Finally checked my drive shaft at 80,000 miles

[V7Goose]

Well, I was doing some regular maintenance on QuickSilver the other day, just getting ready for the Ohio Carnival next week, and while I had the rear wheel off to change the tire I figured it was about time to finally check the drive shaft for lube. I know some folks here think this needs to be done every two weeks or so , but not me!

 

I haven't pulled the drive shaft even once in 80,000 miles, and from what I saw, there really wasn't much need to do it now. There was not a ton of grease in there, but enough. It was clear that Yamaha used a moly grease when they put it together, and there were no visible signs of abnormal wear. So I just added a touch more 5% moly and put it all back together for another 80,000 miles. It really wasn't too hard to get the drive shaft back in the U-joint with the help of another member who just happened to be around while I was working (THANX Formerfuzz!). The trick was to simply put the transmission in gear and have someone else turn the final drive gears while I held the drive unit and tried to generally center the shaft on the U-joint.

 

Here's a tip for when you get ready to do this - first, pull the drive hub/fingers from the rear wheel (which you should be doing to lube the drive fingers anyway), and use that hub for your helper to turn the gears/drive shaft while you hold the drive unit and try to insert the drive shaft into the u-joint. After you get the drive housing back in place, you can finish greasing the drive fingers and putting the hub back in the wheel. Since I hadn't done this before and I had already greased up the drive hub, I just wrapped a rag around a 2x4 and jammed it into the drive splines to turn the gears.

 

Goose

Edited June 10, 2010 by V7Goose

[Seaking]

Thanks for the report Goose.. I had mine pulled before the big trip by the shop who changed my rear brake disc and they reported there 'something' of a lube on there and cleaned it out, put new grease in and all's good that's all good. He felt it all looked like it should for a bike with the mileage mine has.

[N3FOL]

That is really impressive on the condition of your drive shaft after 80,000 miles. Looks like you have thousands of miles more to come...ride safe.

[RSTDdog]

Doing some searching and dredged this up. If I found this earlier I would not have pulled mine today at 22,000. From the looks I could also have easily gone to 80,000 without doing this. Plent of gray moly type lube onthe front spline. Lube on the rear spline although it looks as though final drive gear oil also makes it in here (gear lube leaks from holes in here if you lay it down).

 

This does raise another question though. Goose, Since you haven't pulled the drive shaft in 80,000 miles, is it safe to assume then you have not ( at that time) serviced the swing arm bearings either in 80,000 miles since this requires pulling the drive shaft?

 

RSTDdog

[Rick Butler]

Kent,

 

I know you will think it's overkill, but I grease my driveshaft splins every time I put on a new rear tire. With the wheel off, I go ahead and pull the final drive and drain and refill the final drive fluid on the bench in the vise as well as grease the splins. I also pull the hub fingers and grease them as well. To me it just made sense to take care of these maintenence items every tire change?

 

What would you have done if you found the drive shaft splins toast at 80k? I'd prefer not to take that chance.

 

Rick

 

Doing some searching and dredged this up. If I found this earlier I would not have pulled mine today at 22,000. From the looks I could also have easily gone to 80,000 without doing this. Plent of gray moly type lube onthe front spline. Lube on the rear spline although it looks as though final drive gear oil also makes it in here (gear lube leaks from holes in here if you lay it down).

 

This does raise another question though. Goose, Since you haven't pulled the drive shaft in 80,000 miles, is it safe to assume then you have not ( at that time) serviced the swing arm bearings either in 80,000 miles since this requires pulling the drive shaft?

 

RSTDdog

[frankd]

Here's a tip for when you get ready to do this - first, pull the drive hub/fingers from the rear wheel (which you should be doing to lube the drive fingers anyway), and use that hub for your helper to turn the gears/drive shaft while you hold the drive unit and try to insert the drive shaft into the u-joint. After you get the drive housing back in place, you can finish greasing the drive fingers and putting the hub back in the wheel. Since I hadn't done this before and I had already greased up the drive hub, I just wrapped a rag around a 2x4 and jammed it into the drive splines to turn the gears.

 

 

Goose,

 

You don't have to get this carried away to line up the front splines. Until you get the splines lined up, the shaft unit bolts won't go into the swing arm. This means you can rock the shaft unit back and forth and the shaft will move enough to line up. It really isn't very difficult....

 

Now I have to admit that sometimes things get a little onery, expecially with Mk I first Gens, and these DO need the rear splines lubed every 12-15 thousand miles because thay don't have a rear spline seal. On my 83, I used to install the driveshaft into the U-Joint splines first. I only had the rear spline to hold on to and sometimes it took quite a bit to get it to go into the front. Then I'd put the shaft drive unit on. After the first time I did this on my 89, I realized that it's much easier when the driveshaft is installed in the shaft drive unit, and put in as a unit. I'm pretty sure your 2nd gen shaft drive is just about the same.

