John & Mick's BIG AdventureWe've Been Shafted!
In July 2006, I was emailing a guy on Horizons Unlimited about the drive shafts of the GS’s. He had heard that they were a weak point on the bike. I told him that I knew of a guy in Germany, Eric Demant, that would modify his shaft for around €320.
He decided not to replace his shaft.
The mod involves welding collars onto the UJ cap housings and the fitting of a UJ with a grease nipple. The originals don’t have nipples and no cir clips… the caps are only “peened” in.
In October I got an email from this guys Dad. His son was en-route from London to Sydney and the drive shaft had let go in the middle of Iran! It had also taken out part of the gearbox casing.
This took him some while to fix and about fifteen hundred Euros.
So, we have to take my own advice and have our shafts modified.
I removed my shaft and dispatched it to Eric. I must say that mine looked to be in perfect, A1, Top-Notch, condition!
The problem with the shaft is the GS model its self. The suspension travel is longer than that of the road models, R100RS etc., and under severe condition the UJ can get “blocked” causing then to fail.
Another consideration, is that when they fail, they do so within 10-20kms.
The shaft is now returned and fitted to the bike.
Welding the cir clip retainers onto the shaft, increases its diameter and so the shaft housing, (swing arm), has to have 1 or 2mm removed from the narrowest point to let the shaft pass through.
This is done with a grinder/file and creates some alloy filings so I taped up the swing arm bearings before starting. All in vain! After washing and cleaning the housing, notches could be felt in the bearings so I had to fit new ones.
So now it should not be a problem providing I don’t start doing wheelies and jumps. Just pump a bit of grease in, every 45-50,000 kilometres.
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