GS1200 Gearbox Blown Up

ASherriffs

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My 2005 GS just had it's gearbox blow up on me today.
Cruising along A87 from Kyle of Lochalsh heading to Fort William and bang!

For a second it felt like the clutch had begun to slip then grinding/crashing noise form gearbox and bang, it all stopped.

Gear box casing has split around where the output shaft is located.

I've had my GS since 2006 it's been regularly service at BMW and had only done a genuine 23000 miles.
No indication that anything was wronng prior to this happening.

Has anyone else experinced this ?
 
Spy in the Camp had this happen on his 2006 GS which, if I remember correctly, had 43k miles on it at the time. I've got half the mainshaft out of his gearbox sitting on a shelf here. Cheap Eastern European bearings were considered to be the culprit. They're also closed bearings, ie with seals on the races and that's not exactly conducive to them being well lubricated.
 
Mine went on my 04 last month, 39,000 miles regularly serviced, didn't abuse it, it's currently sitting with coopers TW getting repaired, I am awaiting a cause if any to be mentioned.



Mike
 
Mine went up the wazoo back in May and let go big time at 72,000 miles. Everything in the casing was damaged beyond repair. Had to get a replacement from Motorworks for around £800 which was OK as it had been checked over with new input and output seals.

It's not that common but an expensive issue when it happens.
 

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From the pictures it appears that the selector (terminology?) has broken and the debris has then trashed the gears? It would be interesting to know whether this is the usual route of failure.
 
B4ndit said:
Oh my god exploding gearboxes. What next!
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God only knows - but I'm sure that if it's possible, the Beemerco will think of something!

Why on earth would ANY competent engineer choose to put sealed bearings (and cheapos at that) in a tranny that's full of high-grade lubricant that's changed regularly? That makes absolutely no sense at all! No other vehicle gearbox in the world is built like that as far as I know.

Seems like I remember reading that the big bearing (the one that regularly fails) in the FD is like that too. That's just nuts!
 
Yes, gearbox went on me, complete failure, felt like clutch slip and then bang! 2004 bike and under 25k miles from memory - very expensive fix. Parts came through the casing and ripped through the fuel lines.

Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle.
 
jpooch00 said:
Why on earth would ANY competent engineer choose to put sealed bearings (and cheapos at that) in a tranny that's full of high-grade lubricant that's changed regularly? That makes absolutely no sense at all! No other vehicle gearbox in the world is built like that as far as I know.
Click to expand...

I wondered that so I did some research and found the specifications for the gearbox which BMW supplies to Getrag. One of the key requirements is a short spin-down time on the shafts so that 1st gear is engaged silently because BMW owners don't want their bikes clunking into first gear. Of course, this is also why changing gears silently is such an art.

Getrag achieve this short spin down by fitting sealed bearings which have more drag than open ones. It seems to me that one engineering solution begets a whole set of other problems.
 
lots of talk about sealed bearngs on the USA sites years ago - some1100/1150s are the same.

normally threads are polarised into 2 camps

I - stupid idea

2 - surely BMW knows a bit more about their bikes than any 'internet' expert

I asked about it on UKGSER a while back and had no replies:confused:
 
Does it matter whether the bearings are sealed or not? Sealed bearings are used in applications all over the place including your front wheel. So long as they are packed with the right amount and grade of grease they should be absolutely fine. The fact its sealed should be neither here nor there.
 
2 around here broke, the shaft came out of the casing into the bell housing and dumped all the oil. One of them was mine (both 05) at 200kph
 
seadog said:
Mine went on my 04 last month, 39,000 miles regularly serviced, didn't abuse it, it's currently sitting with coopers TW getting repaired, I am awaiting a cause if any to be mentioned.



Mike
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Cripes what's the ballpark figure on that then...........:eek:
 
Flanners said:
Cripes what's the ballpark figure on that then...........:eek:
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Gearbox new is ...............£1,700 + vat!!! Then the small bits and labour etc etc!!!!!! Wag going to go s/h route but had to fly back to work 2 days after retrieving the bike from Paris, so no time to organise anything!!!!!!!!!!


Mike
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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