Universal joint and final drive.

Jackdan Blake

Joined
Feb 8, 2026
Messages
4
Location
Australia
Bike
2008 black NT700
Hi Everyone.

I bought an NT 700 about six weeks ago. Love it and have put about 1,500Kms on the clock (51,500 total).
Last ride it started whining in all gears. It was always a bit of a whine in 1st gear, but now noisy in all gears when accelerating or decelerating. I was thinking it was the gearbox, but then again could be final drive.

So I put on centre stand and I've got about an inch and a half of play i the rear wheel. I also noticed that if it's running and in gear on centre stand it sounds a bit clunky where the final drive bolts on to the swing arm. could be the universal joint, but I was sitting on 100km/h and no problem except for this whining gear sound. little high pitched.

How screwed am I? I'm thinking there's too much play in the rear wheel, too much clunking in fIrst on centre stand, and too whiny. Do I have a screwed gearbox AND drive shaft universal?

Bike mechanics around here are easily $130 per hour and it's a lot of hours to get to the drive shaft just to diagnose. I'm thinking to do it myself but I don't have a garage, so I'll be outside. Not ideal.

Thoughts?
 
I've just realised, Doh, that universal joint is going to be up the engine end of the drive shaft, isn't it?
So clunking noise where the final drive bolts on is likely play in the final drive...

How screwed am I?
 
The universal is in the rubber boot. The boot has a groove that boot fits in each side. Engine and swingarm. You can barely have room to push to each side and look at universal. Another point of contact is the straight splines inside hub of tire. Ever do a tire change? What shape they in?

On my 1st NT, those straight splints wore a whole bunch, around 150,000 miles, so instead of taking off, buying parts, I just bought whole new final drive, and the hub in wheel. There is touchy assembly with shims depending on how manufacturing tolerance are held. So labor is high dollar. So my 201,111 miles, the universal never had to be replaced. Had a PC800 that had a universal go bad

Buy a PDF or print of service manual, will help you
 
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