Goldwing Rear Tire Change

Go to:  Rear tire change summary page.
Go to:  Trunk lower trim removal.
Go to:  Saddlebag removal.
Go to:  Wheel removal.
Go to:  Coupling cleaning and lubrication.
This page: Driveshaft maintainence.

Return to: Jim's Goldwing page.


Note: you can click on each picture to see a full size picture.

Drive shaft maintenance:
The 1200 called for lubricating the drive shaft splines on a regular basis.
The 1500 manual doesn't list it in the regular maintenance, however, I still do it on occasion. I know two people that had a failure on the 1500 drive shaft.
If you choose to do this job at this time, there is an oil seal where the drive shaft goes into the final drive. Ensure you have purchased the replacement before beginning.

Remove the lower shock bolt.

The right shock bolt.


Remove the 4 nuts that hold the final drive on to the swing arm.


The nuts from the right outside. The nuts from the left inside.


Slide out the final drive unit, the drive shaft will come with the final drive.

Be careful to keep the final drive unit pretty much upright. It will leak oil if you turn it upside down.

The drive shaft is held into the final drive unit with a loose fitting metal ring in a grove at the end. To get the drive shaft to come out you have to force the ring to compress. Hold the driveshaft firmly midway up the shaft and swing it in a circular motion while pulling. The first time it took me about 5 minutes and I couldn't get it to come ou. I was unsure of myself, so I went and checked the book. I came back and tried it again and it came right out. Sometimes these things just don't want to cooperate. I even put the axle through the final drive and put my feet on the axle to get more leverage. Then when it finally came out it seemed like I was hardly pulling at all.

Removing the shaft from the final drive.
Notice the oil seal (arrow to).
This will need to be replaced.


Clean the end when removed from the final drive. Note any grease that has turned brown. That would be rust from moisture. The oil seal will slide up the shaft toward the other end. Re-apply Moly 60 grease. Leave the metal ring in the groove at the end. When you later reinstall the drive shaft, it will pop back in easier than it came out.

The left arrow points to the oil seal.
It will slide off toward the other end.
The right arrow points to the metal ring.



On the other end of the drive shaft, you will need to remove the spring in order to get the oil seal off. The spring is retained by c-clip that sits inside a collar. Hold the spring and the collar and push down against the spring to expose the c-clip. Using a c-clip tool, spread the c-clip and remove from the end. The collar and spring will then come free.

Remove the old oil seal from the shaft and put a new one in place. Put the spring back in place, followed by the collar and then reinstall the C-clip. The book says you can discard the collar and c-clip, that they are only there to hold things together on the production line. But I always reinstall them, if it's good enough for the production line, it's good enough for me. But as I have discovered, sometimes getting the drive shaft to go back into the u-joint can be a challenge. Having the clip in place keeps the spring in place.

Pop the drive shaft back in the final drive. Make sure that the oil seal is pushed all the way into place.

The arrow points to the c-clip. The picture didn't focus well,
but it will be another year until I can get a new picture....



The drive shaft and final drive should be put back together now. Slide the drive shaft back into the swing arm and slide the whole unit up into place until the end of the drive shaft meets up with the u-joint. If you are lucky, the drive shaft will slide right into the u-joint. But the first time I did the job, I spent an hour trying to get the thing to go in. The end of the u-joint is loose and will drop down and the darn thing won't just line up. After a lot of cussing and yelling, I gave up and decided to try to remove the whole swing arm. That was a mistake because on the 1200 you can't get the tool anymore to remove the swing arm, and I wasn't prepared to fabricate one. I trashed the u-joint boot tring to get my fingers on the u-joing. So then I had to order a new u-joint boot.

Three days later, I installed a new boot. Then I was right where I left off. I still had to get the drive shaft into the u-joint. Then it hit me. If I could jiggle the drive shaft back and forth it might work it's way back into the u-joint. I took the wheel coupling out of the wheel and pushed it into the final drive. I twisted the coupling back and forth, thereby rotating the drive shaft back and forth. Inside of 10 seconds the drive shaft went into place.

Bolt it back in place.

Replace the lower shock bolt.

Check and refill the final drive oil. If you haven't done it recently, now would be a good time to drain and refill the final drive oil.

Go to:  Rear tire change summary page.
Go to:  Trunk lower trim removal.
Go to:  Saddlebag removal.
Go to:  Wheel removal.
Go to:  Coupling cleaning and lubrication.
This page: Driveshaft maintainence.

Return to: Jim's Goldwing page.

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