Got back from the GCE rally in Italy and my gearbox is making an unfriendly noise.
It goes into the shop on Tuesday.
The noise? bit of a rumble
In top gear at 3500 (70 ish) fine at 3000
Also when I roll off the throttle.
Please join me in prayers
Get well cards and donations gratefully received.
Ooops !!! Does not sound good ( sounds like it could be the carrier bearing ).
One thing I do not like about the GTR is the gearbox ( well, the gear change rather, not smooth at all ).
Deon
:oops: Dave dont like the sound of that, but at least you made it home safely
get well card and donation is in the post :mfr_lol:
Let us know what the diagnosis is old bean .... :smiley:
Just thinking about it now, I had a similar noise on my ZX14. Also thought it was the carrier bearing but it turned out that it was the balancing shafts that needed adjustment ( there is a shaft at the front and at the back of the engine and they are adjustable ). Perhaps whisper this into their ear when you take the bike in.
Deon
Could just be wheel balance. That normally kicks in around 70.
hope all is well dockterdave...let us know how you get on
You are sure there's a grumble aren't you ? I don't mean to be dopey but sometimes noises like this are not all they first appear to be...anyhow good luck
Quote from: trousersnake01 on September 13, 2012, 05:36:41 PM
Could just be wheel balance. That normally kicks in around 70.
NO
Hi mate,welcome back.I wondered if the drive shaft splines,or the bearing is running dry.Was it worse when loaded? let us know the outcome. cheers.
Quote from: nige gtr on September 13, 2012, 08:12:09 PM
Hi mate,welcome back.I wondered if the drive shaft splines,or the bearing is running dry.Was it worse when loaded? let us know the outcome. cheers.
I greased the drive shaft splines about 8 weeks ago.
Rear hub and engine oils are Ok, no leaks.
Its the front bevel gear bearing.
Its still in one piece but VERY loose. Other bits need replacing.
Kawasaki's good will amounts to £450 +vat for the parts, the total of which is £730 +vat
Labour is £300 +vat and counting.
:huh: when you say kawasaki good will.. are they offering you any discount or is the total bill going to be all your's :sad: what mileage as your gtr done, just courious to what mileage the bearing as failed at. so the total bill could likely be in excess of £1,000?
- thats a big bearing , right ?
- and permanently sitting in oil (together with the rest of the gearbox's bits) , ya ?
- strange place for failure.
http://www.ronayers.com/Fiche/TypeID/26/Type/Front_Bevel_Gear/MakeID/3/Make/Kawasaki/YearID/51/Year/2010/ModelID/8479/Model/Concours_14_ABS_(ZG1400-CAF)/GroupID/407500/Group/Front_Bevel_Gear
.
Quote from: pistole on September 20, 2012, 04:26:49 AM
- thats a big bearing , right ?
- and permanently sitting in oil (together with the rest of the gearbox's bits) , ya ?
- strange place for failure.
That's the one.
I seem to think that there has been some issue with this bearing on other bikes.
I'm going to consult the COG forum.
This is what I got from the COG forum
Quote from: BDF on September 20, 2012, 07:43:30 PM
Yep, Kawasaki (Japan, not Kawasaki USA) wanted some bevel assemblies back from bikes with high mileage to take a look at how they were wearing. There were four of us that they contacted and we all obliged- the mileage on the bikes ranged from the 40K range to something like 70 or 80K as I remember. My bike had the third highest mileage of those they tracked down through the other forum. Three of us still have those C-14's, now between 85K + and 149K miles on them.
To the original poster, there was at least one case I remember where a bevel gear assembly failed in some way- it started making a fair amount of noise but did not fail outright. The dealer who serviced the bearing did not replace it correctly as they did not have the correct tools (and must have been using hope and the best of intentions instead) and the replacement bearings failed soon after. It was either repaired again or the assembly was replaced outright but I cannot remember which it was.
The parts are somewhat expensive but there is a fair amount of labor involved in properly patterning and pre- loading the gears so the job is usually expensive if done properly. My dealer says that it is not worth the risk for the small potential profit in rebuilding assemblies like this (the bevel drive or final drive) and so usually replaces the entire assembly as a unit, which is of course very expensive for that assembly alone. The good news is that if it is done that way the odds are quite good that the unit was assembled / pre- loaded correctly by the manufacturer who does thousands of them rather than the local dealer who may or may not have ever worked on one before.
Unfortunately things like this do happen now and then to all brands / types. It is not a chronic problem with Kawasaki or the C-14 but that does not do you much good in your situation. You can probably find a used unit though as quite a few C-14s have been parted out, probably after being wrecked but the bevel gear assembly is pretty likely to survive intact and would not be damaged by almost any type of accident the bike was involved in. Also, any damage from an accident would almost certainly be visible in the from of obvious damage from impact or dragging on the ground.
Brian
Quote from: MAN OF BLUES on September 20, 2012, 06:50:27 PM
somewhere back about year 2.5 of the first released bikes, Kaw actually had a program of doing some diagnostics and actually offering replacements on front bevel units for the purpose of seeing the integrety.
I recall at least 3 people on the "other forum" that participated and got completely new bevel units, even though they had no apparent issues.
This may be the reason, not knowing the dispersal or originality / locations the first year production bikes went to, they may have been doing a pre-emptive strike for info.
The good news is the bike is home.
I picked it up on the way home from work and hope to take it out for a good run tomorrow.
Even better it only cost £456.94 which includes the cost of a Bevelgear unit from Ebay.
glad to hear your soughted dave :smiley: did send you a pm about the boots did you get it? what do you want to do?