took my recent acquisition, a 16v k100rs to the testing station and it was picked up that the rear wheel has play in it. I'm guessing play in the bearings in the final drive?? The clymer manual write up on the back hub looks quite daunting and it appears I need to start by removing the final drive unit.
Could this simply be the ball bearing on the outside of the ring gear...is this accessible without removing the final drive by taking off the cover after removing the eight bolts round its circumference.
No obvious noise in the bearing but there is play.
Should I be removing the whole unit while I'm needing to address what seems to be a bearing issue...

hi rocket ....youll need to get the bearing pressed off and pressed on ....if your lucky you might be able to get the crown wheel out without undoing the whole lot .
i would suggest changing the conical bearing (other end of the shaft )
as well. as wear has no boundarys and will be out of wack .

personally id be taking it all out ...after undoing slightly all the housing bolts ...
hey its only another 7 odd screws ...and youll need to hand over the whole housing for the removal of the conical bearing cup section anyhow .

dont forget.... youll probably need a new output shaft seal ....and whilst there, replacing the housing o ring

and will give you a chance to do a good spline lube in the reassembly


good luck

I am presuming you have some lateral play in the main carrier bearing. All that can be done is to replace the bearing and seal and reshim the crown wheel so that it meshes correctly with the pinion gear. If that is not done then the drive will fail prematurely and cost you a bundle. Also renew the pinion bearings because if one is on the way out so are the others.
If you are at all unsure about the proceedure get it done by a professional.
As Charlie said take the opportunity to do some other maintenance like the spline lube and repack the swingarm bearings and check the drive shaft along with the paralever bearings. I would also do a spline lube on the clutch shaft, a bit more work but beats taking it all apart to do it again in a few months or so.

The clutch spline is the weak link in the drive line so it pays to be cautious.

appreciate the advice, time to do some more reading on.

I started dismantling and have found the right hand pivot pin and bolt wasnt more than nipped up, certainly not torqued correctly. am suspecting the play may have been due to a loose pin. need to buy a 12mm allen key socket to do anything on the lh pivot pin side, so stuck for the moment. Tempting to torque both up properly and see if that was all that was wrong, but suspect thats being optimistic.

ah ! yes they may have seen loosness in the rear end and described it as just rear wheel ...

Definitely do the tighten up to spec and test is again to see if you can feel any play with luck you may have found the cause.
Regards,
K-BIKE

Those needle rollers are a problem area and if they are lose they will more than likely be shagged I replaced mine not long ago and spent a long time looking for non OEM but found none so had to buy from Motobins. I have since found a guy in US that makes Bronze bushes and reports vary but being in the know engineering wise they would require more attention than the needle rollers.
You need to lube the needle rollers each time you do a spline lube.
They are not strong enough for the job and dont go the distance like most other parts do on the Ks.
If you want to try the bushes get back and I will get the info but they were more expensive than the rollers.

Here is a thread in an other forum, about this kind of bushings.

Inge K.