Gearbox whine

[floyd]

Hi all, is it normal for oilhead gearboxs to whine a bit or is something wrong.
My pal has just bought one, he was told most beemer gearboxs whine and not to worry
atb Floyd

[Sjoerd Bakker]

How loud is the whine? Every operating machine makes some normal sounds- is this abnormal ? How many km on the bike? Was it bought used and what was the previous owner's riding style, and alleged reason for selling ? Has oil in trans been changed recently, does it have enough oil?
I have an oilhead 1100gs , no prominent whine ever heard in
250 000km. Did hear a grinding and whining in April but that was the rear drive unit bearing giving out and it was quite obvious it needed fixing.I have owned air heads and the transmission bearings going on those was acompanied by only slight noise.

[dc lindberg]

What hypoid is he running?
The thinner the more whining.
As the hypoid spockets are submitted to increased load the whining is intensified - normal gearing sound.

The best hypoid that I have tested is:
- omega 690 80W/90

The worst is:
- VW G50 75W/90 fully synthetic "water"

>>Quaker State / Spectro 80W/90 was ok.<<

Mineral hypoids are more quite that synthetic.
Old /worn-out oil causes more whining than fresh/new oil. Service intervall is about 10 000km on the oilheads (BMW claims differently...).


If you want a good reference on whining engines... BMW K100 1984 -
Could hear the cops comming blocks away -