Leaky seal at transmission output shaft

[vtv11lemans]

I have a leaky tranny seal at output shaft(where driveshaft connects). Have a replacement seal. I can see the bad seal and looks relatively easy to replace.....but.... not sure waht needs to be removed to get to it. Obviously the driveshaft needs to be disconnected at the frony u-joint. Looking at it, not sure if you can pull the u-joint out through the swing arm pass thru(It doesn't look good). My question is, for those that have performed this, do I need to remove the swing arm assembly to remove the driveshaft along with the protective housing for the cardan joint. I have a hook-like seal removal tool which I'm guessing is good nough to remove the old seal. Does anybody know of any other issues I might encounter replacing this seal. Thanks in advance for any help. Bike is an '02 LeMans with about 68k miles. Leon

[richard100t]

I have a leaky tranny seal at output shaft(where driveshaft connects). Have a replacement seal. I can see the bad seal and looks relatively easy to replace.....but.... not sure waht needs to be removed to get to it. Obviously the driveshaft needs to be disconnected at the frony u-joint. Looking at it, not sure if you can pull the u-joint out through the swing arm pass thru(It doesn't look good). My question is, for those that have performed this, do I need to remove the swing arm assembly to remove the driveshaft along with the protective housing for the cardan joint. I have a hook-like seal removal tool which I'm guessing is good nough to remove the old seal. Does anybody know of any other issues I might encounter replacing this seal. Thanks in advance for any help. Bike is an '02 LeMans with about 68k miles. Leon

Yeah I think you'll have to remove the pork chop side plates, the swingarm, driveshaft, etc. Just make sure you mark the threads on the side plates for when you put it back together. Theres another recent thread on pork chop removal and you should check that out, it will help you alot.

[guzzimeister]

I have a leaky tranny seal at output shaft(where driveshaft connects). Have a replacement seal. I can see the bad seal and looks relatively easy to replace.....but.... not sure waht needs to be removed to get to it. Obviously the driveshaft needs to be disconnected at the frony u-joint. Looking at it, not sure if you can pull the u-joint out through the swing arm pass thru(It doesn't look good). My question is, for those that have performed this, do I need to remove the swing arm assembly to remove the driveshaft along with the protective housing for the cardan joint. I have a hook-like seal removal tool which I'm guessing is good nough to remove the old seal. Does anybody know of any other issues I might encounter replacing this seal. Thanks in advance for any help. Bike is an '02 LeMans with about 68k miles. Leon

Yeah I think you'll have to remove the pork chop side plates, the swingarm, driveshaft, etc. Just make sure you mark the threads on the side plates for when you put it back together. Theres another recent thread on pork chop removal and you should check that out, it will help you alot.

 

Hi having done this, you need only to remove swing arm and drive shaft. MAKE SURE ALL IS CLEAM BEFORE YOU HOOK OUT THE SEAL. As suggetsed make sure you take note of the setting of the screw in pins for the swingarm, but frankly it's not critical. Cheers Guzz

[vtv11lemans]

I have a leaky tranny seal at output shaft(where driveshaft connects). Have a replacement seal. I can see the bad seal and looks relatively easy to replace.....but.... not sure waht needs to be removed to get to it. Obviously the driveshaft needs to be disconnected at the frony u-joint. Looking at it, not sure if you can pull the u-joint out through the swing arm pass thru(It doesn't look good). My question is, for those that have performed this, do I need to remove the swing arm assembly to remove the driveshaft along with the protective housing for the cardan joint. I have a hook-like seal removal tool which I'm guessing is good nough to remove the old seal. Does anybody know of any other issues I might encounter replacing this seal. Thanks in advance for any help. Bike is an '02 LeMans with about 68k miles. Leon

Yeah I think you'll have to remove the pork chop side plates, the swingarm, driveshaft, etc. Just make sure you mark the threads on the side plates for when you put it back together. Theres another recent thread on pork chop removal and you should check that out, it will help you alot.

