U-Joint Pre-Failure Indicator

[George]

I just turn up the XM radio and the noise goes away....

On the rare occasions I ride without a helmet, I'm always shocked at how much engine 'n mechanical noise I hear!

 

[Itchy]

I believe that I've fallen victim to the dreaded u-joint failure. I have a 05 1300 with 85,000 km ( 50,000 miles give or take a few ). I've been reading thru these posts and have decided to dive in head first and see it I can't fix this thing on my own. I was reading some of Curt's post and he pretty much described exactly what I've been experiencing , strange noises , odd vibrations etc . I too started by changing wheel and flange bearings thinking that they were the culprits . No such luck . I have since isolated the noise to what I believe to be the u-joint. So here I stand , armed with my home made swing arm tool and all the knowledge that I could suck up from this site and the Good Book ( Honda Service Manual ). Wish me luck folks . I'm going in . If you don't hear from me again it will be because I tore it all apart , found out that it wasn't the u-joint and decided to hang myself in the garage.

 

[Mellow]

I believe that I've fallen victim to the dreaded u-joint failure. I have a 05 1300 with 85,000 km ( 50,000 miles give or take a few ). I've been reading thru these posts and have decided to dive in head first and see it I can't fix this thing on my own. I was reading some of Curt's post and he pretty much described exactly what I've been experiencing , strange noises , odd vibrations etc . I too started by changing wheel and flange bearings thinking that they were the culprits . No such luck . I have since isolated the noise to what I believe to be the u-joint. So here I stand , armed with my home made swing arm tool and all the knowledge that I could suck up from this site and the Good Book ( Honda Service Manual ). Wish me luck folks . I'm going in . If you don't hear from me again it will be because I tore it all apart , found out that it wasn't the u-joint and decided to hang myself in the garage.

It's really not 'technically' difficult, I have confidence in you.

 

[Itchy]

My only real concern is how to get the proper torque on the swing arm lock nut without being able to hold the bolt from turning . I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

[acedantinne]

Mark it with a sharpie pen first, (both sides) BEFORE tearing in to it. Draw a straight line right on to frame area.
ALSO, the 2 ox sensor wires are the hardess part to deal with,IMP. use awire or strong string to pull them back through.
Lightly lube with a sil-based grease the drive shaft boot will help it slip on to engine housing. The boot will go on by it self when U get swingarm alined with bearings. can check with mirror and small light.
Had mine off 2X. No big deal.

 

[Landon]

I have a used U-joint I bought of Ebay a few years ago to have just incase mine ever went south. Since I don't have the ST any longer I would be willing to let it go. I think I paid something like $50 plus shipping for it, if you want it I will ship it for $50.

 

[STony G]

My only real concern is how to get the proper torque on the swing arm lock nut without being able to hold the bolt from turning . I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I replaced my u-joint last year. It wasn't too difficult. I had the"special tool" made to remove and replace the locking nut. I tried to buy it, but it was back ordered and no idea when it would be available. If you want to borrow it, I won't need it for another 250k miles.

Send me a PM. I'll send the hex socket along with the special tool.

 

[RCS]

I replaced my U-Joint with a new one at 34,000 miles just because. If I recall correctly, the whole procedure took me about 3/4 of a day - I took my time. It wasn't hard but it was a process that took time. The old U-Joint was in fine condition, not broken, but a little loose from use. About what I expected.

Make sure to get the joint boot for $10 as my guess is yours will be stretched like mine.

BOOT, JOINT
52104-MCS-G00

 

[SupraSabre]

It's really not 'technically' difficult, I have confidence in you.

Joe, are you refering to the driveshaft removal or the hanging part?

 

[Mellow]

Joe, are you refering to the driveshaft removal or the hanging part?

yes.....

 

[W0QNX]

126,000 miles and mines dead. I've been noticing a bit of a "buzz" difference between cruise throttle and throttle off. Even worse at 70 mph+ speed. So I put it up of the centerstand last night and rotated the wheel by hand. That didn't show a darn thing, felt just fine. So I did the never do this thing, I started it up on the center stand with my weight on the tank so the rear wheel stayed off the ground and dropped it in first gear. If I cracked the throttle just a bit when it decelerated it would clunk big and nasty. It only took about three times of that to make me feel all warm and sickly inside. She's toast.

So I pulled it out this afternoon and sure enough, it was toast probably about 500 miles back.

