Final drive shaft front boot question

[Rienzi]

Bike is a 2020 R1250GS. I was subject to the drive shaft recall and my bike failed the test, so the dealer replaced the final drive shaft. I was finally able to pick up the bike but I discovered after returning from dealer (~2 hours away) that they have overlooked securing the front drive shaft boot properly. Some people call it a gusset.
I can access the outer side easily to grease and replace but I can't access the other inner side with anything other than the very tips of my fingers from below - so I can't close it properly. Is there an easy way to do this without extensive disassembly? The easiest access to that side of the boot seems to be behind the battery box. Do you remove the battery box? Are there are other things to watch for here? Thanks all!

 

[Boxflyer]

Normally, you have the driveshaft out of the paralever to lube the front splines (or replace the driveshaft) and then completely remove the front boot so you can lift the front yoke of the driveshaft up to align with the output shaft of the transmission.
The re-install process is to secure the tabs of the hard plastic inner ring on the aft side of the front boot into the paralever then you need to slide the driveshaft in.
While the front yoke of the driveshaft approaches the transmission shaft, you use a smooth screwdriver or similar to push back the front lip of the front boot so you can lift the yoke of the driveshaft to align with the transmission.

Lastly, it's pretty easy to get the front edge of the boot to slip over the groove in the transmission and secure it with a real BMW zip tie that is slightly narrower than a normal zip tie. If you use a standard zip tie, it will not seat properly and may leak, so for just a couple of bucks, it is well worth it to use the correct BMW zip tie.

If the aft part of the boot is the part you can't get seated, then you almost certainly need to get the driveshaft back out of the paralever so you can engage the plastic locking tabs correctly... with plenty of new sealing grease.

Hope this helps.

Brad

 

[Rienzi]

Thanks very much Brad! Very clear explanation. It's the aft part of the front boot that's not seated, so it sounds like I'm not going to have an easy work around.