Drive Gear Wear

[Gary Lich]

Pulled the rear wheel off the GS1100GK last weekend to replace the tire (first time since I bought the bike). Noticed the final drive gear (between the shaft and wheel was dry (signs of a minimal amount of old grease, corrosion and some wear mostly on the teeth on the rear wheel. (15k on the bike) I cleaned it up, greased it liberally with marine grade grease and put it back together. Anyone know how much wear is OK before it should be replaced ? Any tricks to remove/replace this gear ? How much lube should I be putting on these gears and how often ?

[Anonymous]

I don't have a shafie myself, but my guess is that there is a backlash tolerance that would tell quite a bit about the gears. They should be similar to the ring and pinion on a car, and I have set many of those up.

[focus frenzy]

with just 15K miles on it total, I doubt there would be to much wear, the late model shafties have problems with excessive wear with the drive coupling, Suzuki changed the metal they are made from to a softer metal, the earlier gears are suppose to be a drop in change and will correct the problem, or regular (at least one a year) lubing will help prevent them from failing. Nick is the resident shaftie master and has alot of experience with this problem.

[SqDancerLynn1]

It should be lubed with thick stringie grease any time the rear wheel is removed