Bmw Final Drive

[Statdawg]

Have they been a problem in long trips and RTWs ? If so what year bike was it and share your personal story dealing with the problem.

The Iron Butt Rally this year had 3 final drive failures does that make it an issue ? I know chain and sprocket failure is more common with other makes just wondering about BMW.

Thank You

[Dodger]

Visit ADVRider website and do some research ,there is lots of info there .

[Lone Rider]

Have you ever felt like your heart and other valuable organs, maybe your guts too, have been ripped out of you without any notice?

[Jelly]

I believe there is a problem with the 1200 generation bikes for sure. Go over to Advrider and look at the GS forum. It is plagued with post, not only of final drives problems but a host of other issues too? I am glad I have an 1100 after seeing all of that.

[Nomadic1]

35k miles on mine and still going strong!

:-)

[oldbmw]

Drive spline troubles was an issue with the early parlever models. Also the models pre monolever. seems the best were the mono levers before the paralevers.

[roadsacallin]

My final drive (1981 R80 G/S monolever) started leaking from the main seal at mile 5,000 of an 8,000 mile trip (45,000 miles on the bike). I watched the oil level closely and refilled when needed. It was a little inconvenient, and oil was spattered all over my rear tire, but the final drive held up. I've since had it rebuilt.

[Martynbiker]

245,000 miles not a bit of trouble......... wish i still had her

[smitty]

What was passed along to me regarding the final drive was that bmw originally ran the bikes for a certain amount of hrs to "teethe" the rear drive units.The process of the 600 mile break in and replacement of the break in oil is the same but some years weren't "teethed". For some reason.... money... they decided that this process was not necessary and discontinued it. The failure rate on the models that were not included in this "teething" was high, so they reintroduced it. I asked if the vin number could identify whether or not my bike went through this process. They said no. It was recomended to me to make sure the final drive oil is changed at 36,000 mile intervals. More frequently depending on your paranoia level. I hope that helps some of you out there. Best, Smitty