Clutch/Drivetrain issue -> grinding noise, no power to wheel.

[Guest]

Hey all!

Some disappointing turn of events on my Friday afternoon ride. Riding along slow and steady, and wham - no power to the wheel. No loud noises, no warning signs (that I could tell). Essentially, I can put the bike in first gear alright, but then when I go to release the clutch and get moving the bike sits still and I hear a kind of clattering/grinding noise in the gear box and nothing happens. It tries to move forward ever so slightly, but then just starts making the noise. At first I thought that maybe the chain came off the front sprocket, but I removed the case and the chain is mounted on the sprocket just fine and when up on the center stand, rotates just fine throughout the whole chain length. When up on the center stand and running - shifting into first with clutch in is pretty rough, and the rear wheel starts to turn as if it was in gear and the clutch is out. Then, shifting up into second- same situation- rear wheel is turning. Shifting up into third, fourth, and fifth the wheel stops turning while the clutch is in, as it should. Shifting down through the gears is smoother, and the no power is being transferred to the chain. After a couple rounds of this I put the bike back down and tried to get her going. Same noise, no power.

Obviously I'm going to have to open up the clutch and see what is really going on, but I wanted to ask you kind folks if anything similar has happened to you. I can't find any similar scenario in my searches of the forum. This would be my first adventure into clutch world on my GS

[vcalvarese]

Quick side note - I 'may' have added a little too much oil before my ride. I drained the excess off, but still no luck.

[lemonshindig]

Well, the chain's on the front sprocket, but is the front sprocket still on the splines?

The other day, my front sprocket nut backed off and the sprocket slid off the splines onto the threads. Rev rev, no spin.

[blowerbike]

check your front sprocket by removing and inspect your splines.
cross your fingers...loss of power to the rear wheel on a chain drive model is not good.

[vcalvarese]

Thanks for the replies! Does anyone have a picture of the splines? I'm pretty green with sprocket world. The engine is definitely putting power to the sprocket, it just seems under load it's not linking up somewhere. It doesn't feel like a clutch issue in my opinion. I can see the chain getting "bumped" under load when it's slipping

[vcalvarese]

Scratch that.. Google is magic sometimes! I'll have to check to see of the sprocket is seated on the splines. The bike starts to pull forward but the starts doing the slipping chain bump thing.

[dorkburger]

Hopefully you dont find this...016_zpsb3a475b5.jpg
Good luck.

[vcalvarese]

What happened there??

[dorkburger]

That's another members bike. I think the sprocket nut came loose and/ or fell off entirely allowing the sprocket to slide off and kill the threads. on an 1150 I previously owned the nut came loose and caused some wear on the splines, but luckily it was still usable. .

[huntb]

I really hope you aren't starting it and trying to ride it just to hear the noise again... If it is something internally you aren't going to like what you see once you open it up

[vcalvarese]

I really hope you aren't starting it and trying to ride it just to hear the noise again... If it is something internally you aren't going to like what you see once you open it up

Nope, I think I heard enough

next step is I'm going to open up the sprocket cover again and check to see if the sprocket fell off the splines. The sprocket nut was a little loose when I checked it, but I figured it shouldn't be super tight. Am I assuming wrong?

[blowerbike]

super duper tight...no wimpy stuff...

[Sandy]

The nut should be tight, tight, tight. But the fact it's there means the sprocket probably didn't fall off the splines. I just changed sprockets and chain on a friends bike. He had almost no teeth left on the rear. Are there any teeth left on your front sprocket? Neglect will do that.

[vcalvarese]

The nut should be tight, tight, tight. But the fact it's there means the sprocket probably didn't fall off the splines. I just changed sprockets and chain on a friends bike. He had almost no teeth left on the rear. Are there any teeth left on your front sprocket? Neglect will do that.

There are teeth left as far as I can tell. The sprocket spins with the chain with the rear wheel up and bike in neautral. I did not have eyes on the sprocket though to see if the chain just wasn't catching. I've been away from the bike for a week or so, but hope to dive back in this weekend. The bike has about 40k miles on the clock at this point, and I will say that I have not serviced the chain or sprocket. The nut jiggles back and forth a tiny bit, and seems to be held on by the locking washer. I'm not sure of the correct name for that washer piece. I plan to get the nut off there and see what's up with the spline and I'll get back with results. Any other words of wisdom before I dive in!?

Thank you thank you thank you

[GSX1000E]

If you are really lucky, just the inner teeth of the sprocket are badly worn and the output shaft splines are still good.
Then, all that you should really need is a new correctly installed front CS sprocket. If the rear sprocket shows wear, I would replace it and the chain at the same time.
Z1 Enterprises can get you a good deal on all three parts if you call them.