Something snapped! A diagnosis.

[mesmeridicus]

That rear wheel should not rotate as far as you were saying 180. At most maybe 5 or six inches with extreme wear in the drive chain.

I was referring to the U-joint in the rubber boot. When in gear, the joint would not complete a revolution. Exactly how much it would turn is hazy though (I believe it was about 180*[= 180 degrees]), and when I see it tomorrow I may try to post a video.

[James England]

Forget the videos, just get on with it!. We can all talk about it and suggest things and you can try to answer our Spanish Inquisition but you are going to have to get the spanners out and do what's been suggested. ie inspect the components as per what everyone has said.......

Start stripping it and video it as you go along or take pix and post them. If the problem is in the drivetrain somewhere from the middle gearbox back, you're going to find it really quickly and it's going to be obvious when you do find the fault....broken UJ joint, or bits of splines falling out. If it gets as far as removing the middle drive, and if the middle drive is actually the problem, then you'll know straight away. If you do end up taking the middle drive off, you will even be able to test the bit of the engine that the middle drive connects to and see if it is OK.

Get on with it!

[jwhughes3]

Forget the videos, just get on with it!. We can all talk about it and suggest things and you can try to answer our Spanish Inquisition but you are going to have to get the spanners out and do what's been suggested. ie inspect the components as per what everyone has said.......

Nobody expected it!



John

(go ahead, click on it, you know you want to!)

[mesmeridicus]

Went over after I got off work at midnight. Been working since one, it's now four in the morn here.

Pulled rear wheel and drive assembly off. Attempted to remove the U-joint, et cetera, stalled out. I'll do it tomorrow, if I have to.

I say if because, when I inspected the rear wheel hub and the rear drive, I discovered that the rear wheel hub where I believe it mates with the rear drive has no spines on it (in fact, I see marks where it looks like spines should be/were). Is this normal? I can't figure out how the rear wheel would receive power any other way than for splines to be there and mate with the rear drive. I'll go snap a picture.

[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.

[mesmeridicus]

I hope so, Cajun. What do you think?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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?

[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.

[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

[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!

[mack]

Ps

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