Every Ural rider needs an Oscar

Today, after a week of research, weighing and comparing options available to me in terms of either fixing or replacing Natasha's final drive, I finally decided to at least look at the innards of the final drive and judge for myself the extent of the damage.

As you might have read from my previous postings, I'd been unable to remove the axle from the rear or "pusher tire" and therefore couldn't remove the wheel in order to get at the final drive assembly.  It was well and truly stuck in there, and repeated hammerings accomplished nothing but damaging the threaded end of the axle.

Today, Oscar, a friend from work and my now best wrenching friend, came over with his tools.  The first order of business was to cut the outboard end of the axle, as close to the wheel hub as possible. Once the loose section of the axle was removed, we could then slide the wheel with final drive still attached to the left.

This would thereby free the mounting bolts which secure the FD to the right side swing arm mounting holes.  Once free of the mounting holes, the only thing holding the final drive to the motorcycle would be the prop shaft which mates it to the rubber donut which mates it in turn to the transmission.

Oscar wasted no time and before I knew it was sawing away at the axle:

Oscar and his sawsall

Using what Oscar described as a blade that was "toast", it took him
only a few minutes of steady cutting to cut the axle

The stub in the left swing arm's pinch bolt was being difficult in its own right, but Oscar's slide hammer made quick work of that.

Now came the fun part and the inspiration for the title of this posting.  Using a breaker bar, I managed to push the final drive to the left and off the mounting holes of the swing arm.  Now, the wheel and final drive assembly were only connected to the motorcycle via the prop shaft to the transmission.

I loosened the prop shaft from the donut and while Oscar basically dead-lifted the entire rear end of the motorcycle, I wrestled the final drive free of the portion of the donut which connects it to the transmission.  Oscar continued to hold the motorcycle's rear end in the air and I slid the wheel and final drive out from under it.

I then took the wheel off and we rolled it outside to examine it.  The axle remained stuck in the wheel hub and since it was toast anyways, Oscar then hammered it out.  We noted a groove had been "cut" into the axle so it was toast regardless.  So, what cut that groove you ask?  I'll tell you.

The Ural wheel design is like so:

Part number 20 in the picture above depicts the two roller bearings into which the axle, p/n 11 above, is inserted.  They ride on both ends of p/n 27 which is a bushing.

The inner roller bearing had apparently seized and basically shredded itself to pieces inside the wheel hub.  In the process of doing so, it seized the axle (probably where the slight groove was cut) and prevented me from pulling the axle as normal.

Here's the two roller bearings in question, the whole one is the outer bearing.  

The one in pieces, used to look like the one in the upper left corner.  Nice huh?

Here's the final drive, cracked open for your viewing pleasure and for my eventual disassembly to inspect for damage and replacement of parts as required.

As a portent of hope, all the gears spun smoothly within their respective housings.  

I could move them with easy with my fingers, and by using the prop shaft.  

So hopefully, no major damage to the final drive components themselves!

The wheel hub splines on the pusher wheel were of course toast as well.  I'll be needing a new wheel, again.  I am also thinking that I will need a new driven gear spline assembly:

The driven gear spline, looks pretty bad to me, and probably the cause of the stripped wheel hub splines.

I continued on for a bit more but stopped to take a break.  Pictures were sent to the Ural dealer for price quotes, we'll see what the totals entail.  It might be cheaper to replace the whole final drive with one of the newer ones which are better and more reliable.  Though a new one won't be full time 2WD, it will come with engageable 2WD.  We'll see.

The above start of repair efforts does not mean I've discarded the notion of perhaps replacing the motorcycle with a different tug.  Or finding a new rig to take Natasha's place.  All options remain on the table, to include as I mentioned, getting a new Ural Final Drive.

That is one thing about Urals, the design has changed so little in over 40 years, that a 2010 Final Drive bolts right onto a 1996 frame and transmission!