3rd gear whinning

[mally]

one trx burns oil and dont whine in third,my other dont burn oil and does whine in third i think its called character ! Its one of those things thats keeps you on your toes as you`re giving hell through the lanes. "IS IT GONNA BLOW ?"

[pom in nz]

yep mine whines too,
120,000k,s was thinking of a rebuild,
but strait thru pipes and pod filters, and i can hardly here myself think,

[Smithers]

Oh hek, this is just the issue that I have spent the last week involved with. I have stripped my engine to find that the noises coming from my gearbox, particularly from the first three gears, but MOST PARTICULARLY when in third gear, came from a gearbox that had a set of gears, bearings, shift forks, and shafts, that were in excellent condition. The gear tooth form of each gear was perfect and even the bushes of the idler gears showed little wear. The gearbox internals had been transplanted from a gear-set that had been obtained from ebay (by the previous owner) and was said to be transferable to either a TDM or TRX and had done a higher miliage than my bike. This was done to replace a bent set of shafts that had occured when a broken final drive chain had jammed between the engine case and sprocket and had stalled the engine at high speed.......What I did find was that the third gear ( idler gear) did have an obvious amount of side play ( rock) which I remedied by placing a shim behind a side thrust bearing. This gave the assembly 0.1mm side play Vs 0.4mm, which it had previously. When I reassembled the engine, placed it in the bike and took it for a test ride I found that there was no difference in the sound that came from the gear box (rather like a coffee grinder, when in third gear, and a useful indicator of when I,m in that gear). Nothing had changed.....so what the hell, Im happy, this gear mesh noise doesnt obvoiusly contribute to wear, nor indicate wear, and does add character to the machine........But I do do wonder that perhaps early gearsets were noisier than later ones. I have read where earlier gear sets may have had more backlash than later sets.......anyway, I suppose my point is that this may be more an asthetic issue than one that points towards wear or future mechanical failure...... and having known what I know now I probably wouldn't even bother shimming the side play out of the idler third gear (it finds it's correct mesh under load anyway)......as for the gear teeth in the photos, the markings on the gear teeth do not seem to be what I would expect hardened surface breakdown to look like, and not in the locations on the teeth face either (your pictures are excellent but its stll hard to be 100% sure of what's happening in them). Are the markings shown on the photes recessed, risen or a broken edged cratered surface..... if they are risen then you do not have wear but a build up of compressed transfered material.....my point in mentioning my experience is to share a recent appreciation that these gearboxes are inherently noisy, maybe some more than others depending on the year?.......you lucky buggar.....you have a silent third gear!!! Cheers.

[Silver]

Well, as said befor my 96 TRX with 35k miles whines in third. Just bought a 98 TDM with 22K mileas and no whine at all.
Dave

[Shifty]

Mine whines too in 3rd.
TDM850 1997 with 24.000 km.

[HansJ]

Long time no see, but here i am again.

Unfortunately my 3rd gear whining has turned more and more in to coffeegrinder noise. Using 3rd in town, around 50 kph always was a bit "odd", first time i had a feeling the chain/sprockets were shot, but no matter what chain/sprockets i've used, 3rd has always been somewhat rough. That said, i've mostly used mine on the track, and there i mostly use 3rd. (But the roughnes isn't noticeable under hard acceleration) Engine's been tuned, which of course puts more stress on the drive-chain.

Is my gearbox shot?

What's the solution?

[alextrx850]

Interesting this topic, I got rid of my first motor as it had an annoying third whine.
A pal rode the bike and I couldn't hear any noise from beside as it travelled...I was mystified as well.
Basically most Trx engines will have a whine in third..not sure why, but they will.
No metallic present in the oil after draining either...
Shoulder shrug !
Interestingly the sound seems quieter when the engine is first used..oil is cooler and maybe thicker ?

[SDN]

My third gear started slipping, stripped it all down and found a worn selector fork, got a flea bay 2nd hand box which I fitted and that was 5K miles ago - been OK since

[bagmaker]

chuck the missus on the back, her whining should cancel the gearbox out