Lubing Shaft Drive Spline

[smellthat?]

Ok, so I thought I was all cool and stuff doing all the Spring maintenance on my new FEEJER (new to me in the Fall of 2010.) Well, after buttoning everything up I realized I probably should have lubed the shaft drive spline since I have no idea when or if this has ever been done (and I won't need tires for a bit.) Of course I thought of this little detail AFTER I replaced the final drive gear oil - DOH! :fool: My question is can I pull the spline without dumping the oil? It looks close like I can if I am careful. I know I am being cheap with the oil, but I have spent so much on the add ons this Spring (plus I am out of oil and want to get this done tonight and ride in the am)!

 

[FJRay]

The foward end of the drive shaft is what you want to lube. The rear spline is lubed by the final drive oil.

 

[escapefjrtist]

What Ray said. Remove the four acorn nuts and carefully pull the final drive rearward. Drive shaft will come out with the FD unit. Use the rear axle as a prop to hold up the FD while you lube the splines.

--G

 

[smellthat?]

Umm, duh. Damn I am looking at the FSM in my office (over a few beers) with all the pieces apart and it looks like everything comes apart. Going and looking at the bike I now see I'm a moron! Admins please delete this post to save my embarrassment for failure to properly review my FSM!!!!! :ermm:

 

[SkooterG]

Umm, duh. Damn I am looking at the FSM in my office (over a few beers) with all the pieces apart and it looks like everything comes apart. Going and looking at the bike I now see I'm a moron! Admins please delete this post to save my embarrassment for failure to properly review my FSM!!!!! :ermm:

Hell no!

I just wish you would have posted this on Friday......

 

[RaYzerman19]

If you've only got 10-20,000 miles or so, you could wait until next tire change, or a bit longer if you had to. But, while you have the rear drive out, why not take the opportunity to remove your U-joint and grease those splines too.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I would suggest reviewing the maintenance articles at FJRTech and FJRInfo. They have pictures and everything!

 

[dannymax]

I performed the drive shaft spline lube a few days ago but whan it came tiime to pull the left footrest bracket to get the u-joint I found one big huge 'torx' head bolt along with the regular allenhead's. Is this factory and what size is it?

 

[wheatonFJR]

I performed the drive shaft spline lube a few days ago but whan it came tiime to pull the left footrest bracket to get the u-joint I found one big huge 'torx' head bolt along with the regular allenhead's. Is this factory and what size is it?

Torx is size 50

 

[dannymax]

I performed the drive shaft spline lube a few days ago but whan it came tiime to pull the left footrest bracket to get the u-joint I found one big huge 'torx' head bolt along with the regular allenhead's. Is this factory and what size is it?

Torx is size 50

Funny, I was gonna say....'what is that, like a 50 or something!'

Thanks, gives me a good excuse for a little ride to the A/P now.

 

[John d]

I performed the drive shaft spline lube a few days ago but whan it came tiime to pull the left footrest bracket to get the u-joint I found one big huge 'torx' head bolt along with the regular allenhead's. Is this factory and what size is it?

Torx is size 50

There is no need to pull the footrest bracket. Just take off the two pieces of plastic that go around the U-joint, and then slide the u-joint off.

 

[Bounce]

I performed the drive shaft spline lube a few days ago but whan it came tiime to pull the left footrest bracket to get the u-joint I found one big huge 'torx' head bolt along with the regular allenhead's. Is this factory and what size is it?

yes. T-50 as documented here:

Swing Arm Maint

https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/sa/sa.html

Some others that might be interesting

Splines: https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/spline/spline.html

U-Joint: https://www.fjr-tips.org/maint/ujoint/uj.html

 

[wheatonFJR]

Yes, Bounce's fjr-tips is another great resource.

Read, lookie at the pictures and learn. Even I can do a lot of the maintenance now.

 

[dannymax]

John d-I tried to remove the plastic but guess I didn't get the right position cause the furthest I got was removing the (2) small retaining bolts.

Bounce-Some great links right there....all printed off and in my info drawer!

I have the T-50 Torx so nothing can stop me now!! :yahoo:

I don't think......

 

[TomInPA]

Good timing on this. I am changing the rear tire now. So I pulled the drive shaft out and was able to remove the dust seals, but the U-bolt didn't clear the swing arm, so I wasn't able to get it out for servicing. Now reassembling with Moly lube on the splines, and I'm having trouble getting the drive shaft to mate with the U-joint.

Guess I'll head back out to the garage and try again, but it just hangs up at the outside of the u-joint output.

This is a job for the guys with small hands methinks.

 

[TomInPA]

Um, cancel that. shaft inserted in hole. :yahoo:

 

[wheatonFJR]

Um, cancel that. shaft inserted in hole. :yahoo:

Congrats! on your party time! :lol:

 

[Fred W]

I know I'm the only one here willing to buck conventional wisdom, but...

Have you ever noticed that there is no official recommended service interval specified anywhere for lubing those drive shaft splines?

Yes, there is a procedure that says to lube them when re-assembling, after disassembling for some other reason. And it specifies to use regular lithium soap based grease, not the moly paste that most of us use. The grease used is strictly to make assembly and future disassembly easier. There is no sliding movement of these forward splined parts during suspension articulation. You could probably just as well use anti-seize grease.

The FSM specifically does not call for any greasing of the large diameter splines between the rear wheel hub and the final drive. That's is the one that people grease up and then the grease flings out on their rear wheel. No real need to grease that one. But, if it makes you feel good, grease away. I don't think it will do any harm except for the dirty wheel syndrome.

 

[RaYzerman19]

There's nothing wrong with challenging the wisdom, Fred, but I'm going to offer up a suggestion that prevention is worth a pound of cure when it comes to splines. While in theory there is no sliding movement of the driveshaft splines, we don't know for sure if some torsional load wants to force the U-joint to slide a bit when accelerating or decelerating. My feeling has been, most who have had U-joint problems had them because their splines didn't have any grease and couldn't slide (albeit we all know these sealed bearings should have been made so we could grease them too!!). Whether I'm right or not, I would rather give them the opportunity to slide easily so my U-joint bearings aren't unduly stressed. Maybe I'll get an extra 10k out of them.

As for the rear wheel splines, this is just a plain oversight by Yamaha and others. Surely Mama Yama musta known you can't run splines dry!! Only Honda got that right by calling for Honda Moly 60 Paste. Those splines generate a lot of heat and ordinary grease won't do. As our OP has noted, not much grease and he has burrs on the splines. Again, no need for that if greased properly.

As for those with grease on their rear wheels, just don't use so much. I am guilty too, but you only need a light coating of this stuff, and there is no need to fill the valleys of your splines. I have a 3 oz. tube of Moly 60 that I've had since 2007 and it has done mine and several other bikes. I even gave a couple of tablespoons away, and I'll bet I run out next year......