Temperature of rear hub after driving?

[jsoulier]

I've been diagnosing a noise on my 1981 GS850GL for a while now. When I bought the bike, I changed all the fluids, everything came out relatively clean, no metal bits etc. When I hit about 65km/h I can hear a whistling sound coming from the shaft drive area. I checked the u-joint in the swing-arm and there was no play and the rear wheel spins freely when in neutral. Took it for a 20min ride around town today and checked the temperature of the rear hub and was quite warm to the touch. Any ideas on what my problem could be? I talked to the local motorcycle mechanic and he said that he's only seen one bike needing the bevel gears to be re-shimmed so I'm assuming it could be a bearing?

Any help would be appreciated.
BTW the bike only has 41XXX KMS

Jordan

[BassCliff]

Hi,

The final drive unit should have the proper amount of 75w90 gear oil in it, as well as the bevel gear case.

Final Drive Unit Oil Change

Secondary Gear Oil Change

You also might want to pull the rear wheel and check for wear on the driven spline gear.

Rear Wheel Removal

Here's what a bad one looks like:



Here's a close up of a good one on the wheel:



The gold-ish colored ones that came out in late '81 to '83 were too soft. The older ones, dark like the one above, are hard. The new ones are silver and are hard also.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[tkent02]

Like any mechanical thing, it gets warm when its in use.

[fishfarm]

temperature

I read 125 degrees F as discussed in this thread:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=181141

[jsoulier]

Thanks for the help. I'll keep you updated.

BassCliff: Thanks, I already verified the levels by your tutorials, they were a great help. I will have to pull the wheel off some day this weekend and check it out.

Fishfarm: If it is the norm, I guess it's alright then. I'll still probably check the driven gear though because of the noise.

Jordan