Final Drive Oil Leak

[Checkswrecks]

Is anyone else having this issue? I can understand the weeping around the fill hole on the rear hub, but not on the main shaft itself. Very odd.

Over my 5-6 years with the FJRs and reading just about all the forum comments, I can think of a couple of them that had a slow leak from the from hole on the bottom of the shaft housing. That oil had come out at leaks in the power shaft seal, then migrated. They were rare enough to wonder if the owners ever changed oil, or if they changed oil only at engine overhaul.

There were also a couple in which owners WAY overdid lubing the splines and the extra lube again wandered to the housing drain hole.

 

[Mikef5000]

Mine's weeping from the rear most U-Joint seal just like this picture shows (the one on the right), actually a bit more substantially.

Doesn't bug me one bit.

It's a serious amount of work to replace that seal, and the risk of something going back together less than perfectly outweighs the gain from replacing that seal IMHO.

::021::

 

[Checkswrecks]

Mine's weeping from the rear most U-Joint seal just like this picture shows (the one on the right), actually a bit more substantially.

Doesn't bug me one bit.

It's a serious amount of work to replace that seal, and the risk of something going back together less than perfectly outweighs the gain from replacing that seal IMHO.

::021::

I've seen FJRs look like that when the splines were overly lubricated.

 

[Checkswrecks]

This is a bit of a tangent, since it is from the rear and not the front. But since the FJR and Tenere rear drives are SO similar, I thought it worth posting for people to be aware that the oil seal can leak where the shaft goes into the pumpkin.
Of course, Scoot lives in the desert and does a LOT more miles than most folks. (other than maybe Sail2XX )
And when the seal leaks it makes a mess, you still ride on till you simply replace the seal and add lube when it is convenient for you, unlike the BMWs.


The story is here: http://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=148718&pid=1006487&st=0&#entry1006487


Example of FJR rear seal leak at high miles:

 

[Don in Lodi]

Identical to my Royal Star's pinion seal leak.

 

[erenet]

I went for a little ride today to get a picture for the moto-tag photo game, was a little late for game .

After that I went for a coffee at my friends house, this is what saw when I got there, the bike has 22,000km. ???

 

[RED CAT]

Thats what mine looked liked after about 10,000kms. Hauled it back down to the Dealer I bought it from in Montana and they had a good giggle. Turned out to be packing grease on the shaft knuckles that had melted and ran out the drain hole at the end of the drive shaft housing. Never happened again. ::001::

 

[Don in Lodi]

Packing grease? That would be a whole bunch of grease to make that mess. Looks like a pinion seal from here...

 

[Don in Lodi]

I went for a little ride today to get a picture for the moto-tag photo game, was a little late for game .

After that I went for a coffee at my friends house, this is what saw when I got there, the bike has 22,000km. ???

As noted by Cat, and others elsewhere, clean it up, check the fluid level, ride some more. You can't go 'worst case scenario' right off the bat. It may be, but for your own peace of mind (and ours) you need to confirm it.

 

[Checkswrecks]

If you remove the wheel, it's only 4 nuts to know if the leak is at the front or back.
Pretty easy.

 

[erenet]

Thanks for all your help.

Yesterday looked pretty bad, the oil is coming out from the small drain hole. Today I checked the final drive oil and it was a bit low, not as much as I thought it would be, topped it up, toke an allen key, ratchet and some oil (Yamalube SAE 80W90) and went for a ride, first I stopped at the dealer to know about my rear shock, (no answer from Yamaha Canada yet) and let them know about the final drive oil leak.

On my ride I stopped every 10-20km to clean the oil near the drain hole, preventing it from seeping into the gap between the pumpkin and the wheel and make a big mess again, I also don't think it was leaking as bad as yesterday. The warranty expired two months ago +or-, but the dealer suggested letting Yamaha Canada know about the leak as well.

It would be good to have Yamaha Canada fix the bike if these parts are defected, as Yamaha Canada costumer service told me over the phone, "We will replace the rear shock if it's defected". The technician at the dealer has inspected the rear shock and told me that it's defected, I just have to wait now.

 

[erenet]

Today I got a call from the dealer, they told me to bring the bike in and Yamaha Canada is fixing it for me ::008::, he also said that Yamaha Canada is very interested to know about this particular bike.
::022::

 

[erenet]

I don't get it! The dealer told me to bring the bike to the shop "Yamaha is repairing the bike for you", it's there for two weeks now, yesterday they called me, "please contact Yamaha Canada yourself because they are not covering the repair". I called and no, they are not fixing the oil leak.
This is the second dealer for me. The service manager on this one hasn't been there for two weeks, he is the one that told me to bring it in, now I have to deal with two different guys when I go/call there.
I shouldn't be surprised, they've just confirmed the near 0 trust I have in them. I have the service manual, I should be able to fix it myself, and at the same time I can put some grease on the swingarm pivot (25000km maint.) bolt etc.
I really like the sticker I got from Wasp for my bike, but that 'Yamaha' part of it is stating to look a little too big for my liking, I don't feel I need to advertise Y for free.

 

[Roge]

Looks like more than assembly lube to me too. Sorry for your troubles, but as infant mortality problems go, this is a minor one and I'm sure they'll fix it pronto.

As an aside, BMW is just now recalling 1400 2012 S1000RR's to have their con-rod bolts replaced. So things can get a lot worse.

- Mark

if you wanted a reliable final drive oil leak you should have done more research and bought BWM

 

[SuperTen]

Example of FJR rear seal leak at high miles:

Well, this is what my rear tire looks like. I will post a picture later, at work at the moment :'(

Went to Carlisle Bike Fest yesterday, about 170 miles highway and at way above speed limit

When I got there, got off the bike and then noticed my rear wheel and rim covered in a fine mist of oil
Must be the new lubrication system

Seems like oil is coming out from inside the hub. It's not coming out from the breather or the two plugs. I look under the hub and a drop was there. My tire had oil running from the center outwards to the edge

Spoke with a yamaha manager at the event (they had demo rides going on) and his first question was, "are you between 25 and 27k miles?" :sly:

It just so happens that my bike has now 27500 miles

He says the seal is gone, he's seen a few bikes with that problem :what:

I hadn't heard of anyone having a seal problem, calling the dealer today

 

[BadKarmaPa]

I just cut a trip short due to the same issue. 13k miles

 

[twinrider]

Is Yamaha replacing the failed seals with an improved version?

 

[EricV]

The seal may not be the problem. Perhaps an installation issue instead. The number of reported failures of this type are pretty low, which would seem to indicate that the seals themselves may not be the issue. It takes very little to screw up a seal installation. They could have had something as simple as a tool that got dropped and had a burr that was slightly damaging the seal when installed, causing them to fail early, but only the seals installed with that tool, and not all the time.

 

[HoebSTer]

Too much spline lube will shhot out on the wheel like this recent picture.

 

[BadKarmaPa]

I was wondering if the vent could be clogged. I did have it pretty muddy recently. I would liked to have checked things myself, but I didn't want to dis-assembly anything because of it hopefully being warrantied.