Lessons Learned while lubing shaft splines..

[kerhrhr]

Well, after reading Warchilds' article in FJRtech on lubing the driveshaft, and seeing the pics of ol' boys driveshaft in AZ, I thought it prudent to check mine out, and lubricate as necessary. I've got just over 5300 miles on my 05', and I am quite pleased with the whole maintenance project overall. There were, however, some lessons I learned, lessons that I hadn't read about, or perhaps "warnings" would be a better term to use. I followed WC's steps, right down the line, and everything went according to the outline, until it came time to remove the pumpkin. I removed the acorn nuts, and low and behold, the drive shaft came out of the pumkin. Here is a pic....

https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0416.jpg

I started to get worried that something had gone terribly wrong, took a couple deep breaths, and then evaluated it more carefully. It turns out that the driveshaft just kinda "floats" there in the pumpkin, and wasn't "held in place" by anything. Something else I learned was that the aft end of the drive shaft was lubricated by the gear oil (don't know why I didn't originally think that was the case, but...) I had expected the foward end of the pumpkin to be "sealed", and the driveshaft to be held in place somehow. It wasn't like that. Another point of interest is the silver cap on top of the pumpkin, when in the correct horizontal position is a vent, and when you tilt the pumpkin, like I did in the pic above, it leaks gear oil everywhere. Keep it horizontal!

Here is a pic of the gear on the left side of the wheel, where it attaches to the pumpkin. After close inspection, the rust colored stuff you see on the gear teeth, isn't rust. It is a very light coating of grease, and I mean light! Almost nothing there, and same goes for the gear in the pumpkin where the wheel slides into place. But.....the good news, is that there didn't appear to be any noticeable wear on either of the gears.

https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0410.jpg

After I removed the driveshaft, I cleaned up the splined end, and checked for wear there as well. The shaft was very lean on lube (didn't take a pic of that) just as the gear on the wheel, but again, no noticeable wear, and that is a good thing. Here is a pic of the drive shaft splines after cleaning. It could almost pass for a new part.

https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0422.jpg

One more thing that I think requires some attention is the rubber seals (the black ones) on both sides of the wheel around the wheel bearings. On the left side of the wheel, there is a thick rubber "gasket" or "dust shield" around the perimeter of the gear. I noticed a very thin layer of grease on the surface of this gasket, and I don't know if it was on there because someone put it there on purpose, or it just flung off the gear, either way I cleaned it up good, and re-applied a thin layer of grease. The right side of my wheel, and I have ABS brakes, has that sensor ring on it. The back side of that sensor ring has a smooth machined surface on it that glides on the black rubber seal on the wheel. The ring slides into and fills that 1/2 inch or so of a void where the right wheel bearing sits, and then "rides" on that black rubber seal. I applied a thin coat of grease on that seal as well.

https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0431.jpg

And last but not least. When it comes to the point that you have done all your re-lubing, and are ready to put things back together, etc. before you start torqueing your nuts and bolts, make sure you have reattached your brake torque arm, and put the nut and bolt back in before you torque the rear axle nut. You won't be able to move that brake caliper around to get that arm back in place, if you've already torqued the axle nut.

https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0366.jpg

Well, that was my experience with the whole project. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I learned a great deal from it. If I had known that the driveshaft and wheel/differential gears were in as good a shape as they were, I would've waited until my first tire change to do the maintenance. I just had to find out for myself how it looked.

A special thanks to WC for his maintenance articles, and help in figuring out how to post my pics.

Aaron

 

[yamaha1300rider]

Great pics Aaron - that's the sort of details I'd like to see for the relay and swingarm regrease jobs

It turns out that the driveshaft just kinda "floats" there in the pumpkin, and wasn't "held in place" by anything.

I'm surprised if you're correct as we've always been told not to remove the shaft

Can someone else confirm either way?

 

[f1fan]

Hi Aaron, great writeup. Thanks for the post and the pictures. It could not have come at a better time.

As yamaha1300rider already said, I'd like that confirmation on not removing the shaft as well since I have both wheels off for a tire change and was planning on taking the pumpkin off and inspecting the spline. I have an 04 ABS model and the drive gear for the rear wheel had already plenty of lube. That made me feel pretty confident that Yamaha did a better job on later model FJRs. Maybe I don't even need to take the pumpkin of to check the shaft.

Thanx

 

[HondaCBX6]

My shaft came out WITH the pumkin. The seal was holding the shaft in the pumkin. When I removed the pumkin the shaft can with. It seams that some are tight enough to bring the shaft out with it. I don't think there is any problem with removing the shaft. Doing so allows you to lube the engine side splines too. If you don't pull the shaft you would never see the rust that can cover the shaft. Several owners found their shaft covered with a thin layer of rust. Mine had started rusting so pulling the shaft I was able to clean it up and coat the entire shaft with a thin layer of grease to protect it.

Don't worry about pulling the shaft....

 

[Geezer]

Just put a new set of Avons on mine yesterday. While I was in there I pulled the pumpkin and shaft. Came out as a unit. Very easy job. There was an adequate amount of grease on the shaft end and on the drive/driven gears for the wheel, but I cleaned them off and replaced with Moly 60.

The other thing I did was pull out the U-joint, clean it up, and lube it with moly-60. It also had enough grease on it but you won't know that until you take it out and have a look. It was a pain getting the dust seal out because there is little space to work but I took my time and didn't force anything and it went well. Here is a procedure for pulling the u-joint: Servicing the U joint

And, I tightened my axle before replacing the brake torque arm bolt and had to loosen it in order to align the caliper. Guess I'll remember that next time.

