My turn on final drive problem?

[GoNoPo]

First, will admit to being lazy, and not searching through the 5 million entries on this topic.

Yesterday, noted small pool of oil, which appears to have dripped from gap between drive and rear brake disc. on to the rear wheel/tire of my 96 RT w/ 40K miles. Absolutely no other issues w/ bike. Mechanic says, bring her in. Could I be lucky with just a break in seal for drive oil?

[PGlaves]

First, will admit to being lazy, and not searching through the 5 million entries on this topic.

Yesterday, noted small pool of oil, which appears to have dripped from gap between drive and rear brake disc. on to the rear wheel/tire of my 96 RT w/ 40K miles. Absolutely no other issues w/ bike. Mechanic says, bring her in. Could I be lucky with just a break in seal for drive oil?

Sometimes seals fail. Sometimes bearings fail then causing seals to fail from debris lodging where the seal is supposed to seal.

First test is to see if you can feel any play in the wheel. Second test would be to pull the FD cover and physically inspect the bearing. This is what the shop should do.

Go from there - new bearing setup, or not, depending! New seal in any case.

[GoNoPo]

Appreciate reply ~tom.

[Weasel]

I caught mine early, it was just the seal...I was keeping my eye on it. Mine lasted some 72,000 miles. When the shop fixed it, I went with haveing the driveshaft input seal done as well, and now have a two year unlimited mile warranty. Made sense to me.

[DarkCloud]

I caught mine early, it was just the seal...I was keeping my eye on it. Mine lasted some 72,000 miles. When the shop fixed it, I went with haveing the driveshaft input seal done as well, and now have a two year unlimited mile warranty. Made sense to me.

Let me get this right, your shop rebuilt your final drive and gave you a 2 year unlimited warranty? JON

[Polarbear]

Yep, BMW Dealers stand up for their work for two years. My R1100GS had a seal failure the "morning" I was leaving for a cross country USA tour:(. I was all packed and an early rise from bed and to the garage for my eager depart and tada, a puddle of FD oil under there! I made a quick wheel removal and saw the seal leaking, popped the seal out, ran to my local BMW guy and bought a new seal, put it in and was on my way that same morning. Lucky me, no wheel play and that was the problem, thats all:). Went another 70000+ miles on that without another issue. Hope yours is simple too. The seal is quite easy/quick to change out, so ask if you need more info....Randy:usa

[Weasel]

That's right, two year warranty...friend of mine was up here in Virginia and his final drive went, and the dealer asked him if it had been rebuilt prior by another dealer - answer was "yes", so the dealer up hear faxed the dealer in Florida for the receipt, and rebuilt the final drive again - under warranty. So, yes, you may pay through the nose to have the dealer do the job, but there is a warranty, there!

[cjack]

Parts purchased over the counter are covered too.

[DETOUR]

I had Tom Cutter do my final drive after the failure.It was far from cheap but its a great feeling when your riding far from home and basically taking the infamous final drive failure out of the equation because you feel it was finally done right.Getting one rebuilt for free because it failed within two years would not make me feel like they would know what they were doing anymore the second time around.From what I understand the BMW guys still pick Toms brain on some isssues.

[kantuckid]

So, who is this Tom Cutter?

[MotorradMike]

So, who is this Tom Cutter?

Tom Cutter is the man behind this (http://rubberchickenracinggarage.com/) shop.

[Red100RT]

Tom Cutter is the man behind this (http://rubberchickenracinggarage.com/) shop.

Looks like Tom should spend some serious time tweeking his web sight.:brad

[PGlaves]

Looks like Tom should spend some serious time tweeking his web sight.:brad

Nah! Tom is too busy fixing bikes the right way to worry about the interwebnet thing very much. He already is too busy.

[saylorspond]

Counting my blessings of 2009:
a) The closing of my local BMW dealer lead me to contact Tom Cutter for transmission evaluation on my 1999 R1100RTP
b) Tom is within 1 h drive of my house.:thumb

[haughty]

I sure could use a guy like that in the Houston Area.. I have 04 RT final drive the seal was leaking......................

ooh and also tossing little bearing parts out(ok it didnt do that until I broke it loose)

There a good video on how to rebuild one?