Stephan
Race Dog
As posted a while ago, my bike's rear axle crown gearing packed up. I must admit that, once again, BMW fixed the problem under warranty, with no hassles at all.
So in the interest of sharing information with my fellow GS riders here's the pointers that I picked up in retrospect that would have, had I known what I was looking for, given me early warning.
First indication that something is wrong - you're can do stoppies with the ABS switched on (very disconcerting as it tends to be unexpected and at the wrong time). This starts happening a long time before the wear becomes a real problem. This is caused by the crown gearing developing a limited amount of play and starting to grind away the rear ABS (and speed) sensor. The sensor, while still reporting as funtional, effectively stops functioning properly, affecting the ABS function.
Second indication - all of a sudden you seem to have lost your touch for clean gear shifts, whether shifting up or down. Think this is a result of the gearing being damaged. When you start experiencing this, you can expect to have problems within the next 1000 k's or so.
Third indication - ABS light starts flashing, red warning triangle on and the speedo starts swinging erratically between 0 and very fast. Trouble at hand.
Fourth indication - put the bike on the center stand, select neutral and turn the rear wheel slowly by hand. Put your other hand on the axle housing, if you can feel a grinding vibration it would probably be advisable to have it checked.
Fifth indication (slightly more effort involved) - remove the rear wheel. If you look at the wheel mounting disk, the rear ABS sensor is mounted at approximately 2 o'clock on the disk. Remove it carefully and check for for wear, if it sweats oil, you probably have a problem.
I understand that the service instruction for the rear axle has now been changed from "life time sealed unit" to replace fluid after 1000 km and thereafter every 10 000 km. For the record, mine packed up after 56 000 km.
So in the interest of sharing information with my fellow GS riders here's the pointers that I picked up in retrospect that would have, had I known what I was looking for, given me early warning.
First indication that something is wrong - you're can do stoppies with the ABS switched on (very disconcerting as it tends to be unexpected and at the wrong time). This starts happening a long time before the wear becomes a real problem. This is caused by the crown gearing developing a limited amount of play and starting to grind away the rear ABS (and speed) sensor. The sensor, while still reporting as funtional, effectively stops functioning properly, affecting the ABS function.
Second indication - all of a sudden you seem to have lost your touch for clean gear shifts, whether shifting up or down. Think this is a result of the gearing being damaged. When you start experiencing this, you can expect to have problems within the next 1000 k's or so.
Third indication - ABS light starts flashing, red warning triangle on and the speedo starts swinging erratically between 0 and very fast. Trouble at hand.
Fourth indication - put the bike on the center stand, select neutral and turn the rear wheel slowly by hand. Put your other hand on the axle housing, if you can feel a grinding vibration it would probably be advisable to have it checked.
Fifth indication (slightly more effort involved) - remove the rear wheel. If you look at the wheel mounting disk, the rear ABS sensor is mounted at approximately 2 o'clock on the disk. Remove it carefully and check for for wear, if it sweats oil, you probably have a problem.
I understand that the service instruction for the rear axle has now been changed from "life time sealed unit" to replace fluid after 1000 km and thereafter every 10 000 km. For the record, mine packed up after 56 000 km.
