Gear oil turned Silver..

[Winddancer]

Hi everyone..
I did a check of my final drive gear oil last night, since I am going on a long trip and I am going to give the bike another overhall before hand, and I noticed the gear oil looks almost like silver paint, which to me means I have metal flaking in there..
the oil has only been in there for 10,000 miles, an was changed out while I was trying to track down a strange whine and vibration I get at certain speeds with each issue.
has anyone experienced this, or know what might be shearing off metal filings??
I am going to pull it apart soon and see whats up.. I am thinking the bearing pack in there may have gone bad because other then the drive shaft there is no other metal to metal contact, or atleast none I can think of at the moment..

Thank you...
Chuck

[glich54]

Just a thought....have you checked to see if the metal is ferrous / magnetic (if not it may be related to the aluminum housing)...

[Winddancer]

no I have not, but thats a good idea.. that will let me know the type of metal which can help narrow it down... hmmmm.. I will stick a magnet in it when I get home and see..
Thanks..

[Ohio Mike]

Did you by any chance use some LubriPlate or similar silver colored lube during your reassembly? Just a thought cuz I seem to remember someone suggesting lubing the gears with that. Could be hallucinating too though. Think my miss-spent youth is catchin up with me but dam did we have fun! (fyi, spell dam correctly n it gets sanitized to darn. I'm too damn old to get sanitized now!)

Ohio Mike

[Winddancer]

Did you by any chance use some LubriPlate or similar silver colored lube during your reassembly? Just a thought cuz I seem to remember someone suggesting lubing the gears with that. Could be hallucinating too though. Think my miss-spent youth is catchin up with me but dam did we have fun! (fyi, spell dam correctly n it gets sanitized to darn. I'm too darn old to get sanitized now!)

Ohio Mike

Hahaha,
You know, I am STILL waiting for those Flashbacks they promised me in the 70's...

Nope Nothing silver in color at all, I still have not had a chance to pill the final drive off, but once I do I will report my findings..

[Winddancer]

Well I found out why my gear oil was silver and it was not good..
First I did check to see if the silver was magnetic, and it was..rubbed between my fingers and felt real gritty, and I actually got a metal splinter.. this was not looking good, so I pulled the drive and opened it up and found the gears have literally deteriorated..I was told by a mechanic friend that once the hardend coating is worn thru the gears deteriorate fast..he is not sure what would cause it, but I am now scrambling around because I leave for my trip in 3 days and need a final drive..
Ebay,here I come...

[chevyman1]

I have one, if you are interested let me know.
I could possibly ship it today if I know before 12:00

[Winddancer]

I have one, if you are interested let me know.
I could possibly ship it today if I know before 12:00

How much???

[tinsailor]

Just curious, how many miles on it?

[Winddancer]

@tinsailor
if that question was for me, it had 77,250..
Still not sure why it happened..
One school of thought is my heavy cold weather riding(22 degress and up)
and that the gear oil is too thick in the below freezing temps to properly coat the
gears untill it warms up during riding, and that may have caused the wear..
so I guess I will see this winter..
:)

[gearheadfla]

Hey Winddancer, if your thinking cold weather might be the problem, do a old racecar trick I did in cold weather, we jacked the rear tires off the ground and ran the car in gear for awhile to heat up the rear and lube, you could do the same on the center stand, that way the rear is warm before you put a load on it. Helps the trans and engine too.

[Winddancer]

Well hot damn, thats a good idea!!
I will have to try that, I always let it warm up before I ride it, but never thought of poping it in gear to warm the gear oil too...
now I got something to look forward to when it drops belows 32...
Thanks Jim !!!

[SgtSlag]

Another thing to try, would be to use a full synthetic gear oil. It typically has a wider temperature range compared to conventional lubricants. I don't sell the stuff, just sharing what I've found during my research on the topic. Shop around for best price, as it varies, considerably. Cheers!