It was time to go through my 1981 R100RS transmission.  Upon disassembly only the old 15 deg. input shaft gear look bad.  The bearings seemed pretty good despite pulling a sidecar a good part of its life.  My confusion is with replacement bearings.  I’ve searched the forum and looked at other well established sources and can find no reasonably clear direction for the bearings with seals (p/n;  23-12-1-233-808).  Leaving out names of the sources of information (I not looking to identify what site said what, they all are trying to give us good info) what I have found follows;

-The 1981 R100RS trans, as expected, had no seals on any bearings as they are the originals (no help there).

-The (6) bearing kits have four similar bearing, two with seals on both sides (went through this “clean bearing” upgrade with my ’96 R1100RT).

-The parts fiche and pictures show a seal only on one side and used on the rear of the input shaft and the front of the intermediate shaft (cluster shaft).  Which side for the seal not shown.  I can imagine logical reasons for either direction.

-I have found indications that the fiche is known to have shown incorrect locations for some time.

-Another source stated the sealed bearings go only on each end of the intermediate shaft (presumably seals on both sides of each bearing).

-Another; a seal goes only on the rear (cover side) of the rear intermediate shaft bearing & remove all other seals.  Why wouldn’t the bearing kits only have one bearing with seals if only one bearing has any seals?

I know the trans with no seals did pretty well with a heavy duty clutch and the sidecar for many miles but if there is a known more optimum solution PLEASE LET ME KNOW.