Driveline noise

[K2500]

Hello from Chattanooga, TN! I'm new to this forum and am the proud new owner of a 2002 Voyager XII.

I bought the bike 2 days ago and after a quick spin in 1st gear around the parking lot I loaded the bike on my trailer. The seller told me the 15K miles showing on odometer was original miles. He had it a year and added a couple thousand miles to the 13K miles that showed on previous title. The overall condition of bike seemed consistent with age and mileage . . . at least that's what I thought until I drove it yesterday. Sounded to me like the bike had 115K miles, not 15.

Now I'm a 25 year veteran of the auto repair business, and I can usually tell a worn out differential when I hear one. And by the whining noise coming from my bike's driveline, I'd venture a guess the ring and pinion are excessively worn. But truth be known, I have no idea what the average Voyager driveline sounds like(as I'm used to my '95 Harley Softail with belt drive), and don't have another one to compare it with.

So my question is this; are Voyager drivelines typically noisy?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Semper Fi!

[cranky]

.. you have straight cut gears in the rear end and they will whine
@45 mph for a few mph then smooth out... way the beast is....

[Wormys_Dad]

Hello.... nice machine, looks identical to mine. These bikes are a very different animal compared to most. I would recommend reading the "sticky" post that "nails" wrote just above, it has a lot of great information. Recommend changing all fluids and such, including final drive lube. Mine has the slight gear noise too, but is no louder than most of the shaft drive bikes I have had,including the ones I bought new. I think my Honda goldwing was quieter, but the 1100 shadow , the Suzuki 650L, and Honda CB900 custom were all just about as loud.These Voyagers are great machines in my opinion, once the initial maintenance is brought up to date, most of the routine maintenance is pretty easy to do. They really don't require much. The people here are great, very knowledgeable and always willing to answer questions.


Stay safe out there.

[triton28]

With all due respect to cranky I must, for clarity sake, correct the notion that the rear end has straight cut gears.
Both the front and final drive have helical cut bevel gears.
The transmission and other accessory gears are straight cut.
I see your bike is wearing 2002 colours so just so you know there apparently was a drive line production problem in the last few years or so, that being poor lubrication of the universal joint. While I can not personally attest to this it has been recorded in some posts. This apparently manifested itself in the form of an unusual cyclical vibration and not necessarily in the form of a whining noise. Although I would assume there would be some noise associated with the vibration from a dry universal joint.
Yes there is a whine normally present in the drive line, some more than others, but with your experienced ear there may be something there so just to be certain I would suggest you contact Mr. Carl Leo. He can be reached at: voyagerparts@bellsouth.net
Carl is the most experienced person with the Voyager XII there is and he is kind enough to help one out, even in his retirement.
In the meantime I would drain the EP90 fluid from the rear drive and refill with fresh EP90 to a level 3/16"-1/4" below the bottom thread of the filler port and see what that does.
I hope some of the other members who may have experienced excessive whine will also offer suggestions/observations which may be more appropriate than those of mine.
Being a new owner you may need some technical literature so if you go to the "AVA Home" page and select Tech Center, Voyager XII, and in the 2nd window down there is a "Click Here" link to all the manuals etc you may need.
Regards,
Dave

[K2500]

Thanks to wormy and triton for the helpful comments.

[VoyKimmer]

Sometimes depending on the tire can make a noise and also when tire was changed if castle nut was tightened to tight or even to spec it can make a noise. I tighten mine to 5 to 10 ft lbs less than spec and back off castle nut to next hole to get cotter pin in.

[mrbmoran2]

Hi K2500,
You must have bought the one I saw on Craigslist from NW Georgia. It looks like a clean machine and a little better price than I paid for mine about a year ago. I'm in Nashville, I have a 2003 with 14,993 miles, there is a whine in the gears, I've read that is normal. I haven't changed the gear oil yet, but I plan to soon. I really enjoy it, it's Goldwing competition, but not the Goldwing price.

Good luck with yours!

