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Gear Box seal leaking or bike is sulking:? Gear Box seal leaking or bike is sulking:?
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The Pamir highway in an unseasonably
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  #1  
Old 12 Sep 2011
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Gear Box seal leaking or bike is sulking:?
Got to the top of Gibraltar Rock today, and after parking up noticed a large smattering of oil over the right hand side of my rear wheel, all over the lower propshaft gaiter and over the bevel box casing.....ah!

Immediate idea springs to mind that my gearbox output seal has gone, as I have only in the last two weeks had the propshaft,gearbox seal and bevel seals replaced.

Got the wheel off etc, and found no oil inside the wheel hub, final drive oil level was fine.....however, I had lost 400ml of gearbox oil.

After wiping it all down and filling up with some of Repsols finest gear oil and carrying a spare 2 litre bottle, I set off for Malaga and a possible BMW shop there-abouts......however, now I have arrived the bike has not leaked again that i can see an the gearbox level has not dropped.

Was my bike sulking in the heat ( 38 degrees ) or could it have managed to reset a leaking seal by itself somehow...or is it worth visiting the BMW dealer and going for the full strip and check before moving on.

Suggestions please.
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  #2  
Old 12 Sep 2011
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I'm not sure what kind of bike you have but if it is a R80/100GS:

There is a small notch above the output seal on the gearbox, it should be filled with silicon. A lot of people forget this and you get exactly the symptoms you describe. This can be done in 5 minutes without removing the swingarm but if it's your first time it's probably best to remove it. Clean the area well before applying silicon.

On the other hand it's okay to use the bike as long as you drain the swingarm and the bevel-box and fill the gearbox every 1000 km. It get worse when you drive uphill.
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  #3  
Old 12 Sep 2011
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Ah....Bloody school boy error..

Ahem

BMWR 100GSPD 1993.

210,000 km on the clock...
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  #4  
Old 14 Oct 2011
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Finally managed to nurse the bike back home, with it constantly losing oil.

This leak progressed from the initial leak from the lower rubber grommet at the wheel end of the prop to also leaking from the upper grommet and then oil spewing out of the rear hub breather ( little black cap on final drive )

Final special place for the oil to leak from is from the swingarm pivots on both side of the frame.

As you can imagine this is all from the amount of oil leaking from the engine output seal gradually causing the propshaft casing to fill up with oil and I suppose popping the final seal....hence the breather spewing out oil.

BMW warranty.

2 days before the trip, the bike had its propshaft, gearbox/engine output seal replaced.

I am about to pick the bike up from the dealer who first repaired it....and It looks like they are trying to sting me for the cost of the repairs....which I am 100% certain was caused by the original seal not being installed correctly.

I will let you know on the outcome of the argument asap.
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Old 15 Oct 2011
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It will be hard for you to argue against the shop/garage...

It is highly unlikely that the seal was damaged on installation, but it may happen. It is far more likely that you have the gearbox with a ventialtion hole in the bearing seat(?)... it was -very- common back in the 90:ties with the problem you describe. Solution was as simple, silicone sealing of the triagular whole in the bearing- sealseat(?).

Ask for photographic proof that your gearbox does not have this BMW factory fault. Less they can provide that, demand that they put the bike back in the garage and pull the gearbox side rubber grommet off the gearbox and show you that there is no open whole.

If they refuse - demand that they ad a warrenty passage on the reciept/invoice, clearly stating that they will cover repair costs should this leaking reoccur within 100 000km or 10 years (which is a minimum service time for that seal).

And - Good Luck!
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Old 25 Oct 2011
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i had a recon box fitted from a well known uk bmw second hand parts supplier only to have it leak oil constantly all the way to cape town. had it rebuilt there and not only had they put the wrong seal in, they put it in the wrong way round. been fine since..
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