anyone have knowlege on motorcycle transmissions ?

Question

1983 550 nighthawk driveshaft noise coming from the transmission..how do i diagnose and repair ?there is abou a quarter turn of free play on the back wheel but its not in the shaft...i`m not afraid to tear it down....again!.

Answer 1

Take it one step at a time.
-Remove the rear wheel.
-Remove the final drive. Insert the gear at the end of the driveshaft into the final drive and turn back and forth. Is the free play there?
-Turn the drive shaft by hand. Still have the free play?
-Remove the drive shaft and check the universal joint.
-Remove the swingarm, install the universal joint on the output shaft. Still have free play?
-Turn the output shaft. Still have free play?
-Remove the side gear case and turn the shaft coming out of the motor. Still have free play?
-If so, then it's transmission time. Remove the engine and split the cases.
-Most likely the problem is somewhere between the side gear case and final drive. By checking one part at a time, I'm sure you'll figure where the problem is.
-While trouble shooting, when you get to where there's no free play, then the problem is between that and the previous check.
-Inspect the parts with exessive free play for wear and change if necessary.

Answer 2

I cant remember for sure how the shaft drive is set up on those but, try putting the bike on its center stand and putting it into 1st gear, as you turn the rear wheel back and fourth listen and feel for when the resistance is increased, the areas of slack that will add resistance once there taken up will be
1. the rear hub assembly
2. the drive-shaft dampener
3. the 90 deg. "box" (where the power come out of the transmission and then gets turned 90 deg as it rotats the drive shaft
4. the transmission it's self

My guess is the dampener assembly is where most of the slack is tho, allot of them is/was filled with oil which leaks out then the rubber cushions has to take the full brunt of the force which causes them to ware out.

Answer 3

Yes!