Oil weeping from Bevel gaiter

[Dave Hall]

I`ve got oil (or grease) weeping from the shaft housing to final drive casing gaiter. Have I blown a seal? or is that snow on my beard.
Should I fix it soon or could it wait until later in the year (I`ve got a 3k trip coming up in 6 weeks)

 

[Mick Fagan]

Dave, there is only a very greasy universal joint behind the bottom gaiter.

I would be tempted to undo the gaiter on one side and have a peak. If you have what looks like oil then I think your bevel drive seal, or, worse still, the gearbox seal is gone or leaking.

Only takes about 5 minutes to check out.

In very hot weather and after a long time in the saddle, I've seen a couple weeping from the flung grease, that's all.

Mick.

 

[Dave Hall]

Cheers Mick I`ll try that....I`ll check the Gearbox oil as well.

Could it be leaking from the bevel box?

 

[Mick Fagan]

Yep, there is oil in the bevel drive and it's held back by a seal.

Mick.

 

[boxer]

Dave.

My '98 1100 [46k miles] has had this problem for years. As far as I know as long as the oil level in the bevel box or gearbox doesn't drop noticeably then it can be ignored. My experience seems to bear this out.

I would suggest that it simply isn't worth removing the gearbox to stop a leak of this size, I'll save that till the clutch is replaced.

To stop any oil finding it's way past the gaiter I replaced the two cable ties which seal the gaiter to the bevel box and swinging arm with the large jublee clips which I think my have come off a later model. I remove these and check the quantity of oil behind the gaiter periodically to make sure the oil loss hasn't increased. Normally it's only a few drops which I doubt would fill a tea spoon.

Does anyone have a way of telling which seal [bevel or gearbox] has blown?

Russ.

 

[Dave Hall]

Thanks Russ....It is only a weep and the reason I mentioned the bevel drive is that the last time I drained the oil from the bevel casing it looked black. I put it down to Mill BMW having failed to service yet another item but it might be contamination from the UJ in the gaiter.

 

[leigh]

oil leak

When you remove the threaded ring to replace the seal in the final drive unit use some silicon sealant on the threads rather than hylomar. I think most of the small oil leaks in the rear axle are from oil creepin past the threads

 

[Dave Hall]

Thanks Leigh....depending on how confident I am, you might be doing it.

 

[adamski49]

If it's the same as I had (and it's fairly common apparently) it'll be the 'pinion radial seal in threaded ring'. The metal ring corrodes enough to wear at the rubber seal allowing oil to weep.

Not being mechanically apt enough to attempt it I paid my dealer just under £130 for it to be repaired - £6.55 of that being the parts

If it's the same as the S the part No. s are:

33.11.1.451.185 - Seal
33.12.1.450.095 - Press ring

HTH

Adam