September 6 2003 - After a long break I am finally starting to work on the bike again. I decided to begin the rear drive. The first step is to remove the rear fender with the wrong Triumph tail lamp. I removed the rear fender. Next I removed the Triumph tail lamp and license plate holder. I cleaned some of the dirt on the inside of the rear fender and found where the original mounting holes have been welded up (see inside red circles).

The next photo shows the outside of the rear fender. Inside the red circles you can see flaws in the paint that indicate the original mounting holes. After removing the rear fender section I started to remove the rear tire. It is a bit stubborn. I decided to soak everything in penetrating oil overnight before knocking out the rear axle.

8 September 2003 - I found out the secret of getting the rear axle out. If you notice on the top of the axle right above where the screw you see an arrow pointing to the right which is marked "Losen". Simply turn this clockwise and unscrew the axle.

Here is a photo of the inside of the brake hub. Nice oil soaked brake pads.

Here is a photo of the inside of the rear wheel hub. Everything is nice and lubed up and looks to be in good shape.

9 September 2003 - Tonight I disassembled the rear brake assembly. The photo below shows the rear brake parts.

Here is the rear hub minus the brake parts. I also began to drain the rear drive of oil in preparation for disassembly. It was not a nice quick drain of oil, but a nice slow drip of sludge.

10 September 2003 - Tonight I removed the four bolts that secured the rear drive to the frame. I slid the drive forward and removed it from the frame. Next I removed the 7 screws that secured the inner seal cover on. The photo below shows the cover lifted exposing the original leather seal.

Next I removed the last two bolts that secured the cover on the rear drive. I took a rubber mallet and tapped the drive gear and cover out. The gears look good. I have rotated the gear and can feel some flat spots during rotation. Looks like I am going to have to replace both bearings (which I expected). I threw all of the parts into the parts cleaner for a soak overnight.

12 September 2003 - I heated up the outer rear drive cover with the torch. The rear drive gear slipped right out. In my hand is the outer bearing spacer.

The photo below show the axle spacer above the rear drive gear (for correct assembly the spacer goes into the other side of the gear).

I heated up the rear drive housing and extracted the input shaft to the rear drive (the driveshaft mates to this gear). Notice the large bearing between the two gears.

The photo below shows the rear drive housing after the gear was extracted. The large hole is the bearing housing (large bearing from above). Circled in red is the housing for the needle bearings (with most of the needle bearings - some fell out during removal, there are 23). From the photo above, the small shaft to the left rides in this needle bearing housing.

13 September 2003 - Today I sandblasted all of the rear drive parts. The photo below shows all of the cleaned parts. Time to order some bearings so I can begin reassembly.

14 September 2003 - I disassembled the input gear assembly in preparation of replacing the bearing. I used the impact wrench with the 24mm socket to remove the nut holding everything together. The photo below shows all of the parts in order of assembly.

21 September 2003 - I got the bearings and the new output shaft rear seal. The replacement rubber seal is from a later model BMW (circled in red). You must elongate the holes as they do not exactly line up. The parts to the left are the original leather seal parts that this is replacing.

The new crown wheel bearing have already been installed. The crown wheel has been installed in the rear drive housing. I am getting ready to install the seal.

This photo shows the seal in place.

Now the seal retainer cover is installed.

The input shaft replacement bearing that Vech sells is an exact fit sealed bearing. The original is not sealed. As an upgrade to minimize oil leakage, the inside seal is pried out which allows oil to get to the bearing. The outer seal is left in place. There is a small oil return path under the bearing (my finger is pointing to it). I filled the passage up with silicon RTV. So now I have sealed up any path for rear drive oil to get to the input gear. The purpose of this is to keep oil from flowing out to the gear and leaking out of the driveshaft. When the drive shaft is assembled I will lube up the gear and driveshaft with gear lube.

26 September 2003 - The assembly of the rear drive is complete. I still have to get the brake shoes relined with new material. I will do this some time prior to bike reassembly as I will probably need to do the front brake shoes too.

April 23 2004 - I relined the rear brake shoes and installed them in the rear drive.

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