FD/DS rebuild sources -- who are these folks?

[Motorhobo]

After 15 years of motobricking I now have three driveshafts and two final drives that need rebuilding, and the 2 driveshafts that are installed on my bricks are reaching the 'time to call AAA' stage. Called Bruno today and he's six weeks out. Does anyone know anything about these folks?

http://www.bombarsbeemers.com/pages/bmwcomponentrepair.aspx

Ideally I'd see if they can do one of my driveshafts to keep me on the road while I wait for Bruno to come back with a rebuilt DS/FD pair. I'll call them tomorrow unless I hear bad news someone out there.

[johnny]

http://www.motobrick.com/index.php/topic,4003.0.htm

lior will rebuild your final drives...  he has done 2 for me... getting ready to send him another... butts he does not do driveshafts...

there is a place in orogoon who does similar work as bruno...  id have to search him out when i getts off work...

j o

[Motorhobo]

So you've never heard of Bombar's Beemers then, Johnny? Anybody? I'm going to give him a call tomorrow -- need driveshaft bad.

[Motorhobo]

So Bombar's Beemers is in North Carolina, the owner's name is Peter and his shop can do spline repair on Kbike final drives but doesn't do any work on driveshafts. They have a machine shop for most stuff but splines are machined out of house, I don't know where. For the final drive, they replace the seals in the process. They provide a 12k mile/1 year warranty on the FD work but only if a new driveshaft is installed with the FD. Peter claims that the new splines are better than the original which isn't hard to believe since the original OEM seem pretty sucky considering how much motobrickers agonize over them. I didn't talk metallurgy so if you want details of the 'better' claim, you'd have to talk to Bombar's.

Bombar's charges in the just-under-$1000 range for the FD work and new driveshaft which he has to source thru BMW Motorrad USA just like everyone else and offers pretty much the going dealer rate, which currently is $406 and change. So the FD work alone would be in the $600 range, I guess. I didn't ask what he would charge for just the FD, but that point seems moot since if you need both and want the warranty you might as well source the driveshaft from him because you're not going to get a better price on a new DS at the dealer.

So he's pretty much the same as Lior but on the East Coast.

So it looks like Bruno is still the only game in town wrt driveshaft repair. I'll probably just buy a new DS from the dealer and sent my spare to Bruno. I have four final drives, two of which have splines close to 90%, so I'm not going to do a FD rebuild right now.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

What is Bruno getting these days for a Monolever drive shaft job?

[Motorhobo]

I talked to him a few weeks ago and it was $200 -- not including round trip shipping to Canada.

[detbmw]

Here is a video where an independent BMW mechanic mentions Bruno's work and why his are superior. He mentions that Bruno seals up the drive shaft so that the grease can't move up it off the splines.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Yeah, Chris Harris is pretty high on Bruno's work.

Not only does Bruno seal the shaft against the grease moving away, but he uses a longer female spline to get more engagement with the final drive's male spline and reduce the point loading.  I believe he also uses a different hardness that reduces wear on both splines.

[Elipten]

And he can give you a longer spline when rebuilding the bevel drive.

[johnny]

never heard of them...

from the snowbum...

D        DRIVESHAFTS:  Due to excessive driveshaft angle U-joints tend to fail around 35000 miles on
                                    the R100GS models.  Much higher mileages are often seen; particularly with
                                    lowered suspension settings or lots of passenger carrying.  That is due to the
                                    decreased driveshaft U-joint operating angle.  The project to utilize constant
                                    velocity joints, that OAK advised on originally, finally ran out of funds & was
                                    never completed. 
                                    Driveshaft and/or U-joint rebuilding places I know of are:

                                    1.  Erich Demant, in Germany, erdemant@aol.com, removed a rubber part
                                         that tends to twist and go out of phase.   He designed and built/sold a
                                         beefed-up and greasable modified joint, ETC.   This particular fix was
                                         superb.   Erich died in April 2009.  I doubted back then that anyone
                                         would carry on with his business.

                                         Feb. 2015:  I was informed that Erich's business has been taken over
                                         and the shafts now being made again:
                                         Andreas Mattern
                                         Welschhof 7
                                         76872 Freckenfeld
                                         Tel.+Fax: +49 (0) 7275-2144
                                         Mobile: +49 (0) 171/7397329
                                         Email: ifaandreas@t-online.de

                                     2.  Oak recommends Machine Service Industry at 1-800-677-8711.   Ask for
                                          Mitch, the shop foreman.  I'm not happy with them.

                                     3.   Driveshaft (K bikes too!!!), U-joints, Modifications to them, splines
                                           repairs, etc.:   www.brunos.us  Brunos is in Ontario, Canada.  He DOES
                                           do non-G/S type of early airhead shafts ALSO.    See later in this
                                           References page, for SHOCKS, and more contact information for
                                           Brunos. Very solid reputation.
   
                                     4.  Driveshaft remanufacturing service for the BMW Airheads (regular AND
                                          Paralever shafts).  For the Paralever shafts, he replaces the rubber
                                          damper with Urethane.   Installs heavy duty U-joints with grease fittings,
                                          with circlips.  12/12K warranty.  $450.  He rejects a fair amount of
                                          shafts, from his mods, and I am not sure correctly...and for that reason,
                                          and because I think the #5 below is better, I am more in favor of that
                                          one.   Guy Hendersen's version does have a decent reputation, but
                                          some have failed early, but I do NOT have enough information, it could
                                          be not due to the modified design.       
                                          (209) 962-7500   guy@hendersenprecision.com
                                          http://www.hendersenprecision.com/index.html
                                          Sales@hendersenprecision.com    Hendersen Precision; 22105 Feretti
                                          Road, Groveland, California   95321

                                      5.   SNOWBUM LIKES the following driveshaft assembly product.   Ted
                                            Porter's Beemershop, www.beemershop.com is stocking them. Photo
                                            below, was grabbed off of Ted's website.  Looks like someone has
                                            finally solved the wear and service problems.  I thought about doing
                                            this with small U-joints like this once myself.   This driveshaft
                                            assembly is owner serviceable; replaceable U-joints, yokes, & flange.
                                            No special tools needed.  It has grease fittings.   Looks much
                                            better than brand-new BMW shafts.  I like this one!  It is made by
                                            Emerald Island, same place that makes the Omega alternator and
                                            other items.  There is a lengthy but good write-up on the Henderson
                                            and this one, here:
                                            http://www.gunsmoke.com/motorcycling/r100gs/drive_shaft/index.html