Shaft drive Q&A

[willie]

One other 1100 shaft related suggestion based upon my experience. Inspect the front end of the driveshaft where it slides into the U-joint. See if you can move the U-joint assy front to back or the nut securing the shaft. If so, make certain the shaft hasn't seperated from the nut or u-joint. Mine did and so did another owner's that I met.
Willie in TN

[TheCafeKid]

Brian (or whomever) My 1100G has just a touch of whine between 2.5 and 3.5k on the tach, seemingly only at steady throttle. Its audible, but is this a sort of shaftie trait, or should there be NO noise at all coming from the secondary drive gears? (thats where it sounds like its coming from) Should i be concerned, am i paranoid, whats up? Thanks Dr Wringer.

[49er]

Brian (or whomever) My 1100G has just a touch of whine between 2.5 and 3.5k on the tach, seemingly only at steady throttle. Its audible, but is this a sort of shaftie trait, or should there be NO noise at all coming from the secondary drive gears? (thats where it sounds like its coming from) Should i be concerned, am i paranoid, whats up? Thanks Dr Wringer.

TCK, yes you should be concerned, you're paranoid! I suggest another appointment with Dr Wringer.
Make sure that your oil grades and levels are correct and ride it. Minor whines will appear on all motorcycles as they age. Lubrication only retards the wear rate!! Unless it's alcohol, which accelerates it!!

[SqDancerLynn1]

The only thing to do is Check the back lash Make sure you can move the Secondary gear output shaft a little bit. Could you have goten the shims mixed up ??

[Suzuki_Don]

ZOOKS I can't believe you've gone "SOFT" and bought a shaftie. What's wrong, getting too much grease and oil on your hands changing rear chains, be careful the next natural progression is to the retirement village you know. And I've heard there are a few good ones out around Windsor and Richmond. Haha.
Cheers. Don. I'll catch up with you some time, I am currently converting my 550 to 700cc so am off the road for a while. See Ya.

[Zooks]

One other 1100 shaft related suggestion based upon my experience. Inspect the front end of the driveshaft where it slides into the U-joint. See if you can move the U-joint assy front to back or the nut securing the shaft. If so, make certain the shaft hasn't seperated from the nut or u-joint. Mine did and so did another owner's that I met.
Willie in TN

This is what I have been repairing. The nut came off the end of the shaft whilst the PO was riding it. This caused it to snap the threaded end off and then it slipped out of the uni-joint and smashed about inside the tube (swing-arm).

I pulled the drive (bevel) gear out and sent it to an engineer to have a hole drilled and tapped in the end of it. Into this I inserted a HT M12 allen bolt. It basically turns the end of the shaft (on the gear) from male into female (thread). *ouch!*

I used loctite on the allen bolt and it is as good as new. The engineer said he had seen quite a few shafts (from all sort of machines) do the exact same thing.

I took lots of photos and have thought of doing a 'pictorial' as it seems to be a moderately common problem. I have heard of 4 instances of it happening now. Maybe I could ask Cliff to put it up on his website?

[49er]

This is what I have been repairing. The nut came off the end of the shaft whilst the PO was riding it. This caused it to snap the threaded end off and then it slipped out of the uni-joint and smashed about inside the tube (swing-arm).

I pulled the drive (bevel) gear out and sent it to an engineer to have a hole drilled and tapped in the end of it. Into this I inserted a HT M12 allen bolt. It basically turns the end of the shaft (on the gear) from male into female (thread). *ouch!*

I used loctite on the allen bolt and it is as good as new. The engineer said he had seen quite a few shafts (from all sort of machines) do the exact same thing.

I took lots of photos and have thought of doing a 'pictorial' as it seems to be a moderately common problem. I have heard of 4 instances of it happening now. Maybe I could ask Cliff to put it up on his website?

Nice solution to repairing that damaged gear!
I think that you should have inserted an HT stud though. That way you could locktite the gear end thread and still be able to torque a nut onto the other end. You need to be able to take the assembly apart a few times before you get the right backlash and tooth contact patterns.

I was gifted a 2.9-1 1100 diff that has the drive gear (pinion) stud sheared off. I am curently attempting a repair using 4340 and the suggested method above. For so many reported failures to occur in these areas on the 1100's, it appears that Suzuki may have got their tempering methods wrong! The fact that we are able to sucessfully machine a thread into these gears is unusual.

[Zooks]

Nice solution to repairing that damaged gear!
I think that you should have inserted an HT stud though. That way you could locktite the gear end thread and still be able to torque a nut onto the other end. You need to be able to take the assembly apart a few times before you get the right backlash and tooth contact patterns.

I was gifted a 2.9-1 1100 diff that has the drive gear (pinion) stud sheared off. I am curently attempting a repair using 4340 and the suggested method above. For so many reported failures to occur in these areas on the 1100's, it appears that Suzuki may have got their tempering methods wrong! The fact that we are able to sucessfully machine a thread into these gears is unusual.

It's easy to split the uni-joint, 4 small bolts and it's in 1/2. The gear is simple to pull out then.

It's not that easy to machine. The engineer charged me for the drill bit and the tap because they were both completely blunt at the end. It probably should be harder but I can assure you, it's not exactly mild steel.