the rear drive to properly fix?

Any help pointing me in the right direction is greatly appreciated. If it's not already obvious, the deepest I've been into the rear drive is an oil change on the 2 I've owned.

[Wescoe]

For reference:

This is the fiche I consulted, I ordered "33 53 3 054 174":
http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51713&rnd=04282014

And I was consulting section 33 in the BMW factory manual for the '95 K1100RS, specifically 33.17-33.19.

[johnny]

greetings...

it looks like its not in as far as my motobricks...

im thinking you are gonna need to pull the swingarm off and make sure your swingarm bearings are still good as well as these bearings...

very important... can cause lottsa whack...

will need that nut b4 you put it back together...

good time to do a driveshaft spline lube too...

the bearings are 4 and 11 here... you can see how important that hex nut and the assembly are...

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=0532&mospid=51713&btnr=33_0660&hg=33&fg=35&hl=8


j o

[The Mighty Gryphon]

+1 on what the man said.  You will need a torque wrench to tighten the threads in the swingarm and the new nut.  Those threads you see adjust the preload on the paralever pivot.  Correct torque on them is critical to avoiding whack.

Get in there now and lube those splines!  And when you put it back in make sure the u-joints in the drive shaft are in proper phase.

[Wescoe]

OK, just read through the .pdf's on this thread, I knew there'd come a time where I had to jump into a spline lube.

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,1615.0.html

As far as inspecting for damage, should damage be obvious? I'm looking for mangled bearings and anything of the like, correct? I didn't hear anything bad or feel anything bad, so I'm assuming nothing's gone completely awry. I think tearing it down and giving her new fluids and a spline lube is a good idea, she's about due for that anyway.

[johnny]

this motobricker thinks if there is whack you most likely will be able to see the bearings are not straight... knotchy when turned with your finger... or missing kneedles if that inner race is detached...

its just whack wear if not aligned properly... really no mangling can take place unless its been whack for a very long time...

i wore out a couple sets of these bearings... both occurrences... they were missing kneedles when i pulled off the final drive...

after that i just had lior replace those bearings when he rebuilt my final drives... 

it was just too many miles of aggressive 2up... 800lbs on the rear tior fully loaded... takes its toll...

j o