Final Drive leaking!!

[Reilly]

??? ??? Just bought a 2012 with only 4500 miles on. I have had it for 3 weeks now and been riding almost everyday. Hit some dirt yesterday and noticed dust sticking to my rear rim. After further inspection noticed drips forming on my final drive box. Checked the drain bolt for tightness and was good to go. Anyone else have this issue? Not sure if I am under warranty or I am going to have to fix this on my own.

Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[echo_four_romeo]

I know there were several people, myself included, that had the seal on the inner part start to leak/weep. Might look into that.

I'll let someone more technically inclined chime in.

 

[greg the pole]

it may be excessive grease on the drive connection (somewhat likely)
Your outer seal (very likely and an easy fix)
or your shaft seal (unlikely, and a bitch to fix)

either way, here's a write up
http://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/yamaha-st12-inner-shaft-seal-replacement/
http://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/rear-shaft-drive-seal-replacement-and-staintune-pipe/

 

[Reilly]

Perfect! Thanks!

 

[TimLaw]

I may be wrong here but doesn't the specs call for the washer to be replaced when you change the final drive? Maybe it wasn't and it gave into over tightening? Just a thought.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Either way, diagnosis is to remove the rear wheel, If from the wheel-side seal it will be apparent and this is the most common seal to go in the Yamahas.
If not, then remove the 4 nuts which hold on the rear pumpkin and look in the drive shaft housing. If the oil is in there, you most likely need the front seal. (I can only remember a person or two having leaks from the tranny end of the shaft in the FJR.)

 

[scott123007]

I have been waiting for a leaking shaft thread like this to come up again instead of digging up an old one, to post about what happened to me in Arkansas. Towards the end of the relatively technical off road excursion led by WFO Pete that about 8 of us did on 10/22, I got a pretty bad oil leak all over my rear wheel. When I went to fill up at a gas station on the way back to the Hub, it dripped at least 4 drops on the ground, besides it being all over my wheel. Not really wanting to take it to a Dealer to get it fixed, I figured I would just keep monitoring the oil level and fix it myself when I got back home. I purchased a Qt of GL-5 oil at the local Hardware store and put it in my saddlebag. When I got back to the Hub, I used the Pressure Washer that Yamaha of Harrison so graciously left us to use and cleaned my bike, mainly to get all the debris off the rear wheel so it would be easier to monitor the leak as well as figure out exactly where it was coming from. All I could tell after riding it with a clean wheel, was it was coming out from between the wheel and the hub. Not the overflow, fill plug, drain plug, or weep hole in the bottom of the shaft cover. The next day I street rode with Fred Z, Chuck, William42, and Brennan and when we stopped after about 50 miles my wheel was oily again so I checked my oil level, (which still seemed full) and wiped off my wheel. When we got to lunch about 50 miles later, I noticed the wheel hardly had any oil on it this time, so I wiped off what little was on it again. Well guess what...it has never leaked another drop!! I rode it from Arkansas to Alabama, to Georgia, and then back to Florida and nada, nothing, not even a drop! When I got back here, I changed the shaft oil, and have since put 5 to 600 miles on it. I never removed the wheel, but gave the bike a thurough cleaning and it is as if it never happened.

Moral of the story is maybe not be so quick to fix it. I know we have devised many theories of why this seal starts to leak, with most involving dirt getting in the swingarm and compromising the seal. I don't have the answer myself and while I can't argue the point, I can only say that if that were the case, I think countershaft seals on chain drive bikes would fail left and right, which they don't. Have you ever seen the shit those seals deal with? Between grit in the chain lube caked all over them, and some of the shrapnel that gets caught up in there from a good mud bog those things shouldn't last a minute! LOL
Anyhoo, it wouldn't hurt to ride it a while and see if it cures itself.

 

[snakebitten]

Great post!

Valid too.

 

[RED CAT]

My 2012 did the same thing. I got all excited and brought it to the Dealer. We had a good chuckle. Turned out it was grease from the factory on the knuckle that got hot and melted ,then dribbled down the inner shaft tube and leaked out the drain hole at the bottom of the shaft tube and onto the rim. Never happened again after that. I'll bet that's what you're seeing. Clean the rim and see if it happens again.

 

[snakebitten]

I'm a tire slut. Never have one on for very long.
Hard to resist lubing those spline gears when the wheel is off. :

First time you get her good and heated up, especially off road with TCS off and spinning it up, that lube invariably melts and makes a mess of things back there.
Then all the dirt and grime sticks to it too.

