Free Play in the Drive Shaft/Final drive

[holligl]

Just changed my oil, filter, and final Drive oil. In the process of warming it up I did run it for a bit in second gear while on the center stand. I have noticed before that it seems a bit jerky when I do this. After I was done, I measured the free play in the drive: engine off, in gear, I measured the distance the sidewall of the tire will move forward and back. It is close to 2". Is this normal? Seems like most of the play is up front around the transmission/Universal joint (based on the sound).

I don't find anything specified in the service manual on this, and it seems to ride fine, both acceleration, and deceleration. At a steady idle in 1st or 2nd, on the road, I can feel some back and forth, but it doesn't seem too bad.

I would appreciate it if a few others could measure their free play and let me know if mine is normal or not. Thanks in advance!

 

[steve68steve]

Seems about right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0nRGKk_IyM

 

[Checkswrecks]

There's a similar video showing this in the maintenance videos thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGma-RV_UP4

 

[Don in Lodi]

ABS shuts off eventually, but I believe traction control continues to argue with the free spinning wheel. ::26::
There's a bit of slack in every meshing gear between the wheel and the crank shaft. I think my Royal Star had more slack than that after 100,000 miles. ::008::

 

[RED CAT]

Normal. TC doesn't shut off on my Gen2 by doing this.

 

[holligl]

Normal. TC doesn't shut off on my Gen2 by doing this.

I've read that this is how you can disable the ABS. Traction control has the switch already.

Thanks to all with confirmation of normal slack... ::021::

 

[Cycledude]

Other than for a short test it's a Bad idea to be running the bike in gear while on the centerstand, the u joints are at a sharper angle when the wheel is completely unloaded,have you done this much in the past ?

 

[EricV]

Other than for a short test it's a Bad idea to be running the bike in gear while on the centerstand, the u joints are at a sharper angle when the wheel is completely unloaded,have you done this much in the past ?

And equally curious... Why? You don't need to run the bike in gear to warm up the engine oil, IF that's what you are attempting to do prior to an oil change. Just let it idle, if you must. Better, go for a short ride, then change the oil/filter. Or don't bother and just change it already. The difference isn't significant, the filter is catching the bulk of what you need to worry about.

 

[Don in Lodi]

Other than for a short test it's a Bad idea to be running the bike in gear while on the centerstand, the u joints are at a sharper angle when the wheel is completely unloaded,have you done this much in the past ?

The front joint will handle it just fine, for hours and days.

 

[holligl]

Other than for a short test it's a Bad idea to be running the bike in gear while on the centerstand, the u joints are at a sharper angle when the wheel is completely unloaded,have you done this much in the past ?

Rarely done. Since I was changing both the engine oil and final drive oil, I wanted to ensure the final drive oil was stirred up. While I rode earlier, the bike had cooled down.

 

[corndog]

I do not like to run mine in gear on the center stand. I can not believe it does it any good to do this. If I need to, I will apply the rear brake slightly to give some drag to the rear drive and it will not rack back and forth.

I just bring mine in from a long ride when the axle is warm and the oil hot, yank the 3 plugs and go have a beer.

 

[Madhatter]

its fine , worry about some thing else..... that's the beauty of this bike , not much to worry about..... cars , that's some thing to worry about.... ( please do not take any thing that I have written here as a DIS.... had hurricane Harvey in my head for a week ) some free play is necessary...

 

[mick2]

Slop in final drive

I have 10.000k on my 2016 es. I've noticed that the bike is completely broken in. I do have slop in the final drive. A clunk or clatter at low rpm in traffic or when I let the clutch out as it grabs. I'm not that worried about it right now. I had a guzzi stelveo which was a lot worse. Anybody have this in there bikes. And yes the engine did become noisy from when it was new. Some tapping from the top end at 4500rpm . The bike is very smooth at a 100kmh. Any suggestion on types of oil before my next oil changs

 

[Checkswrecks]

Re: Slop in final drive

I have 10.000k on my 2016 es. I've noticed that the bike is completely broken in. I do have slop in the final drive. A clunk or clatter at low rpm in traffic or when I let the clutch out as it grabs. I'm not that worried about it right now. I had a guzzi stelveo which was a lot worse. Anybody have this in there bikes. And yes the engine did become noisy from when it was new. Some tapping from the top end at 4500rpm . The bike is very smooth at a 100kmh. Any suggestion on types of oil before my next oil changs

Merged into the entire thread concerning the subject you asked about.


Search is your friend.
::008::

 

[Madhatter]

you have little rubber blocks that fit in the rear hub , cush drive , they can wear out and need replacement.... just have to remove rear wheel and give them a look...that could be a source of extra slop..

 

[mick2]

I'll check that out when I change the tires this fall. Thanks. It would be nice to see a vid on the spline at the trans end to see how much play they have from factory.

 

[EricV]

How many miles on your '14 ES?

I never changed the cush drive rubber blocks in over 100k miles. No noticeable extra slop in the drive shaft. Conversely, I changed the F650GS twin's blocks around 60k as they were noticeably dried out/hard and would just fall out of the wheel.

You noticed something you would never notice in riding the bike. Nothing is wrong.
::021::

 

[RonH]

Just the design of the thing, nothing wrong. This question has been pondered over a couple times over the years.