 

[Warchild]

Nice writeup and pics, Aaron! However, your pictures a waaay too wide for proper forum display, so I turned them into links untill you can re-size them. You want to try to keep the size of your photos to a maximum of 800 pixels wide. There are a lot of freeware/shareware programs that will re-size them for you.

Yes, as seen below, the shaft should stay in the pumpking when you remove the four acorn nuts; I am a little surprised that yours came out so freely.

Have other 2005 model years owners who have pulled their driveshafts also experienced what Aaron did? Was there some design change starting in 2005 that we are generally unaware of?

That being said, even on the older '03-'04 models, you could, in fact, remove the driveshaft from the pumpkin if you really yoinked on the draveshaft (straight out from the pumpkin housing). But it certainly didn't just come apart the way Aaron describes, so it makes me wonder about any possible change in the rear end of the '05 model.

Don't mean to alarm you, Aaron, but please do report if you experience any rear housing fluid leakage in the near future. I'm sure it'll be fine, just let us know how it goes for you....

 

[radman]

Franks (05) has remained securely in the final drive housing on a couple removals. Aware of the fact that that end is lubed by the final dr lube, I have not attempted to pull it apart due to no need and concern about the seal leaking if I did pull it apart.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I have an 05 and my experience is the same as radman's.

 

[FJR-Dude]

I pulled my wheels off my 05 a couple weeks ago and checked the splines for lube since I'd read some had been dry. Mine were definitly not dry,

and appeared to have about the same amount as Aaron's photos showed. I wiped them off and reapplied some of that Honda moly that WC mentioned.

Also, when I pulled the pumpkin off, the shaft stayed in it. I had no idea it could even come out of the pumpkin that easily. :bigeyes:

 

[FJReady]

My driveshaft stayed in the pumpkin as most have experienced. I also removed the u-joint at front end of shaft, cleaned and relubed it. Glad I did. It was at the frugal end of lube spectrum. Only a few extra minute of work.

Mine's a 05 ABS

 

[twowheelnut]

Shaft remained firmly installed in my '05, as well...

 

[jkarp]

Have other 2005 model years owners who have pulled their driveshafts also experienced what Aaron did?

Yup. My '05 shaft dropped right out of the pumpkin. No pulling required. Realize the only thing holding it in is the rubber seal - there is no clip or anything - and there's also a spring behind it trying to push everything out. No biggie. Just don't loose the spring, clean up the seal, and shove it all back together. Don't forget to top off the gear oil to replace what spilled.

JKarp.

 

[thegunslinger]

Shaft stayed in the punkin. 05

 

[kerhrhr]

Well, I am glad to see that I am not alone when it comes to the shaft coming out of the pumpkin when removing it. After just over 200 miles since I did this maintenance, I have zero gear oil leakage. After reading everyone's response to my post (thanks), I regret that I didn't do the U-joint maintenance. Wish I would have thought about it before I dug into this project, but I will definately being doing it when I change the tire. I took a few minutes after getting it all back together, made sure everything was good, then off for the test ride. Took it easy for a couple miles, kicked it up a notch or two for the next 20 miles or so, then double checked all my torque settings. Had it up to 135mph two days ago, just to make sure, and it ran smooth as silk. Thanks for the inputs, glad I could share, and look forward to the next project. WC, I'll work on the resizing of the pics next time. Thanks.

Aaron

 

[epoche]

Just removed rear wheel for the first time today. Pulled the pumpkin greased the spline and then attempted to seat the drive shaft into female end. Did not want to go all the way in. With a flash light I determined the problem; the drive end had dropped down below the interior opening, so the the bottom part of the drive was below the end opening. Lifting it up with a long screw driver did not help, as it rather quickly dropped back down. Angling the drive shaft eventually allowed it to "go in".

Anyone else had this problem and if so what is the more reasonable solution?

 

[Geezer]

Just removed rear wheel for the first time today. Pulled the pumpkin greased it and then attempted to seat the drive shaft into female end. Did not want to go all the way in. With a flash light I determined the problem; the drive end had dropped down below the interior opening, so the the bottom part of the drive was below the end opening. Lifting it up with a long screw driver did not help, as it rather quickly dropped back down. Angling the drive shaft eventually allowed it to "go in".
Anyone else had this problem and if so what is the more reasonable solution?

I think you are talking about the U-joint that the front of the drive shaft plugs into. I guess if it is loose enough it can flop down easily. Some of us have pulled the u=joint out for cleaning and fresh lube as long as the shaft was out already. It is probably not worth taking the shaft out again just to lube the u-joint but you should consider doing it next time.

Scroll up in this thread to my previous post and you'll find a link to the procedure.

 

[FJReady]

If I remember right, you can remove the dust cover up at front end of swing arm to gain access to the front of drive shaft when you're trying to insert it in U-Joint.

Excellent infor here at Mark Johnson's site: https://www.bikes-n-spikes.org/maint/ujoint/uj.html

As noted above, taking the extra step to clean and lube the u-joint is straight forward and satisfying to boot.

FJReady

 

[FJRMGM]

my experience with my '05 is exactly as KERHRHR detailed above.

I was surprised the shaft literally fell out of the pumpkin when removed and seal were in same shape.

As someone else pointed out, the only thing "holding" the shaft in the pumpkin is that flimsy flexible seal.

 

[Bounce]

i've had the rear wheel/pumpkin/shaft off my '03 no less than 3 times. at no time did the shaft act like it would fall out of the pumkin side of the assembly.

https://www.bikes-n-spikes.org/maint/spline/spline.html

even when man handling the assembly around the garage while servicing the swing arm assembly.

https://www.bikes-n-spikes.org/maint/sa/sa.html

and FJReady has already mentioned how easy servicing the u-joint is when you already have the drive shaft assembly pulled.

https://www.bikes-n-spikes.org/maint/ujoint/uj.html