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Big H Issued A Recall On Vfr1200F And Vfr1200X Re:drive-Shafts


Skids

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I was sent an SMS by Honda Turkey about a month ago about the driveshaft issue. I immediately called my dealer who told me that the parts weren't yet in the country and that I should check with him later. I called him again two days ago and he told me to bring the bike over; as he's very close to my house I took the bike there right away. Two hours later I got a call from him saying that my shaftdrive was going to be replaced and that the parts would take a day to arrive. I'm now waiting for him to call me as the part was supposed to arrive today and the replacement shall be done right away. I'll keep you guys posted...

Edit: I rode my bike around in the traffic and went on a ride yesterday. There's much less clatter from the rear end when ridden in high gear, low rpm situations.

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I had my local Honda dealer order the recall kit and schedule a service appointment.

I visited the dealer yesterday, and the new shaft was installed in about two hours.

I now feel more healthy, wealthy, and sexy. And the bike goes twice as fast.

P.S. I was wondering: has anyone ever heard of this universal joint failing? What prompted the recall?

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I had my local Honda dealer order the recall kit and schedule a service appointment.

I visited the dealer yesterday, and the new shaft was installed in about two hours.

I now feel more healthy, wealthy, and sexy. And the bike goes twice as fast.

P.S. I was wondering: has anyone ever heard of this universal joint failing? What prompted the recall?

I had only heard of one failure prior to this recall and that bike had a lot of miles on it and had been launched hard and often according to the owner. After the recall I could find a couple more Crosstourer failures but overall pretty rare. There was one VFRD member claiming people(s) had been injured because of drive shaft failures but he never backed up his claims and no one else was aware of this.

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I had my local Honda dealer order the recall kit and schedule a service appointment.

I visited the dealer yesterday, and the new shaft was installed in about two hours.

I now feel more healthy, wealthy, and sexy. And the bike goes twice as fast.

P.S. I was wondering: has anyone ever heard of this universal joint failing? What prompted the recall?

http://blog.motorcycle.com/2015/12/30/manufacturers/honda/2010-2013-honda-vfr1200f-recalled-for-driveshaft-issue/

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Interesting. Thank you.

Just a few legitimate reports but certainly enough to confirm a problem and issue a recall.

It must be a challenge for these manufacturers to manage the quality of components (like this universal joint) provided by contracted suppliers. I wonder if they have a contract clause whereby the supplier reimburses for faulty part costs.

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Mine is currently at the shop and the shaft is done, but I had a leaking fork seal which is now being corrected as well. I was tempted to send them off to Daughtery but don't have the time or a stand currently to take the forks off and leave in the garage for 2-3 weeks while they are getting done and we are in our prime riding season now. Pretty soon it'll be so damn hot I'll choose AC more then 2 wheels.........

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P.S. I was wondering: has anyone ever heard of this universal joint failing? What prompted the recall?

Yes. Met a rider on the TT2000 in February (2000 km in 48 hours - choose your own route in New Zealand's South Island) who sold his VFR1200 after his failed. He said he rode quite some distance over a few weeks until the occasional clonking noise annoyed him enough to get it checked out. The cushioning and some metal bits in the rose joint had disintegrated but it still meshed enough to work. He showed me pictures on his phone.

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Mine is currently at the shop and the shaft is done, but I had a leaking fork seal which is now being corrected as well. I was tempted to send them off to Daughtery but don't have the time or a stand currently to take the forks off and leave in the garage for 2-3 weeks while they are getting done and we are in our prime riding season now. Pretty soon it'll be so damn hot I'll choose AC more then 2 wheels.........

That's funny, mine is also in the shop right now getting the recall done, as well as fixing a leaking fork seal.

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Not to derail this thread but you guys having your fork seals replaced should do some searching online about how to clean your seals without taking anything apart. More often than not the seal is fine, just dirty. One of my seals was leaking a few weeks ago as well. Spent 10 minutes cleaning it and leak gone. Not the first time this has worked for me.

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Not to derail this thread but you guys having your fork seals replaced should do some searching online about how to clean your seals without taking anything apart. More often than not the seal is fine, just dirty. One of my seals was leaking a few weeks ago as well. Spent 10 minutes cleaning it and leak gone. Not the first time this has worked for me.

Good to know. I have only owned the bike for about 3 months now and 1900 miles. It has just over 11,000 and a leaking fork seal is not an uncommon Honda problem from my personal experience. I have had a couple leaking seals on an ST. Thanks for the information, next time I will make sure to check but mine was leaking pretty bad, I would be surprised if it was from being dirty. Enough that it toasted the left side brake pads..........Literally cleaned it up to get to dealer 15 miles away and it was saturated by the time I got there and here in Az we don't usually have many issues with stuff when street riding. Fairly clean with the exceptions of some dust I guess........

