wear on output shaft

[dcoffey48]

Hi all,

I'm in process of replacing the chain, and sprockets on my 1989 GS500e

While replacing the front sprocket,  I notice considerable wear on the output shaft.  Resulting in lots of play on the sprocket.  (This is the older sprocket without the added flange.  I can see now why Suzuki went to the wider sprocket.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on this bike right now.  I wouldn't mind spending up to about  $300 on it if that would fix it right.  but my instinct tells me that's not going to cover it.   so I'm considering the following options:

1) Put a new sprocket on and ride it as is.

2) Put a new sprocket on and weld it to the shaft.

3) Weld up and regrind  several of the splines on the shaft by hand.


What do you guys think?  Am I missing any other low cost options?


Dave.

[DoD#i]

I've got some of that on my 1990. I don't want to make it hard to use when I need the next sprocket, but I'm not ready to replace the countershaft yet, either. Sprocket wear was much more than shaft wear on mine, at least. I did two things - since the wear is enhanced by corrosion, I put on the new sprocket with a healthy gob of grease, and will reapply occasionally. I also fiddled with getting a shim made of paper gasket material behind the sprocket to reduce the available slop between the boss and the circlip. Metal might work better - it's quite thin, nothing like a normal washer thickness.

If you opt for brute-force, brazing rather than welding would offer you some hope of getting that sprocket off again when the time comes. Welding up the splines and reshaping would be the best of your options, but is rather fiddly work without the right toys and removing the shaft from the bike (at which point replacing it is the best option, as you'll already have the motor in pieces.) If you have the skills to manage an actual improvement welding it up and then working it over with a dremel or files, etc. you probably wouldn't need to ask the question...

IIRC Sledge posted a good bit of detail on "fretting corrosion", in response to the way my sprocket looked - and it appeared he was right. Try that in search, I'm not bothering with it right now.

[gsJack]

I put a sprocket without a hub on my 97 GS which came with a sprocket with hub at 37k miles and then 2 more of same and ran bike to a little over 80k miles.  About 43k miles total with the hubless sprockets.  Never a problem with it.

I put a hubless sprocket on my 02 GS for first sprocket change and when I got to next chain/sprocket change it was considerably worn and wobbled quite a bit.  I could see I had run it over the winter with some chain missalignment wearing the sprocket and chain on one side only.  I put on a new oem sprocket with hub and it fit good as new, the excess wear was in the sprocket.  I've change the chain/sprocket a couple more times since and all is well.

Suggest you get a new front sprocket and try it first and see how it fits, might be OK unless you can actually see excess wear on the shaft.

[dcoffey48]

Well I opted to just put the new sprocket on and see how it goes.   With the new sprocket  on the shaft there is  enough play to move the outer circumference of the sprocket 1/4".  The splines are very  noticeably  worn.  I don't do any long distance rides, mostly back and forth to work with the occasional country drive.    So I figure I'll just run it as is until it absolutely needs to be fixed.   The short test ride tonight went well.  There is less slop than before the new chain and sprockets but still more than there should be.  But I can live with it for now.



Thanks for the replies.

Dave.