Vulcan Final Drive Oil Change / VN1500/1600

A short video of how I do my routine oil change on my VN1500 "Rat" sidecar rig's final drive - please remember I AM NOT A MECHANIC - copy me at your own risk - if you do it a different way that's fine by me!

[@HippoDrones]

Nicely done Ponkster 🙂

[@ThePonkster]

Thanks! 😄

[@Jodyrides]

my first Moto Guzzi, 1979SP 1000, called for in oil additive to be added to the final drive lube called rocol (row call-?) you could buy it at the Moto Guzzi dealer. it came in a plastic bottle, approximately 100 or so cc. It was absolutely black liquid in that bottle. I believe they instructed the owner to add 1/2 oz to the final drive unit along with the fresh 80/90 WT final drive gear lube..
my following three additional Moto Guzzi’s I had over the decades until 2021, none of them called for that additive to be added to the final drive gear lube..
A bit of irony. I had a mid2000s BMW K 1200 LT. those machines were commonly having final drive failures. My dealer claimed that it was due to people overloading their motorcycles or pulling heavy trailers. That turned out to not be true.
that always made me nervous riding that motorcycle with my wife on the back especially. Because I’ve had transmission lock ups twice .. that is no fun because pulling the clutch and does not release the back wheel from being locked when the transmission locks. So I always Checked for radial movement in my rear wheel at every gas stop on that bmw.. my very first and my very last BMW. They sure ain’t what they used to be. but I find it remarkable that BMW would not call for an additive with friction modifiers to the final drives. On one of them, it was publicized in a magazine, the final drive on a GS the housing, actually exploded. There was a big chunk of it missing, and the gear lube inside was actually on fire in the photo…
There were two riders that rode together in the famous iron, but rally here in the United States. They rode BMWs, and they carried a spare final drive complete unit. That shows how much confidence they had.
I would suggest only draining the oil after at least an hour on the road so you have all of the metal particles, grit, gear, flake, in suspension in the oil. I would also drain the oil over a magnet that is inside of a sandwich bag, keeping the oil off of the magnet. there will be magnetic and non-magnetic material in the gear, lube your drain out of the final drive. You can inspect it, and depending on how much debris there is, you may be able to avoid a catastrophic failure before it happens.

[@ThePonkster]

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[@toddpurchase1533]

Thanks. Great job. Is there any drive shaft maintenance for Vulcan’s ? My Vulcan 1500 blew the drive shaft

[@ThePonkster]

The only drive shave stuff I know of is to put a dollop of grease on the slipjoint at the rear wheel end of it every now and then.