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http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news--general-news/honda-suspends-kumamoto-motorcycle-production/31122.html

That might slow things up a little if the parts are coming out of that factory?

Still, very minor thing compared to the plight of those in the area so here's wishing them luck.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a 2012 Honda VFR 1200 XD DCT and my transmission makes a knocking noise at low RPM. Is this a normal sound? Can someone with a DCT transmission  test?  lift the motorcycle on the center stand and place it in D. As the rear wheel starts turning you will hear knocking sounds coming from the transmission. IS this normal? Here is my audio recording;

 

 

 

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Yikes.  That does not sound "normal", though I haven't replicated your test.  There is driveline lash, but that sounds excessive.  Have you had the recall done yet?

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4 hours ago, HondaEd said:

I have a 2012 Honda VFR 1200 XD DCT and my transmission makes a knocking noise at low RPM. Is this a normal sound? Can someone with a DCT transmission  test?  lift the motorcycle on the center stand and place it in D. As the rear wheel starts turning you will hear knocking sounds coming from the transmission. IS this normal? Here is my audio recording;

 

 

 

Seems normal to me for an unloaded rear wheel. 

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I did the same thing before and after the recall was performed, and to be honest, I can't tell much of a difference on the center stand.  On the road, at parking lot speeds, the difference is quite noticeable.

 

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Since getting mine back it does seem a shade quieter but to be honest I didn't have enough saddle time yet to notice much difference I guess. That said she runs silky smooth like a Honda should. The more I ride this bike, the more I wonder if I will be able to keep my license though.................

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I have just done my recall  work, but yet to ride and confirm any noticeable difference.

 

First of all, the reason for the recall.

 

This is because they discovered that the UJ at the front of the shaft can have a problem. In the production process, the main/outer body of the UJ is staked over the bearings which keeps the entire assembly together. But the staking (pressing the metal over to fix the bearings in) pressure was too high and crushing the needle bearings too tightly, causing a high risk of failure.

 

What they did.

 

The recall was issued and bikes checked. Any that had a suspect UJ had a new drive shaft assembly - just the same part.

 

Meanwhile they were redesigning the part and production process, with lower staking pressure to prevent bearing damage and also for good measure, slightly larger bearings. As these 'countermeasure' parts became available, bikes were to be checked again and suspect shafts replaced (with the countermeasure part). But bikes that showed no problem were NOT to have the new shaft.

 

Then finally when the countermeasure parts were in good supply in sufficient quantities, ALL bikes that had not yet been fitted with the countermeasure part will have that done, no question.

 

Personally, I can't see how Honda could have handled it any better. It's unfortunate that they had the problem, but FFS there's a lot of parts involved and Honda's technical prowess and manufacturing abilities ensure such recalls are VERY rare.

 

The downside for me is that I had a spare driveshaft which I thought would be handy to have, long term. But this recall now makes it junk, worthless. There's no way I can get it swapped as it's not in a bike and recalls are done by the VIN. So I'm stuffed there.

 

However, I took it in to the dealer for him to check. There was NO play in the UJ. In fact it seemed almost too new, still being slightly stiff. Aha said the dealer tech. This is already on the way out. The test for failure is either slack in the UJ or excessive stiffness and that really means any stiffness. So it's actually pretty easy to check, although no longer necessary as it'll get replaced anyway. But in this case, stiffness was irrelevant as the main UJ body was in fact cracked. Yes, an actual hairline crack running across and so in danger of flying to pieces under load. Phew, at least that was never in my bike.

 

I soon received the countermeasure replacement and I can confirm that the new part looks identical, so no obvious way to tell the difference. There probably is a way, but it's not obvious.

 

I was keen to remove my original as I was sure there would be a lot of slack in the UJ because the bike is dreadful at low speed on a neutral throttle. If under even very slight acceleration or on the overrun, no problem, but as soon as there is no actual drive, it rattles like a bastard. Must be a failing UJ I've been telling myself while awaiting the replacement. But no, the old shaft has no slack whatsoever. The backlash is actually all within the gearbox. If I rotated the output shaft (onto which the shaft/UJ fits) back and forth by hand, the loud clunking seems to emanate from the clutch area. As if the entire basket is loose. I doubt that it is though, it's just normal backlash in a gearbox. All bikes have it.

