This is a photo through the transmission oil fill opening on my R1100RT which has 52K miles. Note the little slightly angled cuts in the two visible teeth. The rest of the gear surface looks smooth: the other apparent irregularities in the photo are flash artificats/reflections in the oil film.
Somewhere at 25Kmiles or so, the previous owner had the bad M97 transmission replaced with a used M94. I don't know how many miles there are on the transmission. It works fine.
About 3000 miles ago I changed the transmission oil for the first time since I've owned the bike. It had been changed 6,000 prior (per service records) and when I changed it the oil came out extra dark (maybe a bearing seal opened?).
I did a couple of short interval oil changes & after maybe one change where the oil came out a bit darker than when it went in, it doesn't seem to be changing. I also haven't seen the irridescent gold sheen of wearing shift forks as described on the largiader.com website.
I noticed the "groove" in the gear (I think it's 5th) on that first oil change and it looked pretty uniform, so I really didn't think much about it. But I also read up on the transmissions and while it looks like sometimes lubrication grooves are cut in gears, I don't see such on photos of the oilhead transmissions I've seen.
So it has me wondering. The groove on the gear is quite a uniform cut, a mm or two deep and the same on every tooth. So if some stray piece of metal got stuck in place and did damage, it did it awfully uniformly. (But the mere existence of an apparent design doesn't prove there was a designer!) No metal chuniks in the oil or on the magnetic plug. A little fine sludge.
I'm hoping someone can tell me "oh yeah, mine has that," or even confirm it was a feature of at least some of the M94 transmissions.
It shifts consistently through all gears. The only hiccup was about 9,000 miles ago when the bike was relatively new to me and (once and only once) it popped out of 5th gear - I was new to the bike & figured I must not have gotten it in gear all the way. That has never repeated itself.
If not "factory", then I guess I'm looking for opinions on what to do next. It's hard to embark on a rebuild of something that's working fine, but 3000 miles ago I'd figured a problem if present might manifest itself & I could deal with it over the winter when I wouldn't be riding as much anyway. I'm thinking this might be a case where an oil analysis could be reassuring if it doesn't show evidence of abnormal wear. I and my pocketbook would like to just keep doing regular tranny oil changes and stop worrying about it unless it starts to act up. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Somewhere at 25Kmiles or so, the previous owner had the bad M97 transmission replaced with a used M94. I don't know how many miles there are on the transmission. It works fine.
About 3000 miles ago I changed the transmission oil for the first time since I've owned the bike. It had been changed 6,000 prior (per service records) and when I changed it the oil came out extra dark (maybe a bearing seal opened?).
I did a couple of short interval oil changes & after maybe one change where the oil came out a bit darker than when it went in, it doesn't seem to be changing. I also haven't seen the irridescent gold sheen of wearing shift forks as described on the largiader.com website.
I noticed the "groove" in the gear (I think it's 5th) on that first oil change and it looked pretty uniform, so I really didn't think much about it. But I also read up on the transmissions and while it looks like sometimes lubrication grooves are cut in gears, I don't see such on photos of the oilhead transmissions I've seen.
So it has me wondering. The groove on the gear is quite a uniform cut, a mm or two deep and the same on every tooth. So if some stray piece of metal got stuck in place and did damage, it did it awfully uniformly. (But the mere existence of an apparent design doesn't prove there was a designer!) No metal chuniks in the oil or on the magnetic plug. A little fine sludge.
I'm hoping someone can tell me "oh yeah, mine has that," or even confirm it was a feature of at least some of the M94 transmissions.
It shifts consistently through all gears. The only hiccup was about 9,000 miles ago when the bike was relatively new to me and (once and only once) it popped out of 5th gear - I was new to the bike & figured I must not have gotten it in gear all the way. That has never repeated itself.
If not "factory", then I guess I'm looking for opinions on what to do next. It's hard to embark on a rebuild of something that's working fine, but 3000 miles ago I'd figured a problem if present might manifest itself & I could deal with it over the winter when I wouldn't be riding as much anyway. I'm thinking this might be a case where an oil analysis could be reassuring if it doesn't show evidence of abnormal wear. I and my pocketbook would like to just keep doing regular tranny oil changes and stop worrying about it unless it starts to act up. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!