Ural Final Drive Fail

Last night the rain turned to sleet and then snow. The roads were covered in nearly two inches of hard packed ice. A couple inches of snow on top of that made the morning commute exciting.

Cars were all over the place struggling to get grip, but the Ural didn’t have any problems with the snow once I engaged 2WD. It didn’t shift modes as easy as normal, but I didn’t think much of it.

When I left work the roads were wet, but clear. I switched it back to 1WD. It didn’t want to switch, but eventually it did. I didn’t think much of this as that’s kind of normal behavior for that lever. I have found it to be a bit fiddly and sometimes requires rocking the bike back and forth to get it to switch.

On the way home, I smelled something unpleasant. What’s that smell!? Is that the Ural? It turned out it was. It smelled a lot like final drive oil. I recognize the odor as I’ve changed my final drive oil several times and it has a very distinct aroma.

The pivot point in the middle of the photo is where the 1WD/2WD lever attaches to the final drive housing where it looks like it’s being ripped off. Not good! The bike can still move under it’s own power both forwards and in reverse.

On the plus side it’s quite easy to add final drive oil now. There is a nice gap to see inside.

I called Kevin at Scrambler Cycle. He was impressed with the photos. He’ll be picking it up in a couple days, and then we can begin the long wait to get parts. Hopefully they will come from Washington state and be here in a week or two, and that they don’t have to come direct from the factory in Russia which will take a month. Until Kevin can take it apart, we won’t know what else is wrong or what caused it.

On the positive side, the Ural is still covered under the factory warranty until December 2011. This will also give Kevin an opportunity to work on another issue.