Rear wheel wobble and noise

[paulezy]

I have started hearing a wobble like noise "wooo..wooo. wooo" in the rear wheel especial when slowing down and or in neutral coasting. It has a whirring out of round sound that seems to correlate with the wheel speed. The noise seems to be getting progressively worse. I took the rear fender off and idled it on the highway stand and the back wheel has an out of round wobble. I just had new Dunlop E3's mounted about 1000 miles ago but didnt notice the noise until the last 100 miles or so. The rear axle shaft was rusted when I removed it and I wire brushed it and greased it when I put it back together. Any suggestions as to what this might be? When I listen with mechanics stethoscope on the rear wheel coupling spline hub on the rear drive I can really hear it. Especially when running in gear. In neutral I just hear the splines meshing smoothly.

[JHD]

Did you check the spines on the hub. When I bought my Voyager a few years back I found the splines worn or missing on the hub which is designed as a sacrificial part. I would check that the tire was mounted correctly. Check the bead on the tire. Check the balance weights. Check for defect (possible separation) on tire. Check assembly of rear wheel components.

[HMB Don]

Also check those rear wheel bearings? On mine, I noticed that the rear tire had some side to side movement. Once I removed the wheel and spun the bearings I felt how rough the bearings where.

[Mr Jensee]

probably would be worth your time to change out those bearings. These bikes aren't getting any younger.

[ghostler]

About two years ago, I pulled the rear wheel off a friend's 2013 Yamaha Vstar 1300 tourer. He mentioned an odd noise coming from the rear that was unusual. Found that the rear axle needle bearing grenaded.

It got hot enough that two collars were fused to the axle and wheel hub. Used a sliding hammer puller to knock the axle out, carefully knocked the fused collars loose from the wheel hub and drive belt pulley, knocked out the needle bearing outer ring remains in the belt pulley, then carefully dressed the burrs on collars with a file.

By cleaning up a few of the parts like the axle, spacers / collars, drive pulley was able to reduce parts count to those needing replacing, the bearing, oil seal and 2 collars for around $70 and get it back together. If it were a dealer, they have a high overhead so they wouldn't have bothered with any filing clean up that took me a half day.
Instead, they would have replaced the drive belt pulley, axle, bearings, collars, etc., about a $1,200 repair bill.
I'd get that rear checked out ASAP, because continuing to ride could cause further damage plus a more expensive repair bill.

[ekap1200]

Hello,

"" I took the rear fender off and idled it on the highway stand and the back wheel has an out of round wobble.""

Are you sure its the wheel, along with the tire. Has the tire ran low on air pressure. ( had to ask. )
If you see the wheel wobble then it just makes sense its the bearings. Pull the wheel for a further inspection if you can SEE the wheel wobble.....Or don't leave you cell phone home while your out for a ride.
Don't scrimp on bearings get high Quality sealed , I prefer to use the OEM Japan set.
How many miles on your bike ? With 92,500 on mine I have replaced them twice so far.
drain your final drive oil also , thru a paint strainer and look for signs of wear metals.
don't exceed the 80 ft lbs of axle torque, have yourself a torque wrench.
Gene K

[ghostler]

BTW, I also carefully popped off the bearing vinyl grease covers of these permanently lubricated bearings, soaked in solvent to remove old grease, repacked and reinstalled covers.

As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as permanently lubricated bearings. When I carefully popped the covers off, they looked a little dry from less than 40,000 miles use, not much of the old grease left. It kind of reminded me of the old FoMoCo (Ford Motor Company) front suspension upper ball joints on my dad's 1964 Ford Falcon sedan with 200CI (3.3L) straight 6. They were riveted and permanently lubricated without a grease fitting. At 80k miles, they needed replacing, had too much play. I cut the rivets and installed NAPA ball joints, which were bolted and had a grease fitting.

I'm sure to possibly get criticism for doing this, but it works for me, YMMV to others. It saved on buying new wheel bearings. Otherwise, the other bearings other than the needle one looked turned smooth with no galling or pitting or excessive play. Trick is carefully removing the covers without damaging them and fully reinstalling them correctly after packing, and sufficient but not overpacking the bearing.

I said less than 40k miles, because it's been a while and the rider since has left the area, employer moved him. I think it was just under 30k miles because the 1 year warranty had just expired. Although a 2013, he bought it new in 2015, hence why not more miles.

