Drive shaft

[Skiptonian]

My bike has developed a leak from the drive shaft. Noticed this when on holiday and called at a local dealer, they said it was the first one they had seen or heard of. They say a seal has gone between the final drive gearbox and the drive shaft tunnel, oil is then leaking out of a breather hole in the drive tunnel and then running back towards the drain plug area and dripping down onto the tyre, anybody experienced this please ? I was thinking of trying to fix it myself but would like some thoughts first. Thanks.

 

[Don in Lodi]

There are a couple final drive/differential threads here. If I understand your note, it's the pinion shaft seal that's leaking. It takes a few specialty tools to do that.

 

[The Ferret]

I did mine making a 'tool' from a U clamp. I put a thread on here. You have to stop the drive pinion turning in order to remove the securing but. First check that your problem isn't just the seal on the drive shaft.

 

[Don in Lodi]

I did mine making a 'tool' from a U clamp. I put a thread on here. You have to stop the drive pinion turning in order to remove the securing but. First check that your problem isn't just the seal on the drive shaft.

Isn't the inner one the oil seal and the outer one a dust seal? A dust seal won't keep oil from weeping out.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Pages of experience to read and learn from on this topic here:
http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=6879.0


and


http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=4652.15


There are more threads if you do a search.


Basically, there are three places to get leaks if you don't count the vent. Two if you don't have the leak coating the wheel spokes and find it coming from the drain hole at the aft end of the shaft housing. (I'm also not counting excess lube on the splines which sometimes follows having it apart for maintenance.)


Diagnosis is to first smell the oil leaking to see if it smells like engine or drive oil. That tells whether it is the gearbox output or pumpkin seal.

 

[The Ferret]

There's a pinion seal which is the harder of the two oil seals to replace. The drive shaft slides inside the drive pinion to compensate for swinging arm movement. The sliding is lubricated by oil from the final drive which enters and leaves the drive pinion via two holes. An oil seal on the drive shaft prevents this oil from leaking into the drive shaft cavity. The oil seal is static to the shaft and the pinion,but is concertina in cross section to cope with shaft sliding up and down.

 

[trikepilot]

Guys... yer killing me here. I am gonna have to quit reading the forum as all I find are "problems." Not too long ago, I was reading about how the swingarms come with little lube on anything from the factory so I decided to take a look.

And this happened - http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=11428.0

Now I am reading about a shaft drive leak and was in the basement where Fancy is partially disassembled while I wait on some parts. And there to my dismay is a drool of oil on my back tire. The entire bottom of the pumpkin is wet - the leak is not coming from either of the breather holes in the swingarm. I took the rear wheel/tire off and the entire bottom of the inside face of the pumpkin is soaked. I cleaned everything off and am letting it sit as I cannot ride it anyway in order to see if the leak propagates. I am hopeful that it could be melted off spline lube from when I put on the rear wheel last but that was 1700 miles ago so I am pretty sure that is not it or it would have already happened. And the leak had a somewhat hypoid oil smell about it. I guess time will tell as I can't do anything until I see the leak restart and ID the source. If it is that seal on the inner face around the spline, I'll be seeing if my dealer will honor my YES warranty and fix it.

But damn... my bike seems to be in nearly perfect synch with the forum topics lately as it pertains to developing issues!