Final drive leak, does it go catastrophic without warning?

[thetable]

Well, so I'm here at Deals Gap, and I notice I have a nice little splatter on my rear wheel, assumed it was some extra moly paste getting slung out, wiped it off and thought nothing more of it, until the next time I looked.  Indeed it is final drive lube, making a hell of a mess, but level hasn't dropped noticeably. 

The question is, will it get gradually worse, or will it just GO! (Go in a bad way.)

I'm trying to decide whether to take it to the closest dealership I can find here, and hope for the best to get me back on the road, or keep riding for the week I'm down here, and keep wiping it off and checking levels, then get it taken care of when I get back home.

Attached image was 25 miles after the last wipe down.

[Snibbor]

Ouch, not good.  If it was me I would get that checked out.  But I do tend towards the cautious side.

[thetable]

From the searching I've done, I haven't seen anyones fail completely, but I don't want to be THE ONE.

[VirginiaJim]

The rear drives are pretty solid and we haven't had many problems with them.  We've had some with seal leaks but they've been taken care of at a dealer under warranty assuming the bike still has one.  Chances are a dealer won't have one in stock but you never know.  I would not be riding it in that condition on the off chance the oil gets on the tire.  You also want to keep an eye on the level.  You've got a seal leak now, you don't want it locking up on you if it runs out of oil.  Here's a snapshot of some of the dealers in the area....  Running it a week in that condition is not a good idea.

[smg id=60 type=av]      http://www.zggtr.org/MGalleryItem.php?id=60

[thetable]

Yeah, I'm probably going to hit up the closest one that is open on Monday first thing, see if they will let me keep the bike while they order parts.  We'll see what happens, and I'm crossing my fingers.

[CrashKLRtoConnie]

Well, so I'm here at Deals Gap, and I notice I have a nice little splatter on my rear wheel, assumed it was some extra moly paste getting slung out, wiped it off and thought nothing more of it, until the next time I looked.  Indeed it is final drive lube, making a hell of a mess, but level hasn't dropped noticeably. 

The question is, will it get gradually worse, or will it just GO! (Go in a bad way.)

I'm trying to decide whether to take it to the closest dealership I can find here, and hope for the best to get me back on the road, or keep riding for the week I'm down here, and keep wiping it off and checking levels, then get it taken care of when I get back home.

Attached image was 25 miles after the last wipe down.

Comment:

First best of luck and please keep us posted on the final results ..

As such, the first time I lubed the rear drive splines I went overboard and had some moly spray (not near 10% of your photo) until I took the wheel off (for a new PR2) and cleaned up all the excess honda moly 60 lube.

Note: I found the moly paste is very hard to clean off the tire, wheel surfaces, compared to the rear wheel gear oil.

Given your first assumption regarding moly over lube, was the rear drive splines just lube before you noticed the spray?

Or was any change or topping off of the rear drive gear fluid? (any chance of over fill due to spinning the wheel/gears while filling?)

[DaveO]

i dont think rear would explode or fail  if you keep going .
Im guessing an overfill but even if its not I wouldnt let it spoil your trip.

[shreveportSS]

I would buy a QT of gear lube and check it occasionally. Don't overfill as it will add to the leak.

[B.D.F.]

Yeah, that looks like final drive lube rather than spline grease.

When mine started to leak, my dealer ordered the parts and I kept riding the bike. I made a 'diaper' for the drive out of paper towels and electrician's tape to catch the yuck before it splattered everywhere. One diaper was sufficient for whatever time it took to get the bike in for repair (a couple of weeks maybe?).



It is a seal leak and unlikely to get much worse. In fact, once a seal leaks, it is much better lubricated and tends to stop further damage to the seal itself. Just keep an eye on the drive lube level although even a big mess on the rear wheel usually won't use enough lube to see a difference in the level. As someone already said, carry a pint of lube with you and you should be all set for quite a few miles.

Brian

Well, so I'm here at Deals Gap, and I notice I have a nice little splatter on my rear wheel, assumed it was some extra moly paste getting slung out, wiped it off and thought nothing more of it, until the next time I looked.  Indeed it is final drive lube, making a hell of a mess, but level hasn't dropped noticeably. 

The question is, will it get gradually worse, or will it just GO! (Go in a bad way.)

I'm trying to decide whether to take it to the closest dealership I can find here, and hope for the best to get me back on the road, or keep riding for the week I'm down here, and keep wiping it off and checking levels, then get it taken care of when I get back home.

Attached image was 25 miles after the last wipe down.