[ekap1200]

Hello Paul AKA - paulezy , it has been a while and I guess we all want to know what did you find out ?

[paulezy]

Sorry for the delay. Finally got the new parts and time to put it all together. I rebuilt the whole axle since it was rusted to the spacers when I changed the tires. i did bearings, shaft, seals and spacers. Put it all back together and still has the noise. I really suspect the new tires have some imperfection. It turned cold on me in the mean time so not sure where I go from here. Thanks for all the support.

[paulezy]

I am thinking I better change out the final drive oil again just to make sure. I drained it and put new fluid in about 3k miles ago. The bike has 25k miles on it now. Can still see the tire wobble out or round when it is up on the highway stand. That really seems like what the noise is coming from. The tires have about 1500 miles on them and I guess maybe I just started noticing this noise because I was riding at night when it is pretty quiet out.

[ghostler]

I had a front tire that wobbled like that. It was caused by tire bead on one side did not full seat. I removed the wheel, re-broke the beads, re-lubricated the bead edges with ammonium window glass cleaner, re-inflated the tire. Beads now popped into place properly and wobble was eliminated.

[paulezy]

I am thinking I better change out the final drive oil again just to make sure. I drained it and put new fluid in about 3k miles ago. The bike has 25k miles on it now. Can still see the tire wobble out of round when it is up on the highway stand. That really seems like what the noise is coming from. The tires have about 1500 miles on them and I guess maybe I just started noticing this noise because I was riding at night when it is pretty quiet out.

[paulezy]

I changed out the rear drive gear lube today. It was a little milky looking but the coffee filter didnt show any metal. It still has the annoying woo woo woo wooo sound especially when I am coasting to a stop. It really does sound like its in the rear drive and not the tire.

[ghostler]

Might be a time to contact someone with much experience, I'm thinking of Carl Leo. I haven't needed to contact him yet, so can't give you details on how to get in touch with him. AFAIK, he's been a long time mechanic on the XII and has given sound advise on problems like yours, plus he also AFAIK owns a motorcycle salvage yard and has spares, in case something needs replacing. Can't say for sure, but am wondering if you have come across the infamous driveshaft issue.

[cranky]

I changed out the rear drive gear lube today. It was a little milky looking but the coffee filter didnt show any metal. It still has the annoying woo woo woo wooo sound especially when I am coasting to a stop. It really does sound like its in the rear drive and not the tire.

....I’m sorry, if you can see wobble, fix that first.... one bug at a time.... JM2C

[paulezy]

Hallelujah, the sun has risen enough to yield the cold to warmth again. Got the 87 Voyager out for ride tonight. I still had the rear end rotational wumph woumph noise and it got worse after about 100 miles. Now it is a rotational knocking noise. I put it up on the stands and idled it. The knocking goes away but looking at the inside of the wheel by the drive housing it has a slight out of round when rotating. I wonder if my rim got bent and or the bearing is shot already. Any suggestions? I am going to pull the back end apart again and do a thorough inspection of everything.

[VoyKimmer]

Try backing off on the wheel torque a little. I used the book torque value and found the noise. After backing off on the torque by 5 foot pounds then 10 noise went away .

[bikerking.biz]

Although I'm not sure whether this would cause the wheel to actually wobble, but maybe you should also check the universal joint at the front of the driveshaft. There is a rubber boot there, that you should be able to pull back a little, then rotate the rear tire, and see if you can see if it is running smoothly. You might also try to use something to try to move it a little and watch the caps- if they move around on the cross piece, it is probably shot. Some use an ATV joint to fix this as otherwise you have to get a complete new driveshaft if that is the problem.

[paulezy]

Sometimes I think I am just paranoid. I took my saddle bags off and took it for a ride. The knocking is gone. Not a whisper of knocking noise. It seems as if the whining noise is almost gone except when it is slowing down. Sounds like it is in the gears or drive shaft. I took a video of the wheel wobble up on the highway stands. You can hear the whining noise on the driver side in the video especially when I get near the drive shaft. Check it out and let me know if you think it is serious issue. It sounds great on the stands. Thanks in advance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CSX_bp ... e=youtu.be

[voyager55]

Voyagers are noisy bikes, Valves, engine. Tranny is cut gears and whines all the time.

I have owned my 03 since 05 and it still makes all kind of weird noises.

I say ride & enjoy your bike instead of worrying about it..