Properly Servicing Shaft Final Drive on the BMW R1200GS 

Just to say thank you for this video. Had exactly the same 'seized' issue as the bike featured. Crazy that BMW allow this to happen for want of a bit of grease. Anyway, with persistence and following your instructions it's now better than new. Thanks.

I just had this happen on my 1200RT. The rust in that final part was shocking! Thanks for the tips on getting off a rusted one, really helped me there.

Thanks mate, looks straightforward! I’m planning to do that with my 2016 R1200R soon.

Bloody good explanation - keep up the good work 👍

Fantastic video. Well done. Subscribed!

I forgot to tell you that the BMW Service Advisor also told me that the splines are not lubed at the factory - years ago when I asked about this maintenance. (My bikes are a 2012 K1600GT and a 2014 R1200GS. ). You have inspired me to do this maintenance.

Excellent video, thanks for torque specifications!!!

Thank you so much. This helped me greatly for servicing my Final Drive. Cheers!

Thank you. Good video. I have new 2021 RS with 20k Miles I saw how bad it was rusted. lucky not as rusted as this example. I was thinking about drilling drain holes. the whole tail was full of water. Not sure if it was from rains or what being a street bike. I think next time I will pull the whole unit and clean off all the rust like you did. all I did was add lots of grease.

Very useful video, cheers

Buying an old 2005 GS - thanks for your informative video. Cheers mate !

Great vid and extremely helpful, thank you 👍

Excellent explanation, thank you! 👍🏻

excellent video, I just picked up one and this is the 1st thing I will do

Phew!! Thank you so so much for this video. I have just purchased a 2019 R1250GS with 11,000 miles and as it out of warranty the first thing I am doing is a complete service which includes the lubing of the drive shaft splines I have heard so much about (my 1st GS). Well, attempting to drop the final drive gearbox I realised it wasn't falling back and down (like all those DIY videos I have been looking at) PANIC!! Realising the drive shaft had sort or seized into the G/B spline I decided the only way to get this undone was to remove drive shaft and G/B from the bike. I remove that large mother M12 bolt but still doesn't come out. So I thought I have to remove the Circlip on the other side (so just ordered a pair of circlip plies) AND THEN........ I cam across your video THANK YOU!!! Tomorrow morning I will just push out that collar and try and repeat what you did! Thanks again PHEW!!

Awesome.... thank you. This has been my go too clip to do a rear gaiter change. Torque rates etc. Brilliant

Well done!

Absolute GOLD 🙏 thanks again

Gday mate. Excellent work very knowledgeable 💯

I was so relieved when the shaft splines weren't seized on an '07 that I'm restoring. Especially considering not knowing the service history, and the amount of dirt I discovered up inside the housing hole. Small victories are huge, for certain aspects of these bikes! 😄

Great and informative video…. Subbed.👍☘️

Excellent video

In the meanwhile, BMW recalled all the GS LC bikes till 2019 to proof the driveshaft and drill a drain hole on the driveshaft housing, and for bikes with more than 70.000km they replaced the driveshaft with a new one without a further question . (I live in Germany) Nice job to show the people to take care of their driveshaft in a way that BMW never does, but the grease type is wrong, the same procedure must be done on both sides of the driveshaft and the gear oil is not the right one. This is for cars that you used. This is not the end of the world, but you have to repeat the procedure more frequently. I did it twice already on my bike and drove about 80.000 km. Every 20.000km for the gear oil and about 40.0000km the spines and rubber boots cleaning and lubricating, depending if you ride a lot in the winter and wet environments. Now BMW changed my driveshaft with a new one.

Very good video....thanks

Tq good Info and knowledge.

great video. thank you

Thanks your video was very helpful I have 2018 1200 GS only 8000 miles and final Drive splines were frozen,hard to believe they are not lubed at the factory. Thanks again.

Nice job mate!

Great video! Thank you so very much. 🌌🌅🌠👌🏻

Man thanks for the video. I’ll be tackling a 2018 RT. Just getting items together. I might as well pull the drive shaft out. Dreading trying to get shaft back on lol. Seen enough videos, it’s doable. It’s winter here in northern Alberta, so perfect time to do this. Thanks for the info

Great stuff, thanks for sharing :-)

The correct torque spec for brake caliper to final drive is 24Nm. 38Nm is the spec for the M10 bolts on the front caliper and would shear the M8 bolts of the rear caliper.

