Contents

I had the swing arm powder coated, so I removed the drive shaft before taking it to the powder coater.

The 1983 R80ST swing arm is designed for a monoshock rear suspension, but the driveshaft is the same as the one used in the dual shock 1983 R100RS. I previously removed and installed the driveshaft in a 1983 R100RS and documented the work. So I will not repeat the procedure here, but link to it as appropriate.

1983 R100RS Dual Shock Swing Arm Design

1983 R80ST Powder Coated Monoshock Swing Arm Design

Drive Shaft Design

The 1983 drive shafts are designed to absorb torsional shock loads caused by rapid acceleration and deacceleration. Here is a description of the driveshaft components.

1983 R100RS: Drive Shaft Design

1983 Drive Shaft Parts

A-Drive Shaft
B-Spring Retaining Collar
C-Spring
D-Yoke
E-Bell Coupling
F-Snap Ring Retaining Collar
G-Snap Ring

Parts

I replace the snap ring that secures the driveshaft parts inside the swing arm. Euro MotoElectrics supplied this for free in support of my goal for this bike of auctioning it and donating all proceeds to support the Motorcycle Relief Project.

BMW Part#: 26 11 1 237 189
EME Part#: LockRing189

Tools

The tools used to remove and install the earlier solid driveshafts that don’t include the torsional shock load parts are different than the tools needed for the 1983 driveshaft. Cycle Works supplies both sets of tools. Here is a description of both types of Cycle Works driveshaft tools.

I use snap ring pliers to help install the snap ring. These allow me to reverse the action of the pliers when I squeeze them: squeeze to close the jaws or squeeze to open them.

Snap Ring Pliers

Video

This video reuses the videos I made for the 1983 R100RS and adds some details about the 1983 R80ST.

VIDEO: 1983 BMW R80ST Remove & Install Driveshaft

Remove Driveshaft Procedure

Here is the description of how to assemble the Cycle Works tool and remove the driveshaft in the 1983 R100RS.

Install Driveshaft Procedure

Here is a description of how I install and assemble the driveshaft inside the swing arm of the 1983 R100RS.

Here are some pictures from the 1983 R80ST installation.

Powder Coated Monoshock Swing Arm and Driveshaft Components

I had a problem getting the snap ring to seat in the groove in the end of the driveshaft. I used a pair of needle nose vice grips to compress the snap ring while I loosened the bolts on the spring compressor jig and that did the trick.