[TLOC]

My 08 had wheel splatter from almost day1. On a 1400 mile trip to the TN/NC mountain area late last fall I came home parked the bike in the garage. After sitting for a week I came out to clean it up from the trip and an oil drip about the size of a 50 cent piece was under the final drive but no level loss. Got it to the dealer(not the one I bought the bike from) two weeks before the warranty ran out 2/5/11 and was repaired but I never asked what exactly they did. Went to the TN/NC again on 5/25 for another 1400 mile trip came home and the same thing. Called the dealer, bike out of warranty, this time the service manager is the service manager/ owner of the shop I bought the bike from whose dealership went belly up! He remembered me and told me to bring the bike in and "he'll see what he can do". I said great but if Kawasaki doesn't cover it will the shop stand behind it's work being it was 3 months since they repaired it the first time and I really didn't get an answer. While at the shop I did my research knowing if they didn't man up I would do it myself. The service manual shows the small inner seal, bearing, o-ring and outer seal. Service manager calls and says Kawasaki is covering and I ask him what they are replacing and he says "seal". I then have to guide him over the phone to the parts diagram to inform him of the small inner seal and bearing. He says "oooh" and says he'll have to call Kawa back to see if they will replace more parts. All fixed out of warranty. Point is from looking at your pics and that's what mine looked like for nearly 3 yrs yet I put if off as spline grease till the oil drip. So I say ride it...JMHO...T      

[thetable]

Alright, so I couldn't take it anymore, wiped everything clean, and headed back to the hill.  I made several more passes and the leak has become much less severe, it is still leaking, and I am going to keep an eye on it, I've checked the fill level several times, and it's still within specs.  I'm riding it, and I'll deal with a dealership I know at home.

FTR, I'm on my seventh set of tires, and more oil changes, so I've seen straight moly fling, and it's not overfull, it is the seal leaking.  Looks like moly and smells like hypoid.

Thanks for all the help guys.  If you should never hear from me again, then I would recommend not ignoring the problem... Otherwise, I will update when I get home and get it fixed proper.

[Conrad]

The rear drives are pretty solid and we haven't had many problems with them.  We've had some with seal leaks but they've been taken care of at a dealer under warranty assuming the bike still has one.  Chances are a dealer won't have one in stock but you never know.  I would not be riding it in that condition on the off chance the oil gets on the tire.  You also want to keep an eye on the level.  You've got a seal leak now, you don't want it locking up on you if it runs out of oil.  Here's a snapshot of some of the dealers in the area....  Running it a week in that condition is not a good idea.

[smg id=60 type=av]

Hey Jim, when I click on your link I get this.

An Error Has Occurred! Sorry, but you are not allowed to access the gallery

[VirginiaJim]

Try it now.  If it doesn't work, sign out of the forum and sign back in.  Try it again.  If not, something is hosed or at minimum it's something I'm doing wrong but I highly doubt that.....

[Conrad]

Try it now.  If it doesn't work, sign out of the forum and sign back in.  Try it again.  If not, something is hosed or at minimum it's something I'm doing wrong but I highly doubt that.....

Same thing and I did do as you suggested above.

[VirginiaJim]

It's got to be you....    Just kidding.  The permissions are set so that anyone can look it...  Hmmm.  Back to the drawing board.

[Conrad]

It's got to be you....    Just kidding.  The permissions are set so that anyone can look it...  Hmmm.  Back to the drawing board.

It sure could be me but I'm getting the same result both at work and at home. I see that you have a few things in the gallery and I can't see any of them. I get the same error message when I click on them.

[valkmc]

see my post on subject, I was told by 2 dealers it would not fail all atonce. Mine qot worse overtwo weeks of daily ridinq. Good luck finding a dealer w parts on hand.

[Rick Hall]

Hey Jim, when I click on your link I get this.

An Error Has Occurred! Sorry, but you are not allowed to access the gallery

Try going to his album, and try to download/open from there. SHortcut: http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?action=profile;area=aevaitems;u=12

Rick

[Conrad]

Try going to his album, and try to download/open from there. SHortcut: http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?action=profile;area=aevaitems;u=12

Rick

"Sorry, but you are not allowed to access the gallery"

I get the same thing. I can see the icons in Jim's album but when I click em I get the error. Can anyone else see this stuff?

[Conrad]

The rear drives are pretty solid and we haven't had many problems with them.  We've had some with seal leaks but they've been taken care of at a dealer under warranty assuming the bike still has one.  Chances are a dealer won't have one in stock but you never know.  I would not be riding it in that condition on the off chance the oil gets on the tire.  You also want to keep an eye on the level.  You've got a seal leak now, you don't want it locking up on you if it runs out of oil.  Here's a snapshot of some of the dealers in the area....  Running it a week in that condition is not a good idea.

[smg id=60 type=av]      http://www.zggtr.org/MGalleryItem.php?id=60

That link worked Jim but once the pdf was open the map won't display properly. It says that I need to get a developer key.