Here's my breakdown of the replacement of my final drive and rear wheel flange. My 2008 ST1300 now has 170,000km on the dial and some wear has developed in the final drive splines, to the point that it was wise to replace both the final drive unit and the rear wheel flange that fits into the spline on the final drive. I have measured the backlash in the worn splines at 11mm at the tyre.
A new Final Drive Unit and Rear Wheel Flange were going to cost me $3,200 from Honda, and I was unable to source a complete unit from the US from either Ron Ayres or Partzilla as neither had the part in stock and had no idea when they would get them from Honda. New rules for purchasing from overseas mean that purchases over $1,000 incur GST and some hefty customs fees, making purchases over $1,000 challenging and in this case, hardly worth the effort even if they had the parts.
I found a good second hand Final Drive Unit in Tassie with Trev at “Lets Get Wrecked” from a 2010 ST1300 with just 20,000km on the clock, so it was essentially new, and cost me just $430 to my door. Trev no longer had the rear Wheel Flange from that bike. Moto Adelaide who do my repairs are a trusted dealer and also gave me a good price on the new Rear Wheel Flange Kit.
Here's my final cost breakdown....
Second Hand Final Drive $430
New Rear Wheel Flange Kit $425
Fitting and Testing Charges $187
The attached photos show the old units that were replaced, plus the location of the worn spline on the final drive. Most owners would be familiar with these parts. The wear can be seen in the photos of the Final Drive Spline and on the Rear Wheel Flange Spline. The Final Drive Spline was worn much more than the other.
This episode has cost me around $1,000 to sort out, so I reckon I have come out of that OK.
Never forget to grease your splines with the correct moly paste whenever the rear wheel comes off, to ensure maximum life of these parts.