Awesome video and very well explained, thanks. The driveshaft you show in your vid is a shaft with the uni's phased as you would normally expect (parallel) my driveshaft, which was rusted at the diff end the same as yours, is phased out of normal alignment by 45 degrees. Another shaft I have seen is the same as mine, how is yours phased, or has mine been shock loaded out of alignment through the cush drive? Thanks again.

Thanks for a great video! I have used it several times over the past years to perform this maintenance chore. Today, however, I am having a very hard time getting the front yoke of the driveshaft onto the spline of the transmission output shaft. Don't know what I am doing wrong, but when I reviewed your video you just say to reinstall it, with no further advice... just do it! Guess I will have to find some other video for help with this problem. Thanks again.

Great video! I only wish I had viewed it prior to my power shaft u-joint breaking and damaging my final drive and swing arm three weeks ago. I've got a dealer serviced 2016 R1200gsa with 52,000 miles and sudden vibrations and intense clunking happened near Gunnison Colorado. After getting the bike back to Denver the dealer quoted me $7,336.06 USD for parts, freight and labor. Instead I got used parts off Ebay (drive shaft has 13k miles and both the FD and SA have about 5K) and did the maintenance with the help of a buddy. My total cost was $2,400. Still an expensive lesson but feel fortunate. I'm definitely a grateful subscriber to you now. -Tony

Thank you very much. Great Video:) What is the period of checking the FD according to your experience unless you do river crossing etc.

great video, its very detailed. Please tell me how much time would it take to complete this procedure. I am also interested in GS and would like to do this myself, Thank you again sir.

Great video! thanks. I had the same problem. I put some WD40 on the stuck spine as soon as there was access. Once I had the differential loose and started to pull it away from the bike the drive shaft popped free. Just as well as the pivot bearing looked like it needed fresh grease. I use high moly Loctite grease and silicon paste to seal the rubber boots. In the future I plan to check the drive line splines and drive shaft universals every time I change the differential oil.

PB Blaster penetrating oil is good stuff. If that doesn't get it, the drift punch as you show is plan B, and the nuclear option is torch heat. It'll come off. BMW is now offering a driveshaft replacement campaign for all the wet head R1200/1250 bikes. I fully expect some dealers will play dumb and will have to be "educated". Great video...short, concise and accurate.

Fantastic video. Just wondering if there were any symptoms beforehand? Did gear changes improve afterwards?

This is a great video regarding the Shaft Drive. I own a 1300s and I want to service mine as whell. Don't you do the front part? I think the front part is very difficult because of two wires that run by the booth. Or is it ok to just only clean the tale of the drive?

I’m watching this again for a refresher. So very helpful. One thought…Once the driveshaft is removed and lubed, does the rear part of the driveshaft have to meet up with the front half of the driveshaft in any particular way? In other words, do the splines have to be keyed to each other exactly the same? I keep reading about “phasing” and I don’t really understand it. I’m not sure if this is something we worry about here. Thanks!

Your videos are always concise, clear and informative. Off topic, but I'm new to the BMW brand and wondering if a 'clunky' gearbox is normal? Selecting 1st while stationary is embarrassing, not to mention the changes up and down to 3rd is just awful, both with clutch or quickshifter. 3rd to 6th is fine, in both directions. Any hints?

I don't know about the 1200's onwards but rest assured, the 1150 series had huge failure rates from clutch splines all the way to the rear main bearing. I was lucky, my GS was good until I sold at 90k mi with only having to do a retorque of swing arm pivot. My g/f, not so much, her clutch splines failed at 33k. There was a thread on advrider some years ago and the respondents reports of 1150 driveline failures was over 25%. I'm on a Super Tenere now and g/f on F650GS; much more reliable and easier to live with and maintain.

You should use high % MoS2 grease to lubricate the splines.

Well done, Interestingly, you use the waterproof grease on the splines where most BMW guys use a Moly or the bearing grease for the splines.

Great video, thank you. I inquired some time ago with my local dealer about service on the splines of the final drive and they told me at that time no service is required. I always thought that was odd and not correct. Since, I believe BMW has come out with a different view.

The dealership did a great job...of billing for service that was never performed.

DONT use this grease people! Its a $5 grease better suited to the garden gate hinge. You want Staburags NBU 30 PTM or similar that is more like $200 for the same amount. Thankfully you can buy the tiny amount needed on ebay . Its a very high pressure application and you dont want to be replacing the unit because of ware. Think twice also before running a thick gear oil. Ok for low speed and when hot but a thinner oil will take heat out of the gears better and flow into them better when cold. Basically just use what BMW recommend and not this vid.