In the picture you can see where it's rubbed yoke casting to yoke casting and the needle bearing cup is visible with half the height of the cup worn away.

I was thinking about skipping the house remodel work I've been hard at here for a few months and go out of state for a antistress ride 3 day weekend. Glad I was a good boy and stuck around to work on the house or this thing would have surely left me looking for a tow truck...

In my opinion there is no way someone could tell if the u-joint is failing without pulling the joint out of the swingarm. Even as bad as mine was I had to turn the joint several turns (6-7?) using the drive shaft until I had a "lookup".

 

[dduelin]

Doesn't your bike balance on the centerstand front heavy and the rear wheel off the ground? I check mine from time to time like that and the bike naturally rests on the front wheel.

 

[W0QNX]

Doesn't your bike balance on the centerstand front heavy and the rear wheel off the ground? I check mine from time to time like that and the bike naturally rests on the front wheel.

Not if you sit on the bike.

 

[nhdiesel]

I'll be checking mine. Just turned 85k. I know I can feel the faintest of buzzyness at speed. Since I have several rides coming up I want to ensure I don't have a problem. It will be coming apart tomorrow afternoon when I get done tomorrow's ride. Wheel bearings F&R will be inspected; drive splines checked & greased with Moly; and I think I'll pull the shaft just to put my hands on it since many have been known to fail around the 85k mark.

F&R pads will be changed, and fork seals at the same time. Man, this will be a BUSY week!

 

[dduelin]

A bad driven flange bearing will also make a knocking noise when running the bike in gear on the center stand. This is not to discount the subject of this thread - just that testing in gear on the centerstand can be noisy from other than the U joint.

 

[2turbos]

How bout you put a jack under the swingarm to position it approximately to the onroad drive alignment angle instead of hanging down on the center stand.
See if you hear the noise then.

 

[Mellow]

As stated above, there's no definite one-way to determine if your u-joint is going out. Sometimes, you get lucky and you notice it in your garage but unfortunately that's not always the case. Sometime it manifests itself as an out-of-the normal vibration but you could attribute that to a tire issue without knowing. Sometimes it may seem like the road. The good news is it's not common and it's relatively easy to replace meaning it's just basic mechanical stuff once you jump into it.

 

[dduelin]

Wouldn't a worn joint that has enough play to allow the yokes to hit each other show up when checking at the rear wheel with the engine off and in gear? This would be the amount the wheel can be moved back and forth. Obviously a worn joint allows more movement than a good one. Worn drive splines could mask a worn U joint in this check however. I think I'll check a new ST at the dealer as a benchmark.

 

[W0QNX]

A bad driven flange bearing will also make a knocking noise when running the bike in gear on the center stand. This is not to discount the subject of this thread - just that testing in gear on the centerstand can be noisy from other than the U joint.

Bad bearings I've heard before where more of a constant grind grind grind grumble noise. The slap of yokes together were pretty obvious, clank like metal hammering each other.

Wouldn't a worn joint that has enough play to allow the yokes to hit each other show up when checking at the rear wheel with the engine off and in gear? This would be the amount the wheel can be moved back and forth. Obviously a worn joint allows more movement than a good one. Worn drive splines could mask a worn U joint in this check however. I think I'll check a new ST at the dealer as a benchmark.

i failed to do a back and forth check, that might have told me more. Before I was 100% sure I thought it might have been either drive splines or drive hub bearings as those all have 126,000 miles now also.

Raymond

 

[dduelin]

Bad bearings I've heard before where more of a constant grind grind grind grumble noise. The slap of yokes together were pretty obvious, clank like metal hammering each other.

Yes, I agree about the grum-grum-grum of a typical bad or rough wheel bearing but where this noise was noted was in a thread about noises coming from the drive train when the engine was in gear on the center stand. I posted that some clunking and knocking noises were normal when there was no load on the rear wheel. Mine did this. The erratic knocking noise would go away when dragging a little brake to simulate a drive load on the rear wheel but would return when decelerating the rear wheel or letting it idle in gear. A few thousand miles later I helped a forum member replace his driven flange bearings and his bike made no such noise after replacing the two flange bearings. I thought "uh oh". My bike had 96,xxx miles on it then with all of the original rear wheel bearings. I replaced the two driven flange bearings, which were coming apart upon inspection, and the knocking noise in mine went away.