I wash it all off occasionally. (OK, I admit, I just ride it in the rain to wash it off)
The "leaking" and splatter finally dissipate.

I learned to check the FD fluid, and if it's full, I quit worrying.

Full disclosure: I DID have a seal changed once just because my tech said he would like to stop the seepage on the inside of the pumpkin when he changed the tire once. It did stop that fluid from seeping. (Not the spline lube though)
Still, it never leaked enough in quantity to bother me much.

 

[scott123007]

My 2012 did the same thing. I got all excited and brought it to the Dealer. We had a good chuckle. Turned out it was grease from the factory on the knuckle that got hot and melted ,then dribbled down the inner shaft tube and leaked out the drain hole at the bottom of the shaft tube and onto the rim. Never happened again after that. I'll bet that's what you're seeing. Clean the rim and see if it happens again.

There is a possibility that is what happened to his. With 4500 miles on it, it may have just gotten a new rear tire on it before he bought it and someone over greased those splines. That is absolutely not what happened to mine though. It's not hard to tell the difference between melted grease and GL-5. Besides, I couldn't anywhere in the service manual where "those" splines are supposed to be greased, so I have never bothered.

 

[The Ferret]

I replaced the driveshaft seal and the drive coupling seal if you need any info. The Yam dealer couldn't get hold of the 'special tool' for a couple of months so I had to do it myself. I posted on here with some pics.

 

[Philistine]

I had the same problem after going through a long stretch of deep mud, I took the diff out cleaned up the seal and reinstalled it, didn't leak again until I had a collapsed bearing that time I replaced the seal

 

[Reilly]

Wow everyone thanks for chiming in. I will check the oil level in the FD and if it looks good just clean everything and keep riding. There is definitely an aftermarket tire on this rig so maybe whoever installed it greased the splines too much. I picked this 2012 up with only 4500 miles on it and no dirt miles. It was immaculate! I have been riding the sh!t out of it now with lots of dirt so maybe I am just melting that grease. Either way thanks again.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

it may be excessive grease on the drive connection (somewhat likely)
Your outer seal (very likely and an easy fix)
or your shaft seal (unlikely, and a bitch to fix)

either way, here's a write up
http://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/yamaha-st12-inner-shaft-seal-replacement/

I have a small oil leak, so I ordered up the parts from the link above. A few questions:

- Do I need any other parts than the two seals ( Yamaha seals Number #21 93211-54698-00 Inner O ring, Number #25 93102-70004-00 Inner Seal) listed in the article? *EDIT* Answer appears to be no.
- Do I need to remove the pumpkin to do this? *EDIT* Answered this question myself by more carefully reading the article and looking at the pictures
- What are the torque specs on the bolts? *EDIT* Found the values.
For the 6 8MM bolts the value is 23 Nm (2.3 m•kgf, 17 ft•Ibf)
For the 2 10MM bolts the value is 40 Nm (4.0 m•kgf, 29 ft•Ibf)
- Where can I find a manual (preferably electronic) so I don't have to keep asking these type of questions? *EDIT* Will talk to Yamaha dealer.

Thanks!

 

[AVGeek]

For the manual, due to copyright issues, we can only recommend the official Factory Service Manual from your dealer.

 

[Checkswrecks]

+1 to 'Geek's comment. It's one of the few things we need to watch around here and can get members in trouble.

That said, the bike's been around for 8+ years (counting non-US) and most questions like yours have answers that are pretty easy to search here to find.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

For the manual, due to copyright issues, we can only recommend the official Factory Service Manual from your dealer.

Thanks.

 

[steve68steve]

Here's mine. Note the splatter on the rim, too.

This leaked for a few weeks before I noticed it, then it leaked some more just sitting - enough to make a little puddle of oil on the floor. Then I rode the hell out of it for two more weeks in CO and it kept leaking - when this pic was taken.

I don't think it ever lost enough oil to be noticed at the fill plug - in other words, it can look like it's leaking a LOT and your level is not going down much/ fast.

Based on this pic, I initially thought my drain plug was leaking. Ultimately it was the inner seal, which is between the drive shaft and the wheel hub (you're looking at it on the drive side when you remove the back wheel)

This is an easy fix for a DIY-wrencher if you do it the super tricky way and not per the manual. It's mentioned in a bunch of threads on this forum. You drill a small hole in the (metal) face of the seal, enough to thread in a small screw, which you then use as a handle to pull the old seal out. Clean it all up, use the old seal to push the new seal in.

EDIT: wow - sorry about pic size.