 

Good to hear that 80K is OK. My 89 only had 30K showing when I bought it. I pulled the shaft at about 40K, and it still had quite a bit of grease in it. I'd figured that I'd go another 35-40K, but maybe now I'll extend that.

 

Frank D.

[V7Goose]

This does raise another question though. Goose, Since you haven't pulled the drive shaft in 80,000 miles, is it safe to assume then you have not ( at that time) serviced the swing arm bearings either in 80,000 miles since this requires pulling the drive shaft?

 

RSTDdog

Yup, you caught me there! I have not done the swingarm bearing maintenance on the recommended intervals. It was done by the shop on schedule at 16,000 miles, and since then I simply check for bearing play when I change the rear tire, and periodically check the bearing preload.

 

I never recommend to anybody that they do not do scheduled maintenance at the specified intervals, but it is my bike, and that is the choice I make.

 

Kent,

 

I know you will think it's overkill, but I grease my driveshaft splins every time I put on a new rear tire. With the wheel off, I go ahead and pull the final drive and drain and refill the final drive fluid on the bench in the vise as well as grease the splins. I also pull the hub fingers and grease them as well. To me it just made sense to take care of these maintenence items every tire change?

 

What would you have done if you found the drive shaft splins toast at 80k? I'd prefer not to take that chance.

 

Rick

Yeah, that is way overkill to me, but so what? It is your bike, and if it makes you feel good, keep doing it! As for the "chance" I was taking - there is a reason that drive shaft service is not called for EVER in the scheduled maintenance - it is not needed in normal service. I do believe that certain checks and unscheduled work are called for on a machine around each 100,000 miles, just to keep on top of normal wear and tear, and that is simply what I was doing.

 

Goose,

 

You don't have to get this carried away to line up the front splines. Until you get the splines lined up, the shaft unit bolts won't go into the swing arm. This means you can rock the shaft unit back and forth and the shaft will move enough to line up. It really isn't very difficult....

 

Frank D.

This is not accurate. Some members have gone through the pain of completely reassembling their bike only to find that there was 'no go' because the drive shaft will easily slide in next to the U-joint!

 

I maintain that the best and easiest way to remount the final drive is to simply use the drive hub after it has been removed from the rear wheel. Put the transmission in gear and use the fingers on the drive hub as a great handle to gently turn the drive gears/drive shaft as you push lightly against the u-joint, and it will slide right in. The extra benefit of this process is that you will have positive feeedback that it is mated properly because it will STOP turning, totally preventing the possibility of putting it all back together and ending up with the 'no go' problem!

 

Thanx for your comments, and ride safe!

Goose

[CaptainJoe]

mine was in the 6 oclock position and i had to pop the round rubber grommet out and use a bent coat hanger to raise the splined ujoint. But hey,,, whatever works...

grease was good on my Rsv as well, at 9000 mi.

 

 

Wish i could say the same for my 650 vstar. It was rusty (no grease at all) and the splines on the final drive are g o n e! now i'm shopping for a 650 vstar final drive but am not willing to pay almost $700 for a new one. Ebay is getting worse with a lot of vendors starting their bid at $499 for used ones. Oh almost forgot....the 650 only has 24,000 miles on it............

[playboy]

Yup, you caught me there! I have not done the swingarm bearing maintenance on the recommended intervals. It was done by the shop on schedule at 16,000 miles, and since then I simply check for bearing play when I change the rear tire, and periodically check the bearing preload.

 

Well I skipped the swingarm bearing maintenance at 16,000 I am at 30,000 now how do you check for bearing play and preload.

[FuzzyRSTD]

Well, I was doing some regular maintenance on QuickSilver the other day, just getting ready for the Ohio Carnival next week, and while I had the rear wheel off to change the tire I figured it was about time to finally check the drive shaft for lube. I know some folks here think this needs to be done every two weeks or so , but not me!

 

I haven't pulled the drive shaft even once in 80,000 miles, and from what I saw, there really wasn't much need to do it now. There was not a ton of grease in there, but enough. It was clear that Yamaha used a moly grease when they put it together, and there were no visible signs of abnormal wear. So I just added a touch more 5% moly and put it all back together for another 80,000 miles. It really wasn't too hard to get the drive shaft back in the U-joint with the help of another member who just happened to be around while I was working (THANX Formerfuzz!). The trick was to simply put the transmission in gear and have someone else turn the final drive gears while I held the drive unit and tried to generally center the shaft on the U-joint.

