My Final Drive Pivot Bearings are Buggered.......

[Adrian V]

G'day,

 First noob post here.  I have a 1994 K1100LT that is hacked (sidecar). When it was jacked up the other day to change some bushes in the leading links the machinist noticed that the rear wheel wobbled rather alarmingly side to side (9 - 3). It seems to be the final drive pivot bearings and it's pretty bad.....  I've just done a bit of reading and it seems this can be adjusted, but given that there is so much movement the consensus seems to be that its probably buggered...... Not wanting this to be a recurring issue I have a few questions:
 
-  Is the JL Paralever Bushing upgrade kit a good mod?

http://www.rubberchickenracinggarage.com/bushings.html

- Which bearing pin is fixed and which can I adjust for now until I either get new bearings or the JL kit.

- Anything else I need to know?

- Any good write ups on fixing/adjusting these?

Cheers,

Adrian (from Albany Australia)

[frankenduck]

The 12mm Allen head bolt on the wheel side of the pivot is the fixed one.  The one with the lock nut on the outside (right side of bike) is the one that you torque to adjust the pressure on the bearings.

I haven't personally tired the Rubber Chicken bearing but have seen many good reviews of them.

The bearings are a bunch of needle bearings held in place by a little plastic race (or whatever the hell you call it.)  If you pull the final drive off then most likely that little plastic piece is buggered and the little needle bearings will fall out.  I'm not sure if tightening down on the bearings is going to help or hurt.  My advice would be not to ride the bike until you've replaced the bearings with good ones.

[robleyd]

It might be worth giving these guys a try if you haven't already - http://www.munichmotorcycles.com.au/ A phone call would be needed as they don't specifically list those parts on their site.

[mikeinwis]

I've been contemplating the FD also.  The solid brass bushings look good--but ran into a thread that was pretty negative.  Thought I'd saved it but can't find it now--will keep looking. 
Think it was on ADV forum.  Maybe Drake will recall it.  Guys didn't like the bushing opposed to bearings.  May be a GS thing.

Anyway, here's one of many from K11OG:
http://k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9851&highlight=paralever



Here's one on BMWMOA thread:
http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23060&highlight=pivot+bearings

Get you started.  Good luck
Mike

[mikeinwis]

OK, found the ADV rider article dis'ing the bronze bushings:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291712&page=3

And an oilhead discussion to add to confusion:

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54385
I think Paul Glaves knows what he's talking about.

Would be interested to know if these problems are due to off road abuse on GS's.  Seemed like a good idea but....
Anyone have any real experience?
Mike

[frankenduck]

They go out on street bikes too.  I just pulled the FD on my 50k LT and the plastic thing was buggered.  (I just replaced mine with some good used OEM bearings since I had some around from another FD.)

[Rick G]

I am in Oz and had to replace mine not long ago and found the cheapest place was from Motobins in UK.
I tried for some considerable time to get non OEM but I dont think they are available.
Being from an engineering background I looked at replacing them with a more substantial setup as I don't believe that the original is a very good design at all but then again maybe its just ROE  (Ricks Over Engineering).  I have a spare swingarm and drive that I intend to play with at some time, maybe a spare 2 minutes and my arse don't need scratching.

I just went back and had a look at the JL setup so dont waste money on anything else and that is what I had in mind.  I agree totally with his acessment of the OEM stuff.  They are cheap in the long run.  Very Cheap

[Adrian V]

Thanks for the replies.  Seems to be a bit of controversy with the JL Bushing upgrade from the GS boys.  Just had a look at the Munich motorcycles site $160 (AU) for the bearings alone.....

http://www.munichmotorcycles.com.au/index.php?cPath=506_1326_855_830

I'm a bit confused now though as the Munich Motorcycles bearings just seem to be a sealed bearing, is the inner race (2) shown in the service manual the plastic thingy that Frankenduck is talking about and if so do I need 2 of them as well?  I suppose it will all become more obvious when it's apart....

Cheers,

Adrian

[Rick G]

About 20 Quid each from Motobins and I think about 6 for postage or more if you want them yesterday

http://www.motobins.co.uk/bmw-parts.php?model=K Series

[Adrian V]

Can't get the Motobins site to work, tried getting in a few ways, any ideas?

Cheers,

Adrian

[Rick G]

If you look at the link in my last post you will see that the last bit (Series) is not included in the link this is to stop the bots etc getting info from the site.  if you just enter motobins.co.uk you will get the home page and go to K Series from there.  It really gives me the chits but the bots etc are a real pain when you run a site.