[Maturerider]

Thanks for the heads up. Wow! That’s a seriously large service campaign. That must include most if not all GS’ produced since 2013.

When does this campaign start? Had my bike serviced last week but nothing was mentioned by the BMW service department.

 

[Maturerider]

… and there I thought shaft drive was less of a pain than chain drive 🙄.

I feel that doing a ‘stress test’ is not good enough. The shaft drive should be stripped down and a visual check made. Repairs then carried out if required.

Who pays for rectification if it passes the stress test now but thing go tits up several months/years later?

 

[Maturerider]

Showing my mechanical ignorance here, but does the shaft slide on splines as the suspension goes up and down? If so, just at the front, just at the rear or both?

 

[Maturerider]

There is a circlip at the front so any movement would be at the rear. I would think there should be some slight movement through the full range of suspension travel, not a lot though.

Thanks for the information. Can I assume that the service schedule is necessary because moisture is getting into the shaft housing and then penetrating the bearings in the universal joints and has nothing to do with the splines.

 

[Maturerider]

If shaft inspection and lubrication becomes part of routine inspection there will one less reason to buy a shaft drive BMW. With BMW charging what they do a chain driven motorcycle would probably be more cost effective.

 

[Maturerider]

What is the problem with the R1200/1250 shaft drive?
A. The Hardy Spicer (Universal) joint breaking up.
B. The splines wearing excessively due to lack of lubrication.

(The Hardy Spicer shown has a grease nipple but the BMW one is probably ‘sealed’).

 

[Maturerider]

I have always hated chain drive 😡.

Thanks BMW . You’ve now given me a reason to hate shaft drive 🤬.

 

[Maturerider]

As a farmer I am very familiar with PTO (power take off) shafts which is very similar to the drive shaft in the photo. It’s a means to transfer power from the tractor to a piece of equipment attached to it which requires power. I have only seen a PTO shaft fail once. I used a light weight shaft to do a heavy weight job, which wasn’t a total surprise to me but I didn’t have a suitable shaft to hand so I thought I would give it go 🙄. The damage was nothing like as extreme as in your photo 😳.

 

[Maturerider]

I presume that if ANY R series boxer engined motorcycle, manufactured after 2013, which has a cardan failure before, as a result of or after the ‘service campaign’ will be fully repaired at BMW‘s expense 🤔🤔🤔

 

[Maturerider]

You can buy a lot of chain and sprocket kits for the price of a BMW drive shaft. BMW‘s mark up must be off the scale. On reflection it needs to be to cover all my warranty claims 🙄. They certainly know how to shaft their customers (see what I did there 🙄?).

 

[Maturerider]

I recently watched a YouTube video about BMW‘s cardan service campaign and all the GS owner talked about was the splines. Nothing about premature wear of the universal joint/s. I the asked on this thread before, but got no response -
Is the problem the splines or the universal joint/s? Perhaps it’s both. It would be good to know.

 

[Maturerider]

It is both. However, when the splines freeze with rust, U-joint gets a lot of stress and breaks. So, it first starts with splines and ends with broken U-joint. That is, in 95% of situations of drive shaft catastrophic failure.

Thanks for the clarification. It appears to be a very badly designed drive train.

Come back chain drive, all is forgiven 🙄.

 

[Maturerider]

Has anyone here in Blighty (UK) had this recall done? If so, how did it go.

 

[Maturerider]

If you have more than 36,000 miles you get a new shaft so make sure they order that too. Took my dealer (Columbus, GA) about 3 weeks to get everything in. Good luck.

Am I reading you right. Any bike that has done 36,000 miles will automatically have a new drive shaft and universal joints (cardan) fitted. Presumably the dealers don’t even bother to do the ‘test’.

 

[Maturerider]

I’ve done 35,500 miles. Must make sure I hit 36,000 before I take the bike in for the recall but I since BMW haven’t got the parts I will have plenty of time.

 

[Maturerider]

Earlier in this thread it was said that at 36,000 miles the shaft was automatically replaced. Now there is talk of 37,000 miles. Having just reached 36,000 miles I guess I should do another 1000 miles before contacting my dealer and hope the mileage isn’t revised to 38,000 🤔🙄.

 

[Maturerider]

Thanks Mike for the clarification. When my bike has the next service in 3,000 miles time it will be interesting to see what the dealer does regarding the shaft drive.

 

[Maturerider]

I think I might have a solution to BMW‘s shaft drive problem 🤔.

Drill a couple of holes in the drive shaft housing. One above the rear splines and the other above the universal joint. Connect a Scottoiler to the two holes and let oil drip on the two offending items.

Sorted!

 

[Maturerider]

I gather new shaft drives will automatically be fitted to those motorcycles that have covered 37,000 miles. I thought that was a rather strange distance until I worked out that in kilometres it is 59,545.728. Rounding up, that is nearly 60,000 kilometres. To be sure of guaranteeing a new shaft it might be wise to cover 37,454.272 miles before booking your bike in 🤔🙄😂.

 

[Maturerider]

jcpdrummer that looks like a photo of your new shaft. A photo of the knackered shaft would be interesting to see.