Goldwing Motortrike adventure CV joint failure

[12MOTOBLUE]

Has anyone experienced a problem with the outer CV joints? While riding today I started hearing a squeak from the trike kit, when I shifted from first to second the outer left CV joint broke and I had to flatbed it home. My trike kit only has about 10,000 miles on it and I'm more than disappointed in it. Tomorrow I am going to pull it apart to see what broke, but it ripped the rubber boot so I'm guessing it was the joint. I'm just wondering if this is a known problem and is it a joint that I can buy locally. Thanks for any help.

[Gold Rush]

Has anyone experienced a problem with the outer CV joints? While riding today I started hearing a squeak from the trike kit, when I shifted from first to second the outer left CV joint broke and I had to flatbed it home. My trike kit only has about 10,000 miles on it and I'm more than disappointed in it. Tomorrow I am going to pull it apart to see what broke, but it ripped the rubber boot so I'm guessing it was the joint. I'm just wondering if this is a known problem and is it a joint that I can buy locally. Thanks for any help.

Sorry to hear of your issue Jeff. I'm guessing your Adventure is out of warranty. If it is than I'd call Richard at Motor Trike and see if he can tell you which CV Joint and boot you need. You may need to provide your kit number. If you do not have it, here is a photo of where to locate it.

Good Luck!!

[12MOTOBLUE]

Thanks Gold Rush. I pulled the joint out and it is destroyed. I guess what I would like to know is if this is something I have to look forward to. Does this happen a lot, do I need to check the other side too?

[Gold Rush]

Thanks Gold Rush. I pulled the joint out and it is destroyed. I guess what I would like to know is if this is something I have to look forward to. Does this happen a lot, do I need to check the other side too?

No, it is not a typical failure. I rode my Adventure nearly 50,000 miles with no CV Joint issue at all. I ride pretty aggressive so if one was going to brake I'd think mine would have. Never really gave it much thought. Hope you get your trike fixed and back on the road soon.

[12MOTOBLUE]

The joint didn't really break it wore through the back side of the housing and allowed the balls to disengage from the grooves in the joint. It almost seems like the axle is too short and it had constant pressure on the housing, the internal part of the joint pulled right out through the seal.

[Gold Rush]

The joint didn't really break it wore through the back side of the housing and allowed the balls to disengage from the grooves in the joint. It almost seems like the axle is too short and it had constant pressure on the housing, the internal part of the joint pulled right out through the seal.

I just don't know Jeff. Give Richard Purdy at Motor Trike a call would be me suggestion still.

[JaysGone]

Has anyone experienced a problem with the outer CV joints? While riding today I started hearing a squeak from the trike kit, when I shifted from first to second the outer left CV joint broke and I had to flatbed it home. My trike kit only has about 10,000 miles on it and I'm more than disappointed in it. Tomorrow I am going to pull it apart to see what broke, but it ripped the rubber boot so I'm guessing it was the joint. I'm just wondering if this is a known problem and is it a joint that I can buy locally. Thanks for any help.

Yup my left CV joint started to leak,........ well before I bought the bike. The undercarriage just looked like it was painted a crinkle black. It was oil and sand.
Both joints replaced by MT for a few bucks on their end.
About a grand on mine for labor.
That was at 11k bike now has 25K.
Mine is a 2010 if it matters.

[CrystalPistol]

The joint didn't really break it wore through the back side of the housing and allowed the balls to disengage from the grooves in the joint. It almost seems like the axle is too short and it had constant pressure on the housing, the internal part of the joint pulled right out through the seal.

I'm confused .... at first sonded like the axle was too long and not compressing enough ..... or is it you think the shaft is too short and pulling the guts out of the CV joint?

Either way ..... sounds a lot like a assembly error or design failure or maybe the wrong axle assemblies were supplied in that kit? That's way earl in miles to be having CV joint failures. I have cars with CV joints with well over 100,xxx miles and NO wear. We had a '84 Subaru GL hatchback 4x4 we putnear 200,xxx on and while I replaced a boot a few times and re lubed the inner rt frt CV joint that lived over the cat .... never worn.

Those were small CV joints.

[12MOTOBLUE]

Just an update on my problem. Motor Trike is possibly the worst company I have ever delt with, they could care less if their kits fall apart and are super rude on the phone.

Just as a help to anyone who experiences the CV problem you can buy a VW type 1 CV joint kit on eBay for $45.00 shipped to your door, it includes 2 CV joints 2 boots, lube, bolts and clips. With a little over an hour of time some brake cleaner and blue loctite you are back in business. I'm still not sure what caused the failure but I'm going to machine some aluminum bronze washers to keep the CV joint from wearing through the dust shield/boot.

