gear whine

[Redman]

In recent days I have been noticing a gear whine sound from the GS1100GK.
Hear it under load, and goes away when let off throttle some.
Don't hear much at hard acceleration (due to engine noise), and don't hear so much at higway speed due to wind noise.

I don't know if it has just gotten louder or if I heard it on recent occasion of riding without earplugs .... or if its just me getting concerned about the 4 day trip coming up next week.

But, I don't recall hearing it before (in 30+ years of riding GS Gs).
(Is fairly common on Hondas, but that can be valve train or counter balancers or drive train in those.)

On the G I would think it is the front drive there on back of transmission (called Secondary Drive, right?).
Doesn't sound like is from the back final drive.

I do change the 80/90 gear lube every other year (less than 6k miles), or once a year if have a higher milage year. And did drain it tonight. Was some fine black sludge on the drain plug magnet, but not a lot, and not shiney slivers of stuff.
Did notice a couple very small shiney flecks in drain pan, but I didn't really check the pan before I started but was dirty oiley from prior use.

Did some searches and found some info.

Questions I have :

- How concerned should I be?

- Slight whine not too bad?

- Can it whine like that for long time without getting worse? Thousands and Thousands of miles? (years ago, my Chevy Astro van rear diff whined but didn't get much at all louder for several years.)

- Or does it get worse real quick, say a few hundred miles, or couple thousand miles, and have failure?

- Any posting about this that I didn't find?

Thanks,
Dave

[tom203]

The secondary gears being helical probably would whirr more than whine,but who knows. The primary gears (clutch to crank) often whine. Do you have faith in the big nut holding clutch on?

[eil]

My 850 has always had a noticeable whirr/whine on acceleration. It's definitely a lot quieter than the chain whine was on my 750E, though.

I would say if there is an issue, draining the gear oil and checking it out would tell you all you need to know.

[Steve]

Do you have faith in the big nut holding clutch on?

In this case, I think we need to ask if you have faith in the big nut that holds on to the handlebars.

I get the impression from your original post that you usually ride with earplugs? It's possible that the whine has been there all along and you have just not heard it. I don't notice anything in my 850, and my son's 1000 doesn't have a windshield, do I don't hear anything except WIND.

.

[tkent02]

Is the sound always the same tone per speed over the road, or is it referenced to engine speed? Primary drive would change tone with engine speed, secondary drive would be the same at a given speed in any gear....

I have only seen whining gears when the gear has been run dry, once oil is put in they keep whining but haven't failed.... Have seen a few lock up and skid when they have been run with no oil.

I'm sure you haven't let the secondary drive run dry, but I'd sure check it. Is it possible for the gear oil to migrate from the secondary drive to the engine, leaving the drive low on oil? This can happen on some bikes with separate engine and transmission oil. Never heard of it on a shafty Suzuki, don't know if it can happen. Could it have all leaked out? That doesn't sound likely without noticing a big puddle...

[gustovh]

My 83 G whines going down the road, nothing I am concerned with since it is coming from the gears not the secondary set.

V

[storm 64]

Dave, I think it could be your output shaft splines stripping out. Oh wait, never mind, that's your other bike... Just teasing

[Redman]

whine.... whirr...

I have changed gear oil and engine oil.

Riding further, and listening more, I think I can detect both the gear noises, the one consistent with engine rpm (primary) and the one consistent with road mph (secondary). And they do sound a bit different from each other. but I cant really say one is a whine and other is a whirr. (I am a bit tone deaf)

I think they were both there some.

Yah,, recently haven't been using the earplugs as much on short trips.

So, this nut behind the handlebars was maybe just getting nervous.

Will see how it goes over the rest of the season.

[Buffalo Bill]

Do you want your 850 back?

[Redman]

Do you want your 850 back?

ha ha (if so, I would have to talk to dpep about that)

could it be the handlebars causing this situation....? ha ha

[Redman]

Sometimes I can detect the primary gear whine (engine rpm), and most other times the secondary gear whine (road speed), sometimes both.

THe situation with the gear whine was uneventful over the 1100 mile brown county weekend.

Wife-passenger took this video today (for other purposes) and can hear some of the gear whine.

40 second low-res video.

https://youtu.be/TGbBY_wbY8U

.

CAN anyone say if this is terrible bad, gonna go ka-krunch, catastrophic failure soon ... ?


.

[1948man]

The dog seems happy so I don't think it was him whining.

[Grimly]

I don't like that noise, at all. There's a different, higher-pitched loading/unloading whine from the front bevel that's quite normal (and not all GSs do it anyway), but that noise on the video is more of a growl and that's not right. I'd take the front bevel gears out and examine them closely for wear and see what the bearings are like, too. If nothing is found there, look at the rear bevel.
Last time I heard that axle growl was on a knackered old van with knackered differential gears (yes, I know there's none there) but the crown wheel and pinion in the rear drive are the same in principle as millions of knackered old vans.

[chef1366]

Straight gears whine
Some more than others