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Hello,

I have a lovely 1100s the previous owner kept it absolutely spotless - however it seems to be developing a bit of a weird problem. At speeds of over 70 it seems reluctant to turn right? Left turns are fine but sweeping right handlers it just feels horrible. Could it be the tyres being squared off? Could it be head bearings or steering damper? Is it a by product of the flat twin torque reaction? I’ve started to wonder if it’s me losing my sense of balance but I don’t think I am..

Any ideas trixters?

has the final drive / drive shaft / paralever been removed recent for service of some kind (pivot bearings?)
the drive shaft UJ's have to be phased / orientated correctly other wise this type of feeling can occur.
I experienced kit similar to as you describe when i first did the final drive pivot bearings on my 1150GS.

It can be tricky to do!
IF the final drive has been removed and re-installed lat

This is how I suggest to resolve:-
Remove final drive
Put the gear box in gear, by hand turn the drive shaft that is in the paralever until it can turn no more (slack is taken up, its normal)
with a good light, look up the paralever and see the clock angle of the forward Universal Joint (UJ)
You need to get the Final drive splines mated so that the final drive UJ is the same as the forward one.
Now, stuff MOST of a rag in to the paralever to partly support the drive shaft
Offer up the final drive and feed the final drive UJ Spine in to the drive shaft
install pivot pins
REMOVE THE RAG!
re-install the rubber boots
reinstall torque link
check work

When I have fully dissassembled the paralever and drive shaft, I have checked them on a bench for alignment and painted strips along the entire lenght to aid and assist alignement later.

I did find that doing it on a bench was close alignment, and then I looked again and rotated the final drive almost 180degrees it was even closer!
(doing this pretty much requires the entire paralever removal - I dont think its a big job, but knoweldge, tooling and facility will dictate that)

Thanks HE - I’ve not had the final drive/paralever off but sounds like it’s worth checking

I am pretty confident that this will be the ball joint on the front wishbone. The go dry and stiff with age and time. I had exactly the same issue with an R1100S.

Why would the ball joint on the tele-lever affter turning one way but not the other?

Front ball-joint wear or tyres squaring off (can be rear tyre only, as well as front squaring off - giving odd steering sensation)

Hay Ewe^ wrote:Why would the ball joint on the tele-lever affter turning one way but not the other?

Just the way it is. If the ball joint fails it is usually due to wear on one side - hence making the bike difficult to steer and pulling
When you see a ball joint removed you can see that if its failed its stiff and does not rotate freely through 360 degrees, whereas a working one does move freely through 360 degrees

Interesting, thanks

Thanks for the suggestions guys - much appreciated

andy griff wrote:

Hay Ewe^ wrote:Why would the ball joint on the tele-lever affter turning one way but not the other?

Just the way it is. If the ball joint fails it is usually due to wear on one side - hence making the bike difficult to steer and pulling
When you see a ball joint removed you can see that if its failed its stiff and does not rotate freely through 360 degrees, whereas a working one does move freely through 360 degrees

Could it be it's normally parked with the wheel locked to the same side hence it could corrode unevenly? Or because the bike leans humidity would be more likely to be trapped towards the left, then corroding or ruining the greasing?

Also why the "wishbone" bearings wear in one place - limited movement

andy griff wrote:I am pretty confident that this will be the ball joint on the front wishbone. The go dry and stiff with age and time. I had exactly the same issue with an R1100S.

How do you rectify this?

I have just bought an R1100s for commuting and have to say that the steering does seem strange compared to my Triumph Trophy.

Hay Ewe^ wrote:has the final drive / drive shaft / paralever been removed recent for service of some kind (pivot bearings?)
the drive shaft UJ's have to be phased / orientated correctly other wise this type of feeling can occur.
I experienced kit similar to as you describe when i first did the final drive pivot bearings on my 1150GS.

It can be tricky to do!
IF the final drive has been removed and re-installed lat

This is how I suggest to resolve:-
Remove final drive
Put the gear box in gear, by hand turn the drive shaft that is in the paralever until it can turn no more (slack is taken up, its normal)
with a good light, look up the paralever and see the clock angle of the forward Universal Joint (UJ)
You need to get the Final drive splines mated so that the final drive UJ is the same as the forward one.
Now, stuff MOST of a rag in to the paralever to partly support the drive shaft
Offer up the final drive and feed the final drive UJ Spine in to the drive shaft
install pivot pins
REMOVE THE RAG!
re-install the rubber boots
reinstall torque link
check work

When I have fully dissassembled the paralever and drive shaft, I have checked them on a bench for alignment and painted strips along the entire lenght to aid and assist alignement later.

I did find that doing it on a bench was close alignment, and then I looked again and rotated the final drive almost 180degrees it was even closer!
(doing this pretty much requires the entire paralever removal - I dont think its a big job, but knoweldge, tooling and facility will dictate that)

My bike seems to have a harmonic type of vibration feel when I'm riding.

Its always been there from when I bought it a few years ago .
Recently the rear wheel bearing failed , and I guessed this may have been the cause .
But the vrrr vrrr type feeling is still there when I ride .

I'm now wondering if the drive shaft is out of synch and that is causing this odd feeling when riding .

hi Gerry I think i have same problem. I have the classic symptom of a failed rear wheel bearing and get the general vibration plus play in the z axis ie I can rock the wheel slightly- what is the fix for this ?

I've had thrumming vibration on my S since I bought it back in '04 . It has covered a lot of mileage since ( currently 123k miles) and the front bevel box bearing did become noisy at one stage but I had a spare one ( bevel box ) so just replaced the complete thing.
Some people on here have documented gearbox strip downs for various reasons , and on rebuilding with new bearings as a preventive measure have noted how much smoother the bike is overall. Others have had the driveshaft seized on the splines at the bevel box end which has caused problems.
As regards rear wheel play , while it's probably the large bearing needing replacing if the play is in the vertical plane ( I've never replaced the bearing but it is well documented on the web and it can generally be confirmed by removing the large oil seal behind the wheel, some of the rivets may be loose or missing from the bearing cage) it may first be worthwhile removing the paralever arm and confirming that it isn't the paralever bearings , which is a handier job.