Thanks for a really helpful video, I have same problem, a stuck final drive. Are you able to remove the boot with the driveshaft attached, even the boot seems tight?

Great video. Excellent! I just don't understand why BMW doesn't even mention in the rider's manual about the preventive maintenance of such an important part of the motorcycle. They don't check that during the scheduled maintenance as well. You need to beg them to check it and they do poorly and it costs a lot of money when they do it. The drive shaft should be checked at least once per year or 10.000 km together with the oil change. If that thing get jammed in the middle of nowhere, man... Wake up BMW! Watch and learn!

I've seen lots of videos on lubing the final drive splines, but why do I not see videos that include the transmission end splines. Isn't that equally important?

I did this maintenance on my 05 GS 1200, it took about 1.5 hrs being my 1st time.

Thank you very much! My 2019 RT with 6,000 miles has this very issue. 😡😡

Awesome video!!! I have the same problem and no wd40 is helping. Shaft is solid tot he final drive splines!!! Could you explain a little more how you managed to release it??

What about the other end of the drive shaft? Is that usually needed as well or is it not because it is closest to the engine and less chance for water? Thanks

You should be using high moly spline lube on the splines, not just waterproof grease.

Confused with the gl5 oil rated gear oil , my dealer says it should be gl3 rated 75w/90 ?

Could you give a little more detail on how to remove the shaft from the final drive spline?? Mine is stuck too and even with a heat gun and plenty of WD40 it doesn't budge a single bit. Did you use some penetration oil?, did you heat? how hard do you have to hit? I'm afraid to damage the final drive if I hit too hard

Hi. Thanks for the video. I'm not technical - so sorry if this is a dumb question. My 21,000 mile 2015 GS rear drive bearings have failed and I have been sent a picture of a rusted shaft drive which apparently also needs replacing. It looks like the rear drive/shaft drive part of the bike is badly designed and the service regime does not stipulate checking or greasing. BMW Motorrad Munich does not want to support me - which I think is ducking their obligations . My (dumb?) question is what is the impact of a rusted final drive? Apart from it being rusted - and even rusted to the rear drive, can this cause any other failures - or is it just a nice to have?

Shouldn't you use high temp moly grease on the splines like honda77? Lithium grease on the boots.

Amazing and to think a buyer wouldn't entertain a bike that doesn't have a dealer service history 🤔do all your own maintenance people,then you know it has actually been done

Anything special with getting the shaft onto the gearbox side?

BMW now has a maintenance recall as of Oct 2023 that requires the shaft to be replaced every 36k miles! Under warranty! See your dealer for details

What year is that bike and how many miles are on it if I may ask? Thanks

Domanda Vedo che molti usano olio cardano 80w140....altri 75w90....come mai ? Non dovrebbe essere una gradazione sola ?

On the average, how often do I need to service?

How often do you have to do this.

Years ago I had a Suzuki GS 650 Katana. Kept it as my sole transport (summer and winter) for 6 years. I changed the shaft drive oil once. BMW should hang their heads over such a fundamental design issue.

How often would you need to do this service?

Torque at 5:56 is 56nm, not 60nm, and loctite 271/high strength

You used the wrong grease for the spline 😮

Dealerships suck! They’ll do the minimum and charge the maximum! You want it done right, do it yourself!

Always grease your shaft 🙃

The boots are ridiculous. They need a hose clamp setup to keep them sealed properly. All of this nonsense is because of a cheap piece of rubber. Unreal this is happening to motorcycles costing around $25,000 US dollars. Completely mental.

Wrong oil (70W-80 Hypo), wrong grease for the splines (Castrol Molub-Alloy Paste TA), wrong NM (56) for the main torx screw on the Paralever and forgotten to fix it with green Loctite. Never grease the rubber parts facing the Final Drive. No blue Loctite used to fix the rear break caliper torx and absolutely wrong NM (24). No word how to reinstall and fix the Cardan Shaft on the upper splines. And so on and so forth. Sorry, but I don't recommend to follow your wrong and incomplete instructions.

🤦‍♂️👎🏻

What a bad design.

Good video! The only thing I miss(because the propshaft isn’t rusted to the final drive) is the pivot bearing. Guess I have to get on this! The bike has 63,000 miles on it.......😮

No 38NM better 24NM ☝🏽☝🏽☝🏽

Thank you so much. This helped me greatly for servicing my Final Drive. Cheers!