Final Drive – Honda CX500, GL500, CX650, GL650

Being a shaft drive bike, the Honda CX and GL twins have a final drive unit to transfer power to the rear wheel hub. Check out our articles on it below!

The final drive unit on the twisted twins transmits power from the driveshaft to the rear wheel, and looks like this on most CX500s (3 nuts attach it to the swingarm, vs. 4 on some other regions/models):
…and the side which faces the wheel:

You can see the splined end which mates with the driveshaft here (and the grease nipple just up and to the left):


On CX500 models with dual rear shocks there is a mount for the lower eye of the right shock:

The CX500E has a rear monoshock and as such lacks the above mounting stud for the right hand shock. On most CX500s it mounts to the swingarm with three bolts:

The final drive unit is sometimes incorrectly called a differential; a differential allows the two wheels on the opposite ends of the driving axle to turn at different rates, hence the name. Since shaft driven motorbikes (well, most shaft driven motorbikes) only have one rear wheel the housing only holds the final drive.

In terms of whether your bike has a 3- or 4-bolt final drive unit, it seems to vary between regions – there have been reports of CX500s coming with 4-bolt final drive units in the UK, and in the US it appears that the GL650s may have one or the other. All CX650EDs appear to have 4-bolt units, as far as we have seen. If you’re looking for a replacement you have to get one with the same number of bolts, unless you intend on changing out more than just the final drive unit.

Care and Maintenance of the Final Drive Unit

There are three main areas of maintenance with the final drive unit:

Final drive oil

Driveshaft grease

Info to come.

Final drive spline grease

Final drive flange

Painting the final drive

Removing the final drive unit

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