Clunk in drive line

[Totalchaos]

I have read everything I can find about this. My bike makes a Clunk if I'm in first and starting to speed up from a dead start or slow down(using the bikes compression). I broke down and tore into it. I worked as a auto tech for around 30years.i know my way around a spanner.but this one has me pulling my hair out. I removed the rear tire and the pumpkin inspected all the related splines other than needing a good coat of grease no excessive wear. I pulled the drive shaft and again checked for wear and nothing except need of grease. I removed the rubber boot to look at the u joint. Could not tell much with it in the bike. Got the u joint out. Looked it over and no real wear here either.once I got it clean I took photos. The only thing that stuck out to me was. The heat scares(blueing of the yoke. Take a look and you guys tell me what I'm missing.

[dingdong]

Not sure about the clunk but the coloring is normal. It is from the hardening / tempering process of the splines.

[Totalchaos]

That's what I was thinking to

[WingAdmin]

When the U-joint in my 1500 was worn enough to cause a clunk, I could feel the slop in my hands when I took it out. It was pretty obvious.

If yours is pretty tight and with no obvious free play, then I would start looking elsewhere for the cause.

[old.wing]

Take a closer look at the spider, the connector between the drive case and the wheel. It should not have any sign of wear and should be well greased. If it is dry or worn out, it can produce a loud clong, like a hammer on your rim. Good luck.

[stuartb306]

I know this is an older posting, but im gonna tell you how i found out mine was on its way out also. It was "clunking" when i increased or decreased my speed, so I took it out, and looked at it. It had a bluish color to it, and while i was moving it around in my hands, i could feel it "binding" while moving it around. I said to myself, "yep, time to replace it", and after that i had no more "clunking" noises coming from it.

Hope this helped ya.

Stuart

[Rednaxs60]

Have the same issue, always a clunk when starting out in first, but none after. Have looked into this, searched the various forums. Drive line is tight. A lot of people have this issue, but it seems to be historical. I have even replaced the 1200 FD with a 1500 FD, it will fit and work, just drill out for the bolts, don't need to use the 1500 rim. Same issue persists.

There are no new, or NOS u-joints available, but there have been enterprising members that have come up with a work around.

Here's a doc on a mod for the u-joint. From Bob Henshaw:

I'm back! I have done my homework and have come up with a solution for the final drive u-joint. There are two suppliers I have come up with, one is part # 1-0475 by NEAPCO and the other is part # 5-0400QG by QUALITY GEAR. You will have to do some checking to find them, I
ended up purchasing one at a driveline shop.
I have added pictures of my proceedures and will do my best to explain them.
1- Grind the crimping tabs (that hold the caps in) off flush with the bore using a die grinder or Dremmel.
2- Push the caps out with a arbor press or vice. The caps won't come out all the way but far enough to grab them in the vice and knock the yoke off.
3- The replacement u-joint comes with outside snap rings which the ones shown in the picture turned out to be packaged wrong and had to get proper ones from a supplier. In my case I was able to machine snap ring grooves in the bore. But if you don't have that option then may I suggest Mig welding a spot or two in the bore right beside the caps. Be careful not to burn the caps or you will be starting back at #1.
Hope this helps someone in the future seeing as Honda has not had the drive coupler available for some time. If you have any question please contact me.

[old.wing]

Hello Rednaxs60,

As I have already written on 14.07.2021, the reason for the clacking is the spider in the rear wheel. The 6 bolts of the spider must be well greased, because they sit in rubber dampers with steel bushings. When the bolts rust and there is a load change in the drive, they move abruptly in the dampers and produce the noise, like a hammer blow. With each wheel disassembly, not only grease the gears, also remove the spider from the wheel, clean and mount greased.
Good Luck


Berthold

[stuartb306]

Hello Rednaxs, I was at a motorcycle salvage yard a couple of weeks ago, and someone brought in 3 boxes of NOS, never used GL2100 parts . Included in one of the boxes was a brand new, never installed "U'joint". Now you KNOW i snapped that up in a heartbeat lol. Paid only $40.00 US for it . next month im gonna go back and see what else i can find. Also found in one of the boxes was a brand-new rear brake caliper that I should have bought also, but i didn't bring enough money with me lol. He wanted $60.00 US for it.

Stuart.

[Rednaxs60]

Bob Henshaw also made new cush dampers for the 1200 units, probably fit older GWs as well. Picked these up from him, and have several sets of these. Here's a couple of pics of what I have:

He provided a good write up regarding this.

[stuartb306]

Hey Rednaxs, sorry for the late reply. That NOS Ujoint i bought did the trick. No more "clunking" from the drive train, and as of today, im not going to be able to ride my motorcycle for the entire riding season this year. I am going to be having hand/wrist surgery in April and I'll have a cast on my arm for 5 months, so, all this money i spent on it wasted for this coming riding season , but it won't be a total loss, im trailering it to a friend of mine and he's gonna repaint the entire bike for me. I told him to take his time with it cause he'll have it for the whole summer lol. I'd rather not have the "temptation" of trying to ride it with a cast on my arm, so, out of sight, out of mind .

Stuart.

[Rednaxs60]

Would love to have a NOS u-joint. Sorry to hear that your riding season is being put on hold.

A fresh paint job will make the old girl sparkle. Took everything apart, not just the big parts, but everything including the brown accessories, switches and such. Have lots of pictures. Here's my 1200 paint thread over on the Classic GW forum: https://classicgoldwings.com/threads/gl ... ect.14073/

The issue I had with mine besides getting the brown metalflake colour to match, the gold metalflake was not a problem, was the pinstriping. Honda used decals that are no longer available. Devised a system to address this and it worked well. Did not have the pinstriping hand painted, used a spray gun.

Cheers

[stuartb306]

WOW, you did a really nice repaint. Looks like a new bike. I have 2 color choices, either Gloss lime green with black inserts, or gloss scorched orange with black inserts, and gold pin stripes to break up the black and other base color. I just wish i knew this was gonna happen really soon, i could have saved a LOT of $$$$ lol.

Listen, im getting ready to take a cage drive down to Mexico for some cheap smokes at the UETA, (tax free duty store) and some yummy Charros. I'll message ya when i get home later this afternoon.

Stuart.