Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

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JSBail
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Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#1

Post by JSBail »

My 83 interstate recently has been running great however I heard a disturbing knock sound ( a single knock, not a knock, knock..) when coming to a stop in my garage after returning from work and I've determined it's coming from my drivetrain somewhere. With the bike on its center stand and trans in first gear, there is enough movement in tire rotation that say if I put my hand on the 6 o-clock position, there is enough slop somewhere that I can move it to almost 7 o-clock position and I believe that knock I heard was that slop/slack being snapped back as I was feathering the clutch while maneuvering the bike in the garage. The bike is parked until I can look into it further tomorrow but so far it seems that slack is coming from inside the trans or engine and not the driveshaft or u-joint. I say it "seems" that's where the slop is coming from but haven't confirmed it just yet. Can any of you experts give any info on what/where to look for? The best way I can describe is if the final drive chain (EDIT- primary drive chain) in the trans has a mile too much slack. Any help would be appreciated.
Scott
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Whiskerfish
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#2

Post by Whiskerfish »

These things have a lot of slop in the driveline. As a minimum I would remove the rear tire and the final drive hub and inspect the gears between the driveshaft and the final drive. Also slide the rubber boot out of the way and inspect the U Joint
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#3

Post by JSBail »

Whiskerfish wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:08 pm These things have a lot of slop in the driveline. As a minimum I would remove the rear tire and the final drive hub and inspect the gears between the driveshaft and the final drive. Also slide the rubber boot out of the way and inspect the U Joint
Thanks for the info. I'll try to post a vid of it so you can see how much movement I'm speaking of. I've never paid much attention to it so I can't say how much slop/slack there was in the first place, it just got my attention when I heard the noise and that movement seemed excessive to me.
Scott
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#4

Post by JSBail »

I'll be taking a good look at it today, right now the issue is getting it to make that noise again so I can determine just exactly where the noise is coming from because the more I think about it, it happened when I applied the front brake as I was coming to a stop in my garage and about a month or so ago I did have the front forks off and disassembled to replace slider bushings and fork seals so for all I know it could be a brake caliper issue or something unrelated to the drivetrain. One thing is for sure is that the knock sound wasn't my imagination because my wife was in the garage at that time and she heard it too. I'll report back later when I find something out.
Scott
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#5

Post by JSBail »

I'm at a loss at the moment. The noise I heard happened twice the same day, my wife was in the garage the second time and she heard it too so it wasn't my imagination but I simply can't get it to replicate that sound now to determine what or where the sound came from. The final drive seems fine, the driveshaft and u-joint seem good, all front end components are secured and working as they should and the bike basically runs great. Once everything seemed in order I began to ride the bike again and so far it's running like it should.
Scott
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#6

Post by Whiskerfish »

Could it be front fork Stiction?
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#7

Post by digger »

The driveshaft and U-joint might appear to be okay, however I would pull it and grease the splines, this will also give you a better idea of the U-joint possibly getting a little loose, if the splines are rusty and dry this could be the source of your noise, it gets loaded in one direction and when the load is released on it, it can then make a knock noise like you are describing. This could also be hard to replicate.
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#8

Post by Sidecar Bob »

Didn't someone post about something similar recently that turned out to be a loose caliper mounting bolt?
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Re: Uh Oh, I have a sloppy drivetrain issue, advice needed.

#9

Post by JSBail »

Whiskerfish wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 8:18 am Could it be front fork Stiction?
That's a possibility I haven't ruled out, Digger's idea is worth looking into as well. Calipers mounting bolts are all tight. Gear changes seem to be noisier and found out I was a bit (not a lot) low on oil, don't know if that has anything to do with the noisier gear changes but we'll see. I also checked the oil in my final drive and although it was at the proper level, it looked pretty nasty because I've only changed the gear lube in it once before so I went ahead and changed the lube in the final drive.
Scott
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