$1000.00 is crazy and is exactly why I refused to take it to a dealer, Motor Trike couldn't even tell me how much for a part, all I could get from them was to take it to a dealer. So far it has only been to MT dealers and guess what that got me, two out of the three dealers listed on their website that I called didn't even know that they were dealers. In case anyone is still guessing I wouldn't recommend their trike to anyone.

If you here a rubbing / squeeling sound coming from one of your wheels you have about 50 miles before it pops apart, at least that's what happened to me.

[JaysGone]

In my case I was the 2nd owner and bought the bike over the internet. I had a friend inspect it as best he could with it being stationery. Im in Florida the trike was in Texas. My lack of knowledge at the time didn't help. Today unfortunately my knowledge of the undercarriage of a trike is still pretty deficient on my part.

The parts MT sent, my mechanic woudnt use. He bought and used what he said were upgraded parts. I had both sides replaced. Most of the cost was labor. It took my guy a few days as he had other bikes to work on. Whether I was taken for a ride or not. To this day I still don't know. However Ive put another 20K on the bike since the repairs and have had no issues at all.

I actually just asked my mechanic if there was anything that had to be done 5 years later. He said nope and Im taking him at his word. At the time Richard was actually pretty helpful. Im surprised at your dealings with MT being a negative one. That has never been my experience with them. Just the opposite actually.

[12MOTOBLUE]

I had this thing built for retirement fun but so far it's been nothing but headaches. When I picked up the trike it was early February so I trailered it home, the thing was a mess with dirt and greasy finger prints everywhere. By the time I was finished cleaning I figured out why they left it so dirty, I ended up replacing about $300.00 in chrome parts that they scratched up ( it's amazing what you can hide with a few well placed fingerprints ).

A few weeks after I got the trike home we had a warm spell so we hooked up with a few friends for our first ride, the first thing I found was that the radio didn't work, soon after that one of my buddies told me I had no brake lights or turn signals, that made for a short ride. I removed the seat and found a mess that looked like a beaver attacked my wire harness, wires cut and not even taped off wires hanging out of plugs and just a general mess. I spent a few days tracing wires and managed to get everything working and made things fit and look a little better.

We managed to get about half season of riding before the squeaks started. I have oiled and greased every moving part that I can find and I just doesn't stop. I live close to Amish country so we ride a lot of back country roads, it's pretty bad when you pass an old Amish buggy and the trike squeaks more than they do. My friend has a California Sidecar conversion and they put grease fittings on their joints, guess what no squeaks.

After my latest deal with MT my thoughts are that the dealers are a close reflection of the company that they represent. I owned and operated a manufacturing company up until last March when I sold out and retired. If I treated my customers like MT I wouldn't have lasted a a year. As a manufacturer you should shoot for zero defects, if we had one failure we wanted to have it returned for inspection and evaluation. Motor Trikes answer was take it to one of our dealers for them to fix it, they had no interest in what caused the failure.

I have been so upset about this it took 4 months for me to even look at my trike or come back to this website to check out my post. I just hope that my part info might help someone out and keep them from doing all of the searching that I did.

[GoldWingrGreg]

I had this thing built for retirement fun but so far it's been nothing but headaches. When I picked up the trike it was early February so I trailered it home, the thing was a mess with dirt and greasy finger prints everywhere. By the time I was finished cleaning I figured out why they left it so dirty, I ended up replacing about $300.00 in chrome parts that they scratched up ( it's amazing what you can hide with a few well placed fingerprints ).

A few weeks after I got the trike home we had a warm spell so we hooked up with a few friends for our first ride, the first thing I found was that the radio didn't work, soon after that one of my buddies told me I had no brake lights or turn signals, that made for a short ride. I removed the seat and found a mess that looked like a beaver attacked my wire harness, wires cut and not even taped off wires hanging out of plugs and just a general mess. I spent a few days tracing wires and managed to get everything working and made things fit and look a little better.

After my latest deal with MT my thoughts are that the dealers are a close reflection of the company that they represent. I owned and operated a manufacturing company up until last March when I sold out and retired. If I treated my customers like MT I wouldn't have lasted a a year. As a manufacturer you should shoot for zero defects, if we had one failure we wanted to have it returned for inspection and evaluation. Motor Trikes answer was take it to one of our dealers for them to fix it, they had no interest in what caused the failure.

Jeff ... I too am sorry to hear about your experience, and hope that you get your issues resolved quickly. Once all that is behind you, I'm sure you'll be out riding with a big smile on your face.