Final Drive swap, finally! :)

[Bonz]

Many thanks to CaptonZap who rode down on Saturday to help me do my FD swap. What can I say other than it is the most practical mod that exists for the XS 1100. My 80 SG Special shows about 550-600 rpm lower at 75 mph in 5th gear, and the bike is still sitting in the fat part of the powerband at that speed, so roll-on is for all intents and purposes the same. 4700 RPM at an indicated 75 mph. Just something about being under 5K rpm when running up and down the interstate that makes me feel like the old girl appreciates a more relaxed pace.

Couldn't be happier, now looking forward to riding it and getting a read if I've picked up any mpg or not. First tank shows a 2 mpg boost, but the long term will see if that is accurate or not.

We pulled the swingarm to check/greease the pivot bearings and they still had golden grease all over them, so they were in great shape. Overall, I'm amazed at how well preserved my SG is each time I go into something and see the condition.

Happy riding to all!

[DGXSER]

It is a nice mod for sure.

Be glad yours looks so nice. I decided to change out the front wheel bearings, just because on mine. Well, two years in a barn or farm field shows up in the dangest places. The bearings looked like they were packed with dried up honey. Anything close to grease that was in there had hardend and was past being goo. Never felt better for a "just because" replacement.

And I already replaced the rear wheel with the one off my previous SH that was in great shape, and I had greased the bearings myself.

[James England]

Did you do the mod as per the tech-tips article? Did you use the copper spacer or do anything different from what's in the article? I can get a 750 FD and think I would like to do this modification for exactly the same reasons as you yourself did it.

Previous posts about his mod have mentioned speedo inaccuracy as a result but this can't be right can it??

[natemoen]

Anyone that clains the speedo reads wrong after the FD swap has other issues. The speedo reads off the from wheel, which is unaffected by the swap. There is NO WAY the FD swap would change the speedo readout.

[Bonz]

Speedometer inaccuracy is not in play. The speedo is driven off the front wheel, so unless there is an XS 1100 with something coming off the tranny for speedo pickup (there is not), it's false information.

Because I needed/wanted to check my swingarm pivot bearings, I just took the swingarm off (with the associated work involved in doing that), put everything up on the work bench and did the work that way. I actually used the copper spacer that came with the donor FD housing (it happened to be the correct size based on my measurements, it will be 16-17 mm, so even a little discrepancy isn't huge in the grand scheme, IMO). PapaNovember sold it to me last year, so I didn't have to do any of the FD housing prep, it was already done.

CaptonZap had just done his FD mod a couple weeks before, and did it this way as well, for the same reason. I was just following his lead. But his housing hadn't been prepped for the 1100, so he had to do that work as well. My install only needed to actually get the FD on the bike, so it was as simple as it could have been.

WHEN DONE, JUST BE SURE TO FILL THE NEW HOUSING WITH FLUID! No, I didn't forget, but man, it would suck if someone does forget after doing all that work!

Took about 4 1/2 hours total, and not rushed at all, with a good bit of that spent cleaning the associated splines, etc of the old grease so I had it super clean, then re-greased everything as I put it back together. Again, it will take longer if you count the time you will spend prepping the FD housing as per the first part of the tech tip.

I think it is ultimately easier to get the driveshaft back in and to line up/engage with the u-joint yoke with it all off the bike. Then you are putting the swingarm/driveshaft assembly back on the bike as a whole, and just bolting the u-joint back up to the middle drive instead of trying to get the driveshaft splines to engage the u-joint yoke by inserting the whole thing back through the swingarm while it is still on the bike. Plus, it was easy to clean the swingarm with it off the bike!

Can't think of anything that was fundamentally different otherwise, but if you need to check your swingarm bearings, it's a no-brainer way to kill two birds with one stone.