Pinion seal
I have a differential leak, finally narrowed it down to pinion seal, I think. GL1800, Monarch II. Does anyone know if you have to pull the diff to replace the seal? I was told yes, and it does not appear to have much room otherwise.
Thanks. After 7,000 mile trip it got really nasty, had not noticed it so bad before.
Questions:
Does yours have WING EFX and if it does, do you still have the center stand ?
If you have no longer a center stand, do you have the Rear WING EFX support kit ?
If you have a center stand or the support kit, you can use a paddle jack to raise only the rear axle enough to get a pair of jack stands under the body support frame far rearward as possible, maybe across the rear of the trunk area between mufflers.
The stands are just to keep the trike from see-sawing while on the center support.
You can remove the u-bolts from the u-joint and remove the caps.
Do not remove the driveshaft, leave it in the swingarm. Remove the lower stabilizer bar completely and remove the differential cover and drain the fluid from the rear axle assembly.
The 4 bolts that attach the rear axle to the swingarm can be removed one side at a time.
If you undo the right side you can start to shift the rear back enough to get the driveshaft away from the pinion.
Unbolt and remove the pinion flange and the old pinion seal.
Inspect the seal and flange.
Removing the 2 bolts on the left will allow you to move the rear axle assembly far enough back that you can rotate it 90 degrees so that the pinion faces downward.
There are 3 different type of pinion leaks.
1) Between the pinion shaft splines and the flange
2) Between the pinion flange surface and the seal
3) Between the pinion seal and the snout of the rear axle housing
All three of these conditions trace back to the original construction of the axle assembly by outside vendors.
Unfortunately the discovery of these failures took months and years to figure out the exact causes.
NOTE: You should take caution when doing this repair and consult someone familiar with rear differentials and axles. They can kinda look over your shoulder and maybe help guide you. It is an exacting job and should be left to someone who has experience here.