[cushman eagle]

My '99 has had a mild whine from about 65-75 since I bought it 11+ years ago at 22,000 miles,and it has not changed at 96,580 miles
I do use 85/90 gear oil,and change it every 3 years.
You can see the ring gear with the fill/check plug off the rear end.

[mrbmoran2]

Hey guys, changing the gear oil today, this is what came out. It was milky and really smelly. 15k mile, not sure if it has ever been changed. Is this normal?

Please let me know your thoughts.

[Nails]

I’ve found incredibly skanky fluids on my bike. For some I’m making the second change next month, hoping the fluid drains clean this time.

Not good, but unfortunately not uncommon. So I guess that’s a kind of “normal”. This is why you should change ALL the fluids on a new-to-you bike.

[Sidehopper]

Hey guys, changing the gear oil today, this is what came out. It was milky and really smelly. 15k mile, not sure if it has ever been changed. Is this normal?

Please let me know your thoughts.

If the final drive is overfilled, will it aerate like the engine oil does when overfilled? That gear oil definitely looks like it was frothed up. When I got my bike I had the double whammy of too much engine oil and engine oil that had sat in the bike, absorbing water, so it looked milky and frothy in the sight glass after running the engine. Did the gear oil seem to clear up a bit after draining, or did you put it into a waste oil container before it sat long?

[mrbmoran2]

I left it out and it's still sitting out, it didn't clear up. I did leave the drain plug out and pumped a few squirts of fresh gear oil to hopefully clean it out a bit. Then I filled with Lucas 80w90, it said on the back of the bottle that it was ok for hypoid gears.

[VoyKimmer]

Years ago on my 2002 Voyager I used to use Amsoil synthetic gear lube serviced to 1/4 th to 1/2 inch below fill port. Going to Degray Lake Rally in 2011 I had gear lube leaking from the front shaft boot all over the left side of my bike and left saddlebag. A real mess. Carl Leo was at the rally and he told me I over serviced my final drive and I disagreed. He suggested finding a dealer that sold bel ray hypoid 80w/90 and drain the synthetic fluid and put in 180 cc of the bel ray hypoid gear lube. I followed his suggestion and haven’t had a problem of leak since. Now on both my voyagers I change the fluid once every 2 years and put in nothing but bel ray hypoid 80w / 90 gear lube 6 oz or 180 cc no more no less . As per the manual and other members suggestion use nothing but hypoid gear lube.

[K2500]

Hi K2500,
You must have bought the one I saw on Craigslist from NW Georgia. It looks like a clean machine and a little better price than I paid for mine about a year ago. I'm in Nashville, I have a 2003 with 14,993 miles, there is a whine in the gears, I've read that is normal. I haven't changed the gear oil yet, but I plan to soon. I really enjoy it, it's Goldwing competition, but not the Goldwing price.

Good luck with yours!

Yes, bought the bike from CL here in NW GA. I believe seller lied about mileage, bike has 115K mi., not 15. And it's not tire noise I'm hearing. Noise comes from diff, changes with load. Final drive is wore out, will need to find a good used one.

[K2500]

My '99 has had a mild whine from about 65-75 since I bought it 11+ years ago at 22,000 miles,and it has not changed at 96,580 miles
I do use 85/90 gear oil,and change it every 3 years.
You can see the ring gear with the fill/check plug off the rear end.

Thanks for the info. As soon as I receive the repair manual I ordered, will change all fluids and have a look at the ring gear while servicing.

[ekap1200]

Hello and welcome to the AVA. If your familiar with an auto differential, well this ain't that. It is just a ring and pinion set-up with a bit of slop. There are no tapered cone's and cup bearings. Pinion input is a ball-bearing, the pinion head is a needle brg with a lube hole in the cage. (Not Availlablle). So with that in mind when you have this out. Don't expect the input spline to not have some play.... However these do last , If taken care of and properly inspected from time to time. .03 to .040 drill hole is all that is needed to vent these housings . Have it done or dyi if your mechanic skills are up to snuff. And lube the female spline liberally with water-proof grease. The o-rings should also be replaced. You need the right snap ring tool.......LONG ONE....
Gene Kap.

[ekap1200]

Trust Voykimmer's response about the TORQUE.