Thread started by Franco below on his rear drive leak. This thread is now to keep track of and help those who have this issue. Please vote above and post below on your issue and whether or not it was resolved by a Guzzi dealer.
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Final drive leak thread
- Thread starterGTM®
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- final drive oil tires transmission
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
I hear you Todd. I let the dealer know that I absolutely want this resolved for the last time when I bring it in to them. You're right, they should just warranty the entire rear drive. I'm bringing it to them in a week or so, so we'll see what they say.
If Speed's is the dealer, they are not too bad but they are not really big on Guzzi. Ducati is their bread and butter and BMW is the owners passion.
If you have a leaking seal you replace it. If it leaks again you probably have a bad bearing causing the seal to fail and you have to replace them as a set. You could replace them as a set right off the bat but I doubt a dealer will do that normally. That said, it should not happen a third time. That makes me think they replaced only the seal the second time as well and did not key in that there is likely a bad bearing causing the seal to fail.
You can always take it to Europa Macchina on the south side of Harrisburg. They are a vintage porsche resto shop that does Guzzi as well. Guzzi is the only brand of motorcycle they do, so there is not as much of the lack of focus there. Plus it is a really cool shop to visit if you are a gear head and the owners seem to be good folk. That is not to say Speed's is bad. I know them and have in the past taken my Guzzi's there to be worked on. But when Walt left they really did not get another Guzzi mechanic in the same way Walt was. Walt was dyed in the wool old school Guzzi. I miss him.
If you have a leaking seal you replace it. If it leaks again you probably have a bad bearing causing the seal to fail and you have to replace them as a set. You could replace them as a set right off the bat but I doubt a dealer will do that normally. That said, it should not happen a third time. That makes me think they replaced only the seal the second time as well and did not key in that there is likely a bad bearing causing the seal to fail.
You can always take it to Europa Macchina on the south side of Harrisburg. They are a vintage porsche resto shop that does Guzzi as well. Guzzi is the only brand of motorcycle they do, so there is not as much of the lack of focus there. Plus it is a really cool shop to visit if you are a gear head and the owners seem to be good folk. That is not to say Speed's is bad. I know them and have in the past taken my Guzzi's there to be worked on. But when Walt left they really did not get another Guzzi mechanic in the same way Walt was. Walt was dyed in the wool old school Guzzi. I miss him.
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
Europa Macchina is where I have been taking it. I specifically avoided Speed's because of their reputation and my first hand experience buying from them and their lack of customer service. I heard great things about Europa and they have been great but they need to fix this for the last time y'know, because they are 1.25 hours from me. It sucks that Speed's has that shit reputation and I have to travel that far but I've committed to it. I can't keep going back and forth to Europa at this pace though.
Any chance the breather is plugged up????
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
does the little cap on top come off as well or just the bolt?
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
another site had a host of people complaining about a similar leak...is this a possible recall issue?
It should actually come off as one assembly. If it is coming off in two pieces, then it is broken. May be worth replacing it to see if that is your problem. You can put a remote vent on it and run it under your seat but save that for another day. See if the dealer has one and give it a try. Long shot that this is the problem, but I have heard of it happening before and causing a leak. If the breather is plugged, then the carc can't relieve pressure....kind of like a shaft on a BMW.....
Occasionally the leak is caused by the inner seal. Many don't look at that one, they just replace the large outer seal.
This is a V7, right?
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
It should actually come off as one assembly. If it is coming off in two pieces, then it is broken. May be worth replacing it to see if that is your problem. You can put a remote vent on it and run it under your seat but save that for another day. See if the dealer has one and give it a try. Long shot that this is the problem, but I have heard of it happening before and causing a leak. If the breather is plugged, then the carc can't relieve pressure....kind of like a shaft on a BMW.....
No its one piece...I was just making sure that's how you checked. Yea I unscrewed it and everything seems fine with the breather.
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
John,
Yea, when I head to the dealer in a week or so I am telling them to replace every damn seal, bearing, whatever in that thing...seeing the splash marks on the wheel after they "fixed" it for the third time is disheartening. Did I mention I hate leaks? !!
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
Yes. V7 Stone. 2013.
Hate to resurrect an old thread but I've noticed oil leaking onto my rear wheel the last couple of times I took the bike out, it does not appear to be coming from the drain or fill plugs, I don't have any oil on the garage floor so it appears to only happen either when the rear wheel is in motion or maybe just while the final drive is hot. Any chance I can find out what resolved this problem for you Franco before I go tearing this thing apart?
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
Unfortunately I had a falling out with my dealer after I received my bike back, so it is a little hazy as far as remembering the exact details of what they finally figured out it was. However, I do specifically remember them saying that essentially it was two bolts in the final drive that were not staying tight that was causing the leak. They basically said that everything else was completely fine: seals etc. because they had done this twice already. They even said that the screws were not stripped or damaged, so what they did was basically put some heavy duty Loctite on them and that has seem to fix the problem. Knock on wood.
I don't know exactly which bolts, or anything like that. I wish I did but like I said I had a falling out with them so the details never really emerged. Hopefully that helps somewhat. Remember though, it could be a different issue with your bike and it might be a seal, but the bolts not staying tight is a good piece of information because it might not be something that you would think about being the problem.
My 2010 final drive started to leak.
Coming through main seal, so stripped it down changed seal,breather,gasket and bearing whilst I was in there and put it all back.
Still leaked.
Took it all apart again and changed seal etc. once more and upon inspection noticed a tiny pit mark where seal runs and instead of re-machining and sleeving journal ( I run a machine shop BTW) I moved seal out a few mm to avoid it but still had small leak.
As oil capacity is tiny I really didn`t want to have anything leaking at all so had a quick look on eBay and found similar aged and mileage unit going for not very much , fitted that and no problems.
So In summary I never really got to bottom of leak but it was an easy option replacing it.
Coming through main seal, so stripped it down changed seal,breather,gasket and bearing whilst I was in there and put it all back.
Still leaked.
Took it all apart again and changed seal etc. once more and upon inspection noticed a tiny pit mark where seal runs and instead of re-machining and sleeving journal ( I run a machine shop BTW) I moved seal out a few mm to avoid it but still had small leak.
As oil capacity is tiny I really didn`t want to have anything leaking at all so had a quick look on eBay and found similar aged and mileage unit going for not very much , fitted that and no problems.
So In summary I never really got to bottom of leak but it was an easy option replacing it.
Actually, you did find the problem. It was the pit mark. It will eat a seal. Did you consider a shaft sleeve?
It was still leaking even though I moved seal out of way of pit mark (about 1 mm diameter) and to be honest after only 5k miles it is pretty poor that it was like that.
I will sort it at a later date it was just easier to buy another.
I will sort it at a later date it was just easier to buy another.
francod123
Cruisin' Guzzisti
My final drive is leaking again. What the fuck...how many people have encountered this? Seems a bit more than usual. Had it "fixed" three times. The last time seemed to do the trick after replacing all seals and a dealer saying that they needed to loctite two bolts that weren't staying tight. It was fine for like 3k miles. Then all the sudden, a tiny leak again. Breather cap seems fine. Not sure what is going on but it's frustrating as shit. Gonna disassemble myself come winter and just replace everything and re loctite.