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Just bought a 02 1150RT and new to the forum. After reading about final drive failures and such, I checked the rear wheel for play. When you grab the wheel at 10 and 4, there is a slight (less than a 16th) amount of play. At 9 and 3, I get nothing. Is this a sign of normal wear and/or pinion meshing or is it something else. Thanks.

I plead ignorance, as I have never seen this comment.

There should not be any play at the rear wheel. You can tell a wheel bearing going bad by gently spinning the wheel: there should be no roughness (other than a little dragging of the brake pads).
Play at the rear wheel is typically caused by the final drive pivot bearings. These needle bearings can often be re-torqued (takes minutes if you have the tools), but they do wear out. I re-tightened mine 15,000 miles ago and have not been a problem since then.

I can offer some comment on this, as mine has 'play' as well.

Depends whether you are refering to wheel play (a bad thing) or paralever play (an ok thing).

Wheel play is probably in the bearings, and needs to be looked at.

If the whole rear assembly is 'moving', then it's probably the paralever bushes. My service guys found some play in mine on the 40,000 klm service. They said they would check it again every service. Sometimes it goes away (tightens up) or lessens when the bike has been ridden and is hot.

I'm now at 92,000 kms, just had a service where it was specifically checked again, and it hasn't really changed. On very rare occasions I THINK I can feel a slight 'flick' from the rear when I'm changing direction in the mountains. No big deal, just a hint of movement. I could be wrong about what gives that impression.

So ......... Have another feel and try and isolate the problem to the wheel or the whole rear end. Paralever bushes will be difficult and expensive to replace, and it may not be required. Wheel bearings need to be replaced.

If it's in the diff - Get it seen to. There should be no play at all from the shaft end.

I am going to try and give you a better picture of what I call "rear wheel play". I'm the ignorant one here so bear with me. When I grab the wheel at the 10 and 4 o'clock position and try to pull with one hand and push with the other, I can feel a tiny bit of play. I would say maybe 1/32. I can detect the movement at the rubber boot. Does that narrow things down any? I can't see it if I pull the boot back, the boot just gives me a source of reference. I called two BMW service centers and they said that it sounds normal. What do the experts on the forum say? Thanks again.

Sounds normal. Wheel bearing play would give you movement at any position. Your hand postion is similar to where I get play as far as I recall, and it's in the paralever. The 'opposite' hand location doesn't load the para bushes the same way and so the play is much less, or not there. Remember also that the tiny amount of play is amplified at the distance of the tyre. It's probably much less than you think you are feeling, or measuring at the wheel.

Thanks for everyones help. I'm learning alot about BMW's and the people who own them. What a great bunch! I'm starting to like the clunkyness of the bike. Compared to my Triumph Bonneville (also an 02), this thing is like a tank.

Here's how to isolate the question to determine whether play is in the paralever bearings or in the final drive.

Grab the wheel at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions and have a helper apply the rear brake at the same time. If the wheel has play, then the paralever's pivot bearings are the culprit. If there is no play with the rear brake applied but there is play without brakes applied then you can be confident the play is in the rear drive.

Yes, this past winter I replaced the rear pivot bearings on my paralever. At first I thought the squeek was from a noisey shock but the procedure I just discribed isolated the problem. Only one bearing was dry and wasted but since I was "in there", I replaced both sets of bearings.

Okay, checked it and it has play when the rear brake is pushed. So it must be the paralever bearings. Is this a pretty straightforeward remove/replace type of thing?

Here is the link I used to repair mine:

http://advwisdom.hogranch.com/Wisdom/Pa ... 0tool.html

Be sure you have the proper torque wrench, i.e. one that will measure as little as 7 newton-meters.

I found the job to be straight forward. I took the rear drive to my dealership and had them install the pivot bearings which cost approximately $30/apiece.

You might want to take the bike to a dealership anyway and let a tech do the jiggle just to be sure.