Leaking shaft drive

[Nig5]

So after 21,500 miles in 18 months I found a slight leak of oil under the shaft drive housing, originally thought it was the drain bolt so I checked it was tight and all fine so cleaned off the oil and rode to the dealers to have a front tyre fitted, when I got there I checked under the rear wheel housing again and there was some oil but not near the drain bolt, it looked like it was coming out of the housing near the wheel.
One of the mechanics had a look and said it might be the o ring or seal so the ordered a set and I left the bike with them, picked it up today and the replaced the o ring and seal and all seems fine now. Anyone else had this happen?

 

[trikepilot]

Yup. Warranty repair. Threads here at forum detail the issue

 

[Berg_Donk]

Yep, couple of times, fixed by me. PITA, some dirt gets in there and the seal leaks. I successfully cleaned mine, but think that a shaft isn't really suited to a dirt bike. Chain for me next time.

 

[Don in Lodi]

As Berg says, that poor seal lives in a really bad environment. ::26::

 

[Sandford6016]

Had a similar situation 2 weeks ago......

2nd day of a 2 week long trip from London to Morocco and back, just come out of the Pyrenees into Spain and my mate notices oil hitting my exhaust and smoking. Pulled over and the entire contents of the final drive sump spilled all over the floor. The entire sump bolt had gone! 3 hours later and we'd fashioned a repair using the filling point bolt and another bolt from a nearby garage along with replacement oil.

No issues for the rest of the trip, but it's now back at Yamaha dealer being looked at. The bike is only 5 months old!

 

[bnschroder]

How did the bolt just "go"? Sounds like someone didn't torque it correctly.


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[Sandford6016]

Absolutely no idea! The bike was serviced 200 miles before with no issues in between and hadn't been tampered with. It was literally gone! One of the guys rode back up the road to see if they could find it but no luck

 

[La Knee]

Well i guess i better go check mine because i seem to have ALOT of these things that go bad on my bike . GOOD LUCK SANFORD

 

[Nig5]

Had a similar situation 2 weeks ago......

2nd day of a 2 week long trip from London to Morocco and back, just come out of the Pyrenees into Spain and my mate notices oil hitting my exhaust and smoking. Pulled over and the entire contents of the final drive sump spilled all over the floor. The entire sump bolt had gone! 3 hours later and we'd fashioned a repair using the filling point bolt and another bolt from a nearby garage along with replacement oil.

No issues for the rest of the trip, but it's now back at Yamaha dealer being looked at. The bike is only 5 months old!

Hmm funny that because a few hundred miles after 6,000 mile service I noticed a small amount of oil near drain bolt and found it finger tight

 

[Rasher]

Absolutely no idea! The bike was serviced 200 miles before with no issues in between and hadn't been tampered with. It was literally gone!

Sounds like it had not been tightened properly, I am obsessed with using an accurate Torque wrench for anything that could have a major impact on the bikes, or my own health - even after the dealer visits during the warranty period I would check the torque of drain bolts, wheel nuts etc when I got home.

In my experience dealer techs tend to not use a torque wrench and if anything over-tighten things, which you can get away with for a while on a new bike, but as they get older the risk of a stripped thread and expensive repair comes with this "method".

Others here have hammered the S10 off road without such a failure so I would look to change dealer for the next service.

 

[RIDEMYST]

Same thing happened to mine around 25K miles at one year old.
Seal replaced under warranty and no problem since. -JEP-

 

[Juan]

I take great care when I change crush washers. Tightening the drain bolt on a new crush washer might cause the bolt to become loose over time as the crush washer gives way (as it's suppose to, I suppose). What I do is tighten on a new crush washer, then loosen up a bit and re-tighten to torque specs. I never had a drain bolt come loose.

 

[EJV]

At 50,000 miles or so this past winter mine leaked.
New o ring and oil seal. These seals did last longer than the fork seals.... ;D

 

[Sandford6016]

Sounds like it had not been tightened properly, I am obsessed with using an accurate Torque wrench for anything that could have a major impact on the bikes, or my own health - even after the dealer visits during the warranty period I would check the torque of drain bolts, wheel nuts etc when I got home.

In my experience dealer techs tend to not use a torque wrench and if anything over-tighten things, which you can get away with for a while on a new bike, but as they get older the risk of a stripped thread and expensive repair comes with this "method".

Others here have hammered the S10 off road without such a failure so I would look to change dealer for the next service.

Yes I think I will be double checking bolts from now on!