Drive Shaft Blues

[Dave 2]

I did not have a good experience yesterday taking my swing arm to a foreign auto mechanic to have him use his press to separate the drive shaft I'm pretty sure I have been responsible for the demise of the universal joint and possibly the swing arm and I don't know what else. Neither of us realized that there was a cir-clip at the final drive end of the shaft. I thought there was a nut, which I thought I had removed, from the end (Per Clymer!) When he put 25 tons of pressure on the end of the shaft it did not separate rather the wide splined end was forced down the swing arm creating a bulge.(See photos). After we got the shaft freed up he put the swing arm on it's side and tried to get at the cir-clip by placing a 25mm socket around the outer edge of the shaft but inside of the splines to "push" the shaft down to expose the circlip . Well after several wacks with a heavy hammer all he had done was smash the universal joint so badly that on one axis we can feel how "un-smooth" the bearing is! It was I believe perfectly smooth before. How do I get that cir-clip free? Has my universal joint become a paperweight? can the swing arm bulge be hammered back without effecting integrity of the swing arm?  Thanks for any of your thoughts, A very bummed out D2

[Barry]

Don't know how much help this will be because I've never done it but in principle I believe you have to devise a means of compressing the spring so that the circlip can be removed.

It's been sort of discussed here before back in 2008 again not sure how relevant this is going to be.

http://www.bmwr65.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1200264117/all
 

This is perhaps a better thread on advrider. Scroll down to the pic of a home made spring compressor.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=303252&page=2


Got to ask Dave. Drive shaft re-builds are rare. What was wrong with yours before the guy set about it with a hammer ?

[Dave 2]

Thank You Barry, That first thread from our forum does explain the  snap ring problem. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do about it. I hope I can get the universal bearing replaced without buying a new shaft. D2

[Dave 2]

Barry there was nothing wrong with the drive shaft, I wanted the driveshaft out so I could get it sandblasted for restoration.D2

[Bob_Roller]

The tool used to  compress the spring on the drive shaft, looks like a Mc Pherson strut compressor for autos .

All you really need is four lengths of threaded rod, nuts and washers, two plates of thick steel to put at each end of the drive shaft, the one that goes over the final drive end, needs a hole cut in it to access the circlip to remove it .

If you know of a drive shaft repair shop in your area, the u-joint can be replaced, it's just 'staked' to the drive shaft yokes .  

[nhmaf]

What Bob said - the earlier /5 and /6 bikes didn't have the 'cush drive' spring in the drive shaft, so they didn't need the compressor tool, but beginning with the R65 (I don't think it was on the /7 bikes before 1979?) the big spring was added to the drive shaft and as you've learned, it is necessary to compress it to remove the circlip first.

I hope that you can salvage things, it doesn't appear too good, but fingers crossed for you.

[tvrla]

At this stage it might be cheaper to find a good used one and leave it all together. seal off the inside of the swingarm and driveshaft, and sandblast it like that. Then do a very thorough cleaning once it's all painted.

[Dave 2]

Thanks for your responses I appreciate them. I decided to order the tool from Dan at CycleWorks that will compress the spring and allow the ring to be removed. Then when the shaft is separated if it is undamaged I will find some one who can replace the universal joints.  However if there is no way to take care of the bulge (I'm thinking the bulge will be hitting something) then I guess I'll be spending time on e-bay looking for the whole swing arm with shaft. D2

[Barry]

It looks like only a very slight bulge in the area of the swinging arm that is dished to allow clearance for the side wall of the tire. Once the shaft is removed could it be tapped back in with a hammer. Maybe it wouldn't interfere with the tire anyway.

[nhmaf]

Here's one for you to bid on Dave - it even has all the driveshaft bits in supposedly good condition.   The R65 swingarm is already the stiffest swingarm of all the airhead twinshock models, but this one is even braced further.  Might be the trick look you are searching for!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-R65-Braced-Swingarm-/130630650153?hash=item1e6a318929&item=130630650153&pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr


-Mike

[Dave 2]

Thanks Mike, I just put in a bid.D2