After re-reading the post on the rebuild, I got to thinking about front pinion bearing lubrication.
If all the original, and not certain about current BB's, had the black slim for oil, it's very possible that the front bearing gets very little to none of the oil.
If you look above the pinion gear, you can see a very small slit in the housing/plate. I'm sure there is one on the bottom as well. I would guess this is where the oil gets routed to the pinion bearings.
If you guys are indeed flooding the housings up to the vent with oil, then the pinion bearings "should" get oil.
But I'm still a proponent to NOT flooding the case and only filling up to the side hole. If you look at the newer GL1800 Goldwing final drives, they have a vent on top, drain on the bottom and a side hole that you fill to. They also state to use 80/90 weight oil, it's cast right in the housing.
But overall it sounds like the BB noise problem on new M3W's has lessened to an acceptable level. I hope that older M3W's have had it worked out by now.
