roller bearings in drive shaft housing

[LeMaitre]

Replacing the rear tire on GL1200A. Got the tire mounted today and when I inspected the drive shaft housing I found 3 small roller bearings and part of a basket laying in the bottom of the housing. Took a look at the final drive and the seal, they are intact. No signs of current failure with the final drive. This has led me to suspect the u-joint. Am I heading in the right direction?

Thanks for your help.

-Mark

[LeMaitre]

Managed to push the boot over the u-joint back. The bearings are too big to be from there. Searching through the parts list 91062-MG9-013 Bearing, needle, 20x35x18 could be where it came from. With no damage to the seal I am hesitant about tearing apart the final drive.

-Mark

[Rambozo]

I can't imagine you wouldn't be able to feel that kind of damage turning the drive by hand. Perhaps some bits not cleaned out from previous repairs? Inspect everything you can, but if the seal is intact, I rather doubt it's anything behind that.

[Rednaxs60]

Managed to push the boot over the u-joint back. The bearings are too big to be from there. Searching through the parts list 91062-MG9-013 Bearing, needle, 20x35x18 could be where it came from. With no damage to the seal I am hesitant about tearing apart the final drive.

-Mark

Have had the FD apart on my '85 LTD because the pinion shaft bearing was worn, could move the pinion shaft by hand, there should be no play in the pinion shaft bearing #31 in the fiche. Took the FD apart and cleaned the inside, relatively simple job.

The bearing you mention cannot fail and have parts outside of the FD.

Check the play in the pinion shaft. Only bearing in that area that may have failed and parts are outside the FD.

Good luck.

[LeMaitre]

Thanks for the replies,

The roller/needle is about 3/16" x 5/8" with no taper. I'll remove the drive shaft from the FD and see what I can find.

-Mark

[LeMaitre]

Took the drive shaft out of the final drive. Did not find any damage so I decided to remove the swing arm. Removed the right side and saw the end of the "bolt" chewed up. It looked liked someone had ground down threads. Switched to the left side and found out I needed the special tool. Ordered the Park tool F6 mentioned in other threads instead of the honda tool. It will be here Thursday.

I am beginning to suspect that the rollers came from the swing arm bearings.

-Mark

[LeMaitre]

Confirmed that the right side swing-arm bearing is destroyed. That is the step forward, the two steps back is removing the exhaust so that I can remove the swing arm. The swing-arm will not clear the rear brake master cylinder. Tried loosening it, not enough movement to get it out of the way of the swing-arm. Removed the bolts from the clamps under the front foot pegs. Spread the clams and tried spreading the seams of the H section attachments. I have movement up and down but none side to side. Any hints?

-Mark

[LeMaitre]

Finally got the exhaust and swing arm off the bike. I am going to start a couple of new threads, one looking for pictures of the right swing-arm bearing installed showing it removed. Two a source for a coupe of hard to find parts.

-Mark