 

Hi having done this, you need only to remove swing arm and drive shaft. MAKE SURE ALL IS CLEAM BEFORE YOU HOOK OUT THE SEAL. As suggetsed make sure you take note of the setting of the screw in pins for the swingarm, but frankly it's not critical. Cheers Guzz

 

Thanks for the input to both of you. Would this be a good time to check the swing arm bearings as well. The bike's got close to 70k miles on rough roads her in Vt. and other parts in Northeastern U.S. Wondering what the likelyhood would be. Leon

[GuzziMoto]

It seemed easier to me to drop the motor and trans. That gave me better access to the trans for seal replacement and only a few bolts required.

[guzzimeister]

I have a leaky tranny seal at output shaft(where driveshaft connects). Have a replacement seal. I can see the bad seal and looks relatively easy to replace.....but.... not sure waht needs to be removed to get to it. Obviously the driveshaft needs to be disconnected at the frony u-joint. Looking at it, not sure if you can pull the u-joint out through the swing arm pass thru(It doesn't look good). My question is, for those that have performed this, do I need to remove the swing arm assembly to remove the driveshaft along with the protective housing for the cardan joint. I have a hook-like seal removal tool which I'm guessing is good nough to remove the old seal. Does anybody know of any other issues I might encounter replacing this seal. Thanks in advance for any help. Bike is an '02 LeMans with about 68k miles. Leon

Yeah I think you'll have to remove the pork chop side plates, the swingarm, driveshaft, etc. Just make sure you mark the threads on the side plates for when you put it back together. Theres another recent thread on pork chop removal and you should check that out, it will help you alot.

 

Hi having done this, you need only to remove swing arm and drive shaft. MAKE SURE ALL IS CLEAM BEFORE YOU HOOK OUT THE SEAL. As suggetsed make sure you take note of the setting of the screw in pins for the swingarm, but frankly it's not critical. Cheers Guzz

 

Thanks for the input to both of you. Would this be a good time to check the swing arm bearings as well. The bike's got close to 70k miles on rough roads her in Vt. and other parts in Northeastern U.S. Wondering what the likelyhood would be. Leon

 

Definitely woth a look, mine are getting notchy at 54k miles. If you take them out tell me how you did it please. Supposed to be a b$£%^&*d of a job....

 

Guzz

[raz]

Supposed to be a b$£%^&*d of a job....

 

I can confirm that. Do not change them unless you are sure you have to. You will regret it. Just excercising them will probably suffice just fine.

 

From what I could tell, the swing arm was painted (powder coated?) before they pressed the bearing in. The bearing area was probably supposed to be masked off...

[vtv11lemans]

Supposed to be a b$£%^&*d of a job....

 

I can confirm that. Do not change them unless you are sure you have to. You will regret it. Just excercising them will probably suffice just fine.

 

From what I could tell, the swing arm was painted (powder coated?) before they pressed the bearing in. The bearing area was probably supposed to be masked off...

 

 

Thanks to all who responded. Just got the swing arm off this weekend. No need to remove the pork chop bracket (thank goodness). Yes, the bearings on the swingarm are a little notchy. Right side a little worse than left. I'm sure due to their relatively stationary position. The inner race of the bearings seems fine, very little play so I'm not replacing it. It does seem a bear of a job without the specific bearing removal tool. I purchased a blind hole bearing remover from Harbor freight which I'd use for replacing wheel bearings (which I haven't used yet). It's got a hammer slide but I'm not sure it's the proper tool for the job. I don't plan to find out. In theory, it should work and it does have the right size bearing grabbing thinga-ma-jig.My guess, in order to remove the swing arm bearing, would require some kind of threaded bearing puller. If anybody knows of such a bearing puller or has done this job, let us know. Leon

[raz]

Everyone I have heard of has had to give up the bearing puller (even with stupid amounts of heat) and resort to cutting the bastard out, which is a bit tricky since you don't want to damage the swing. It's no fun.

[gstallons]

When you install the new bearings, pop off the dust seal, fill the bearing FULL with wheel bearing grease, reinstall the dust seal and you will not have any more bearing trouble. Bearings come with just enough grease to keep from rusting. You can do this to bearings that do not have a high bearing speed. These bearings move a small amount rocking back & forth.Too much grease will cause a rotating bearing to heat up and you will have trouble.