Clearly, FJR rear end failures are not very common. The sky is NOT falling, but I thought this posting to another place was informative and have copied.
My ride down to Jacksonville was pretty uneventful until I stopped to get a room, this is when the BMWish visions began. It was a cool start to my ride leaving Massachusetts at about 3:30pm in 20 degree blustery snow squalls. My next stop was in Virginia for gas, I then traveled to Emporia, VA and decided to call it a night at about 11:00pm. I went into the Fairfield Inn got my room walked out to the bike and had a mild panic attack followed by language that would make a Times Square hooker blush. There under my bike's rear final drive was a puddle of oil the size of a large BMW Roundel, I *^%) you not!. I swear that is the vision that I saw it was about 15" in diameter, and it was PULSING in these huge letters B-M-W.........HA!HA!HA!
Then I blinked and it was gone, the letters not the oil leak. I could hear all the BMW riders out there who experienced rear end failures, saying we have been vindicated!!! At Yamaha's expense, we told you so! Any way there was not a lot that I could do at the moment so I went to bed. Wake up at 6:00 am but the only dealer I can find is 45-50 miles to the north in Colonial Heights, VA. Burcham Cycles, INC. which doesn't open until 9:00am. So off I go after checking the oil level in the final drive, I still have about an inch in there good enough for me to travel the distance.
I get there and they bring my bike in pretty quick. After an hour or so the tech says he thinks it is a pinion seal the (good news), the (bad news) he doubts they have one for the FJR as it is not a common problem so he says? Another half an hour passes and they say there are 5 of them showing on the parts inventory great news......but then they can't find them because they just moved into this temporary space while their new building is being built (; 10-15 minutes go buy and they locate them. I buy 2 one to have installed and 1 to take along as a spare. The Sun begins to shine again! Another hour and I am out of there. $130.00 for labor a!
nd $25.00 for parts and oil.
Talk about total relief, man I was sweating it there for a little while. All in all it was a good trip met some new people had some good laughs.
So you FJR jockey's out there may want to change out that pinion seal when you get chance, it is not that involved, you will need a 22mm deep well socket to remove the seal, it is now part of my tool kit. The seal will set you back approximately $7.00. Pretty cheap if you ask me. The tech had a couple of theories as to why the seal went:1 because I went from Dino lube to Synthetic, chemical reaction. 2 because of the extreme cold the oil was to thick to move about and may have clogged the breather hole resulting in pressure build up allowing oil to blow by the seal. I guess I will never really know and at this point it doesn't matter. I have to give Burcham Cycles 2 thumbs up for taking my bike in and doing the work in a timely manner. I would definitely do business with them again. Thanks for listening.
....say it ain't so.....
