Please help 82gs650 rear clunking sound?

[riffmaster26]

hello,
im new here and to street bikes, i bought an 82 gs650 with 19,000 miles about 2 months ago and final drove more than around the block. my problem is when i shift into 5th gear and let off the throttle the its sounds like where the shaft and the rear come together has rocks in it and makes a bad clunking sound. i am not mechanically inclined on bikes and like i said this is my first street bike does anyone know what it could be and possibly how much it would cost at a shop to fix? any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
matt

oh yea i was costing going about 30mph

[1948man]

The splines in the rear wheel that mate with the splines in the final drive are notoriously soft in the '82 shafties and can strip out. Usually, I would think once they started making that much noise you couldn't get the bike to move. Splines from earlier years and years after '84 are better and can be found on Ebay sometimes.

[riffmaster26]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/81-SUZUKI-GS650L-GS650-GS-650-SHAFT-FINAL-DRIVE-HUB-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem483f00eb7aQQitemZ310294670202QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

is this what your talking about and is it a even swap and do you have to adjust anything once you swap

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. riffmaster26,

That Ebay link is to a complete final drive assembly. It contains a "differential" of sorts and the "drive" spline. Some of the "driven" splines in the rear wheel tend to wear out prematurely but they usually don't start making noise.

If you have noise in your drive line I would suspect a loose or broken bolt in a U-joint at either end of the driveshaft. The driveshaft is inside the left arm of the swingarm. Here is a "how to" guide from my website with pictures and more information about the final drive and rear splines:

Rear Wheel Removal

And this is a worst case scneario "how to":

Bevel Gear Shaft Repair
(by Mr. Zooks)

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Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[riffmaster26]

ok i guess im just a little overwhelmed with this so the broken u joint would only make the clunking in 5th gear coasting like i was not in any other gears? I saw on ebay that there was a driveshaft and ujoint for 9.95+shipping but how hard is this to do by myself or would it be easier to have a shop do it. I dont know how much time and money i want to wrap up in this thing since i only bought it for a grand.

[DanTheMan]

Does the "clunk" happen only when you have it in 5th around 30 mph? Is it with power applied or no power applied? 5th gear is a little high for 30 mph, it may just be loading up and preparing to stall out on you too. If it doesn't happen at higher speeds in 5th gear, I don't think you really have a problem.

[riffmaster26]

yea i have only had it around 30 and it was at no load. i dont want to take it to far i just finished my motorcycle saftey class so my completion card for my license is in the mail. Tomorrow when i get home from work if its not raining again i will have to be a daredevil and take it up the street where i can get it up to speed and see if it happens at higher speeds.

[tom203]

Does the "clunk" happen only when you have it in 5th around 30 mph? Is it with power applied or no power applied? 5th gear is a little high for 30 mph, it may just be loading up and preparing to stall out on you too. If it doesn't happen at higher speeds in 5th gear, I don't think you really have a problem.

Yeah, 5th is too high at 30mph- there is a heavy spring in output shaft to absorb shock that might be clunking under this loading.

[TheCafeKid]

Youre lugging it out. They need to spin higher RPMs. 30mph in 5th isn't good for anything.

Other things to check:
As mentioned the splines should be a replace now part before they go bad.
Also check that the bolts holding the spline in place havent backed out. Had that happen a few times.
And your U joint may need looked at, though they rarely go south.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

At 30 mph you should be in 3rd gear, at the most. If it was broken it would be making noise all the time.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[riffmaster26]

ok thanks for the help, i was just shifting threw the gears i was only in 5th for about 10 sec before i downshifted speedlimit in our subdivision is only 30mph. Finally got my m class today so tomorrow i will be out driving around and will test it out at higher speeds as long as my carbs let me that the next thing i gotta get adjusted.

[waterman]

Check your splines as others have mentioned. Another member had a 650 with a broken driveshaft, I doubt that is your trouble.

As for the lugging comments, I can't agree with them. While I will agree that hard acceleration in 5th gear will be leisurely, I don't think the engine will be lugging. One of the advantages of the 650 engine is the ability to smoothly accelerate from idle in every gear. I have ran mine around at 20 mph in fifth it will accelerate without a hiccup from motor, extremely versatile in performance. I am pretty sure most of the 650 riders will attest to this fact.

The 650 shaft drive engine is rather unique in that it doesn't really give you a surge in power at higher rpms like most other motorcycles, it has a very linear power output without a peaky top end rush. Certainly, revving to redline in each gear will extra the most performance, but shifting a 6 grand is probably suffice for most sane endeavors.

I mostly commute with my bike and often I will be going 35mph in high gear and simply roll on gas to get to 55 mph. Yesterday, in a complete brain fart, I left from a dead stop at a stoplight in third gear. It really surprised me since I didn't notice until the clutch was completely released and it felt a little strange. I don't recommend driving like this, mainly because my thoughts were elsewhere instead of on my surroundings.

[Nessism]

ok i guess im just a little overwhelmed with this so the broken u joint would only make the clunking in 5th gear coasting like i was not in any other gears? I saw on ebay that there was a driveshaft and ujoint for 9.95+shipping but how hard is this to do by myself or would it be easier to have a shop do it. I dont know how much time and money i want to wrap up in this thing since i only bought it for a grand.

We get a fair number of people around here with stripped out rear wheel driven splines. That's a good place to start checking. Next is the secondary reduction gear as detailed in zook's repair tutorial. Another possibility is a loose clutch basket nut, or maybe even the noise is normal. Hard for us to say. One thing I can say is you have a 30 year old motorcycle that needs maintenance. If you don't like to wrench, or don't want to spend a good deal of money paying someone to wrench for you, a newer bike is in order.

[riffmaster26]

Hello again yesterday i got to take it out although a little windy ,35mph winds, road it for a good 15 miles or so and it definitely does the clunking while coast at higher speed like 55-60 i want to say that it may have been doing it while the throttle was on not as loud but with the intense wind and my helmet i cant say for sure. it sounds like when you but a baseball card in the spokes of your tire of your bike when you were a kid but more intense. Today i come out to the garage to ride it some more and notice that below the gears or hub whatever you want to call it on the tire was oil so i felt where the seam is on the hub and now it is definitely leaking gear oil out and it wasnt before i went to drive yesterday.

[tom203]

Hello again yesterday i got to take it out although a little windy ,35mph winds, road it for a good 15 miles or so and it definitely does the clunking while coast at higher speed like 55-60 i want to say that it may have been doing it while the throttle was on not as loud but with the intense wind and my helmet i cant say for sure. it sounds like when you but a baseball card in the spokes of your tire of your bike when you were a kid but more intense. Today i come out to the garage to ride it some more and notice that below the gears or hub whatever you want to call it on the tire was oil so i felt where the seam is on the hub and now it is definitely leaking gear oil out and it wasnt before i went to drive yesterday.

Someone might have overfilled it- check level in hub.
OK, put bike on centerstand (so rear wheel is clear of ground). NOT RUNNING put bike in gear and rotate rear tire back and forth- how much play to you have here? Can you isolate any clunk noise here or up under u-joint cover?