Whine/growl

[4554x4]

I have a loud whine or growl in fifth gear on my 1982 gs1100. It sounds pretty bad. there may be a slight noise in fourth gear as well.

I know a great deal about cars, but little about motorcycles. I hope that this can be repaired inexpensively.

Is the transmission part of the engine block? If so, if my trans is junk is the engine junk also?

[tom203]

Is this a shaft or chain drive? and yes, the trans is part of the engine block.

[4554x4]

Chain drive.

[Guest]

If the tranny is bad it can be swapped out.
Does it go down the road ok?

[4554x4]

Yes it works fine. I would like to restore this bike but this worries me.

[koolaid_kid]

I wouldn't let something as trivial as a transmission stop me.
I got a tranny on eBay for my GPz for $100 or less.
Swapped it out in less than a day, start to finish.