U Joint

[randy the x man]

I was rotating my rear wheel checking the tire and looking at the break pads. Normally when rotating the wheel I just go one direction. I saw the video of rotating the tire and how it looks with a bad U Joint. Mine is fine int one direction.

However for some reason I started to rotate back and forth. When you do that you can hear and feel a slight slap or clunk from the U Joint. The bike has 86k on it. Do you think that indicates a pending U Joint problem?

 

[Dinkie Diesel]

Very typical. There's a lot of slop in the system. There are other threads here with this information. As long as it is rolling smooth I wouldn't worry.

 

[Mellow]

Very typical. There's a lot of slop in the system. There are other threads here with this information. As long as it is rolling smooth I wouldn't worry.

+1 That's normal. Between the u-joint slop and the rubber dampeners in the wheel itself there will be some 'looseness' for lack of a better term, although slop works too.

 

[Dinkie Diesel]

Note: What you are feeling/hearing is not within the actual U-Joint itself. The cross bearing U-Joint is a precision piece. The slop/thud is coming from gears, splines and dampeners which are engineered with tolerances built in. Compounding all these tolerances makes for a lot of "slop"!

 

[J. Hawkins]

Does anyone know if the u joint is rebuildable?

 

[Mellow]

Does anyone know if the u joint is rebuildable?

They are usually in pretty bad shape when you detect an issue, seems like a better option to just replace. They don't have zerks so can't grease them.

 

[SMSW]

Does anyone know if the u joint is rebuildable?

Parts might be a problem...I just looked and Honda does not offer pieces of the U-joint. However, there are truck places that will custom make drive shafts and rebuild U-joints so one of these shops just might be able to find needle bearings and cups to rebuild a metric, Honda, U-j. I'd be willing to bet, however, that the cost would exceed the $185 Honda gets for a new one.

 

[W0QNX]

Does anyone know if the u joint is rebuildable?

Short answer, as far as I know nobody has yet.

Long answer, yes it's probably possible and probably not too hard to do. I did a lot of research searching last fall considering a a rebuild. I learned a lot of the old goldwings and i think the CX500 no longer can buy new Ujoints. I found a lot of those parts were very similar to the ST ujoint. I went as far and getting the probably size of the ST Ujoint and searching for that part. It would also require removing the "stakes" holding the Ujoint in place are they are clipless design and lack room inside for clips.

unfortunately i abandon my research and I can't even find what sites I visited last November. But I do remember there was a real likely looking joint to be had for under $40 I think.

Feel free to go ahead and take it on yourself. I think someday soon the ujoint will get rare and much more expensive. A couple years back Valkyries were parked because of unavailable Ujoints from Honda.

If I had the parts I could probably grind off the stakes, remove and replace the ujoint and tack weld the cups inplace in under 2 hours. But I don't have any of those things anymore.

 

[J. Hawkins]

Short answer, as far as I know nobody has yet.

Long answer, yes it's probably possible and probably not too hard to do. I did a lot of research searching last fall considering a a rebuild. I learned a lot of the old goldwings and i think the CX500 no longer can buy new Ujoints. I found a lot of those parts were very similar to the ST ujoint. I went as far and getting the probably size of the ST Ujoint and searching for that part. It would also require removing the "stakes" holding the Ujoint in place are they are clipless design and lack room inside for clips.

unfortunately i abandon my research and I can't even find what sites I visited last November. But I do remember there was a real likely looking joint to be had for under $40 I think.

Feel free to go ahead and take it on yourself. I think someday soon the ujoint will get rare and much more expensive. A couple years back Valkyries were parked because of unavailable Ujoints from Honda.

If I had the parts I could probably grind off the stakes, remove and replace the ujoint and tack weld the cups inplace in under 2 hours. But I don't have any of those things anymore.

Thanks for the info. I like to do things myself, along with being cheap! I will just get a new unit.