 

Here's a tip for when you get ready to do this - first, pull the drive hub/fingers from the rear wheel (which you should be doing to lube the drive fingers anyway), and use that hub for your helper to turn the gears/drive shaft while you hold the drive unit and try to insert the drive shaft into the u-joint. After you get the drive housing back in place, you can finish greasing the drive fingers and putting the hub back in the wheel. Since I hadn't done this before and I had already greased up the drive hub, I just wrapped a rag around a 2x4 and jammed it into the drive splines to turn the gears.

 

Goose

 

Thanks Goose. I as you, did not feel the need to check the drive line when I replaced tires this last time at 12,500 miles. I feel a lot better about that now. I had it out at 4,000 miles and Mollied it then. So good for at least another 50,000 mile anyway.

 

But I did grease the fingers up again, and like you said, good to do that every time a tire change is done I think. I appreciate your thread about this Goose, Thank you.

 

Fuzzy

[V7Goose]

Well I skipped the swingarm bearing maintenance at 16,000 I am at 30,000 now how do you check for bearing play and preload.

Play (or looseness) would be checked by grabbing the ends of the swingarm and gently trying to rock it side to side - absolutely no motion should be felt, just like checking steering bearings. A further check would be to disconnect the shock and gently move the swingarm up and down to feel for smooth motion with no notchiness.

 

Preload is simply having the correct torque on the bearings as specified in the shop manual. Just pop off the bearing covers, loosen the bearing nuts and re-torque them properly.

 

If those bearings have NEVER been checked since new, you might want to reconsider just ignoring them - Remember that I said mine were properly checked and packed the first time at the scheduled 16,000 miles. Knowing that they had been properly serviced and were well sealed gave me the comfort to modify the maintenance schedule on this item. I do not think I would have gone so long without that first service.

Goose

[Kirby]

Well, I'll have to admit it also. I didn't pull the drive shaft until the bike had 47k on it and like you Goose, it looked fine to me so I just cleaned it up a little, put some Moly60 on it, and reinserted in the u-joint. Took 2 tries, but after I got down under the bike and into the "bench press" position, and had the bike in gear, it went right in. So easy did it go in that I wasn't sure at first if it really did!!!

[RSTDdog]

Goose thanks for the response, and thanks to all for the other replies. Wasn't trying to stir pot or suggest maintenance intervals should not be followed. Just providing my observations of the drive shaft at 22k miles and Just checking if I could reasonably go to my next tire change without servicing the swing arm bearings. Since Goose had the swing arm bearings done at 16K, they likely lubed is driveshaft up at that point as well since it was out. So he basically went 64K without driveshaft maintenance.

 

I think whether the final drive will install without the splines engaged depends on the position of the U joint. If the flex of the u joint is parallel with ground, the joint will point down and the shaft can ride over the top. If the U joint is perpendicular to the ground, I don't think the shaft can get by far enough to tighten the final drive nuts.

 

U joint perpendicular is probably easier to get drive shaft engagement than with u joint parallel. I will let you know when I put it together. MIne is currently positioned so that the u joint is parallel and the end the shaft goes in is pointing down.

 

RSTDdog

[playboy]

Yup, you caught me there! I have not done the swingarm bearing maintenance on the recommended intervals. It was done by the shop on schedule at 16,000 miles, and since then I simply check for bearing play when I change the rear tire, and periodically check the bearing preload.

 

Well I skipped the swingarm bearing maintenance at 16,000 I am at 30,000 now how do you check for bearing play and preload.

 

 

I skipped it on the recommendation of my local stealer who I will no longer use for other reasons. But skipped, ignored, or I just plum a@# forgot about it until you mentioned it so thanks for the reminder and the tips.

[allwx]

I didn't find any significant amount of grease in my 07 the first time I took it apart at 10k miles.. Some of the gear splines looked as if plating material had worn off. I don't know if they plate these things with anything. Probably not. But that's what it looks like now.

 

I got into the habit of greasing the slipjoint every time I do a tire change, back when I had a 79 Goldwing. For some reason it was definitely a requirement to lube the slipjoint regularly. I recall reading and hearing reports of people losing their slipjoints and driveshafts because of not regularly greasing them.

 

One other person noted the presence of gear oil in the slipjoint. I've observed the same in mine, and recall it being true of my RSTD as well. In fact, gear oil is all I found in the slipjoint at 10k. The gear oil most likely seeps past the seal from the final drive. It probably is sufficient to lube the slipjoint. Which is why I don't bother with mine anymore.

 

As for the swingarm bearings, they were also coated with only the thinnest possible amount of grease. However, it was enough grease. Sometimes I think I tend to over grease things. It doesn't take much.