Something snapped! A diagnosis.

[TopCatGr58]

If I had to guess, I'd say who ever reassembled the wheel at some point did it incorrectly and didn't make sure the hub splines engaged the final drive completely. Under normal conditions those splines should last the life of the bike, even if lubrication was being neglected I wouldn't expect it to be that bad.

Yep, some serious damage there! The wheel hub bearing seal looks intact, so I'm also wondering how this type of damage could have occured? IF the left side bearing was gone, would this allow the hub enough wiggle room to allow the splines to shift apart enough to slip/grind!? Aside from the lack of grease, could particulate matter(dust/grime/grit/sand) accellerate this type of wear as well? Just postulating how it occured.

As for getting the rear wheel locally, if it is a 16", he should be able to just swap out the spline/hub assembly from the rim to keep his 17". He should also look for the thread that shows how to take out the left side bearing seal to clean/repack that needle bearing as well as inspect it for wear first, Lorax should be able to assist him with that.

Mack, that is a seriously worn drive shaft spline!

T.C.

[motoman]

All you had to do was take off the rear wheel to see it. ............ You are now on the way towards self improvement. The learning process has begun. Not being sarcastic. My father could care less about car maintenance. When the blower motor crapped out in our 61 Buick, it was fix it or freeze during the winter. Went to the junkyard with my brother and scavenged one from a Cadillac. First job towards self reliance and self improvement. How bout that, MOTOMAN.
Vance

Nice.........I'm just part of the audience on this one............some serious abuse definitely went on with that final drive!

[vedgar]

finally an answer

All you had to do was take off the rear wheel to see it. ............ You are now on the way towards self improvement. The learning process has begun. Not being sarcastic. My father could care less about car maintenance. When the blower motor crapped out in our 61 Buick, it was fix it or freeze during the winter. Went to the junkyard with my brother and scavenged one from a Cadillac. First job towards self reliance and self improvement. How bout that, MOTOMAN.
Vance

[BA80]

Check your PM box mesmeridicus.

[mack]

Ps

Take James up on his offer, buy the left side bearing while you can, He is the only source on the planet.

[mack]

Good/ bad and your ugly

Seems to me that you may not recognise a good from shaft yet. Here is good.

Here is bad!

[The Lorax]

Colin, there is a motorcycle graveyard half an hour from you over in Trotwood. Since you need wheel and drive, you might check it out. I know for certain he has at least 1 XS1100, as I bought the front brake master cylinder off of it. I think it's a special though ( 16" rear wheel") but he might have more. I'll take you over there if you want and you can talk with him, see what he's got. Let me know. Have a nice day and ride safe

[WMarshy]

If I had to guess, I'd say who ever reassembled the wheel at some point did it incorrectly and didn't make sure the hub splines engaged the final drive completely. Under normal conditions those splines should last the life of the bike, even if lubrication was being neglected I wouldn't expect it to be that bad.

[James England]

By the way, looking at the link to eBay in Cajun's post, I checked out several of the hubs for sale. None of them appear to have the needle roller bearing in them. I do still have two of these left, so if you end up with a hub with no bearing, or find the bearing in it is suspect, I can save one for you, OK?

[James England]

Excellent progress! Now you're getting somewhere, eh? And I bet you feel justifiably pleased with yourself.

You've found the problem, I'd say! Your wheel hub needs to be replaced and,as has been said, I'd look at the final drive splines carefully. Clean them up with a solvent and paintbrush and the post pix here, OK? They may actually be OK. Final drives are cheap and you'll get one no problem, but don't buy one if you don't need to. Same goes for the wheel hub.....readily available

That wheel is quite a way from the clutch! or the middle gearbox!

[mack]

Tools

Now's a good time to start your tool collection if you haven't already. Good socket set with metric hex drive sockets not the fine tooth ones, good set of metric T handle hex wrenches, 1/4 drive and 1/2 inch drive torque wrenches and a wide variety of screw drivers. Good quality screw drivers too not that china crap you can buy cheep. Best screw drivers I've found, you buy in an electrical supply store. Get yourself a multi meter, some blue lock tite, tube of gasket maker like permatex ultra or equivalent, jar of "BEL Ray" moly lub. Decent fluid measuring device, quart of middle/final drive fluid, can of cable lube, bottle of dot3 brake fluid, good set of metric box end wrenches from 8mm up to at least 19mm, and some fork oil, wouldn't hurt to have 4 quarts of 20/50 GTX motor oil on hand and a spare oil filter. As you see them pick up spare clutch and brake levers and keep them with you when you ride. Also spare fuses.

Judging by what you've found so far, it might be wise to read through the "what to do to a neglected xs" thread and get started right away checking all the fluids, brake pads, tire age etc. Bleed out the old brake fluid so you have fresh stuff in the entire system from the reservoirs to the bleeder nipples. Check your pads for wear limits then start checking on the torque of every nut and bolt you can find. Be advised the clymers manual have a few errors with regard to the torque spec's on the swing arm pivots and upper motor mounts and brakets to name a couple.

[mack]

Continue

Couple things. Before you go one Ebay, contact a member of this site. 'Andreas Wiess" and see what he has. The trouble with Ebay is the quality may be suspect. Andreas won't sell you junk.
The next thing is remove the final drive as well. If the bike was ridden hard enough to strip out the wheel splines and grind down the finals then the odds are pretty good that the drive shaft is in no better condition.
Keep going Mes. Your doing good so far.

[cajun31]

you should grab both

the final drive assembly as well as one of those hubs off of ebay. It is looking like the splines in that final drive have seen better days and for sure the hub on the wheel is toast. Keep on investigating what all else is worn out. Might as well take the final drive apart and work your way up to the u joint that connects to the middle drive gear. If what we are seeing here is this worn then there has been a lot of neglect by PO (previous owners). They did not know grease existed evidently. You might even want to do a search for an xs750 or 850 final drive. Putting those on rather then the original 1100 results in lower rpms on the highway and more mpg. You will sacrifice a small amount of low end torque for that though. Make sure that you grease all the splines when reassembling with molybdenum disulfide grease (type NLG J·2M or equivalent which comes straight from the manual. I would also change the middle drive oil and you will already have to do whatever final drive you acquire.

I am glad to see you are finding the problems and it is looking like at the least cost. Once you get all of this repaired you should make a point of doing periodic maintenance. Doesn't look like what you took pictures of has ever seen lubrication. When washing the bike do so with low stream pressure hose... stay away from power washers. Not good for bearings and what you are discovering now. There is a good thread by TC on doing what you are doing now .... I believe he goes through a good pictorial in his changing rear tire thread under the maintenance section. Check that out because I believe he makes suggestions on what types of lubricants he is using. Been a while since I looked at that one. There has also been some discussions recently on using synthetic oil in the middle and final drives to reduce heat.

[mesmeridicus]

I hope so, Cajun. What do you think?

[cajun31]

awesome

I believe you have just found your problem. Now all you need to do is go out on Ebay http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40 grab one of these and get your bike back on the road. While you are wrenching take the time to grease everything as suggested by Mack in his video. If that part wore out I would still spend the time to check everything else just to make sure you don't have something else wearing out.