 

So why is my bike so bad? On further examination of the original UJ, it is not stiff as much as notchy, like badly pitted and worn steering head bearings. What I'm surmising from this is that when under even slight load, this notchyness wouldn't be noticeable, but on a neutral throttle with no actual drive though the shaft, it will manifest itself as rapid fluctuations in speed of the shaft and gearbox, causing the gearbox to rattle more than if the UJ were completely and uniformly smooth.

 

Well that's my theory, but not had a chance to check it out. It is however interesting to read here that several owners say their bike is smoother after the recall, which backs up my theory. Some other things to do first, but then I'll be finding out if there's any improvement.

 

If replacing the shaft yourself, some advice. Follow the procedure in the manual. This states that the shaft should be fixed onto the final drive unit (so the snap ring has snapped into place) and then insert that whole assembly into the bike. However this means holding the final drive unit with one hand while trying to push aside the rubber boot and feed the UJ onto the gearbox output shaft, while holding the snap ring at this end open with a pair of circlip pliers. Well if you've been counting, that's 3 hands at least, not to mention the impossibility of holding the final drive unit up with one hand. Man, it's heavy.

 

So I took the obvious alternative method of installing the drive shaft shaft into the swingarm and onto the gearbox shaft first, then pushing the final drive unit onto the CV  joint output spline and finally onto the swingarm studs and avoid having to manhandle the final drive unit and shaft together as one assembly. Ha... I thought.

 

Don't bother even trying.

 

It is IMPOSSIBLE to push the final drive unit onto the shaft spline. Even with plenty of good grease, it simply won't go on and just pushes the shaft into the swingarm instead. There is no way to hold the CV joint to stop it all disappearing into the S/A as soon as you try to push on the final drive unit. If only they'd put a small step in the CV joint or shaft to hold it while pushing on the final drive unit...

 

But they didn't. So after pulling it all out again, if fitted the shaft into the final drive unit and then installed it all together as one assembly. A box, or something similar onto which the final drive unit could rest approximately in position, while working on getting the UJ onto the gearbox output shaft is I'd say essential, but then it wasn't actually as bad as I expected. The rest is a piece of cake anyway, so overall it's not a particularly hard job - if you follow the manual :wink:

 

Well, it all helps to pass the time while it rains outside :sad:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been meaning to sit down and write this, but time has eluded me thus far.  I just want to add my 2 cents into this thread as a huge PSA.  I didn't read the whole thread so someone else may have found the same thing. 

 

The PSA is to not mess around getting this recall done and do so ASAP.  Here is why I say that:

 

I took off last July on an annual trip to TN, NC, GA to ride in the Smokys.  About an hour into the trip, a vibration began and came and went for much of the trip, most of the time being present, but would lessen and worsen in intensity throughout.  I put a new set of tires on a day before leaving, so I attributed the vibration to perhaps a bad tire as all else seemed well.  I could never pinpoint where the vibration was coming from, front or back.  The bars shook but I could feel it in the seat as well which indicates it could be in the rear of the bike.  I put the bike up on stands when I got home and checked for excessive runout on the tires, both were ok.  I used DynaBeads for balancing so I was confident that a tire balance issue didn't exist.  I concluded that I wouldn't worry about it until this pair of tires was worn out and new ones were put on.

 

Once I received the recall notice, a light bulb popped on in the ol' noggin.  "Ah, THIS is probably what that vibration is!" I said to myself.  I scheduled the install after waiting a month and a half to get the parts in.  When I picked the bike up, I asked how things looked and explained what I had experienced with this vibration.  They said nothing was "falling apart" so it was unclear if the issue would be related.  In the first 500 feet of riding away from the dealership it was clear that this WAS the cause of the vibration.  The bike was once again smooth as glass. This means I was riding hard on mountain roads for a week while being on the interstates for close to 900 miles going to and from home with a driveshaft that could have locked up!  Not to mention all the miles I put on between then and March of this year.

 

Obviously all is well and nothing happened, but scary to me anyway.  If you haven't gotten this recall completed yet, please take care of this ASAP!

 

Be safe!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Mine was replaced yesterday and is as smooth as a smooth thing. Then again it was before they put the new shaft in :491:

 

And having ridden around on an NC750X for the day while they did it I'm reminded of just how awesome the 1200 is :goofy: 

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On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 2:10 PM, RoystonRocket2 said:

Mine was replaced yesterday and is as smooth as a smooth thing. Then again it was before they put the new shaft in :491:

 

And having ridden around on an NC750X for the day while they did it I'm reminded of just how awesome the 1200 is :goofy: 

I wondered whether you had as I got back from Paris to find the "Phase Two" recall notice in my mail.

 

NC750? Was that all they had? :schla15:

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