Gen 3, Usual lack of grease !

[Queensland Ken]

Did an impromptu service on the bike today.

Last week I picked up that as "per usual" the steering head bearings were loose.

Wanted to go over the bike before any longer trip and pick up on the usual items Yamaha don't tend to do, like use grease.
Bike is 1148 kms young, so clean you couldn't cook a BBQ, no grease at all !!!

The drive line.

The universal

The Middle Gear

Suspension Linkages

Relay Arm

Looks liked it's grease but it's the wax that holds the needle rollers in place.

Suspension bolts and bearing collars

And to my shock there was a tiny bit of grease on one of the slide pin bolts for the rear brake pads

One thing noted is that the suspension Dog Bones on the Gen 3 are 1-2 mm thicker.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Interesting indeed, and shameful.

 

[xcsp]

Evidently some things never change, just what a person wants to do is take a brand new bike apart to do what should have been done on the assembly line.

Must be that they don't want to get their hands dirty.

 

[Eric L]

How can Henry, after so many years, still not lube the damn drive splines? Sure seems like not lubing it is an SOP and not an accident.

 

[Bungie]

How can Henry, after so many years, still not lube the damn drive splines? Sure seems like not lubing it is an SOP and not an accident.

WRT: Lubing the splines.

Geez, I'm so sick of this. Ya, they should be lubed. No question. But, think about the forces involved on those splines. The spline needs lube for the slipping forces (longitudinally), not really for torsionally. That spline may move how much a mm? maybe 2 during the full range of suspension travel.. and how often do you use ALL of your suspension travel?

In short, your bike is not going to blow up if their isn't any/much lube on them.

 

[petey]

How can Henry, after so many years, still not lube the damn drive splines? Sure seems like not lubing it is an SOP and not an accident.

WRT: Lubing the splines.

Geez, I'm so sick of this. Ya, they should be lubed. No question. But, think about the forces involved on those splines. The spline needs lube for the slipping forces (longitudinally), not really for torsionally. That spline may move how much a mm? maybe 2 during the full range of suspension travel.. and how often do you use ALL of your suspension travel?

In short, your bike is not going to blow up if their isn't any/much lube on them.

+1...IMO the need to lubing the splines is more of a rust/corrosion protection than anything else...

 

[Bokerfork]

Don't ride it very far or very hard and you should have no problems.

 

[RaYzerman19]

Sounds like we need a little check list of things to go over when you get a new Feej....... greasing splines, head bearings, suspension pivots, checking torques........ as for dry splines, heat (and eventual wear) is generated by all the (albeit small) clearances rotationally in addition to the sliding action. You could likely go a long time without greasing them, but why.......

 

[Bungie]

. You could likely go a long time without greasing them, but why.......

Absolutely. People make it sound like if their not loobed destruction is just seconds away. Hell, most driveshafts in cars are packed with rust. Do you guys have the same level of worry about loobing that, after all, your family rides in your car?!

 

[HYCLE]

I took a look at the OEM parts on Bike Bandit. It looks like there is a compression spring and coupling gear at the pinion gear of the Diff. end of the shaft. The drive shaft movement is at the back end of the driveshaft and not the front. Look at the factory parts pictures and see what you think.

 

[RaYzerman19]

The movement is likely to occur where there is less resistance, ie, the splines where there is no spring and where they are designed to slide. I wouldn't want to think about what would happen if the splines were welded up.......

 

[kebo123]

Hm. I am surprised that Yama do not do their job during assy. I can expect such problems after 5 years and no maintenance but for brand new bike? Will have a look to my during tyre change (this week) ...

 

[HYCLE]

The movement is likely to occur where there is less resistance, ie, the splines where there is no spring and where they are designed to slide. I wouldn't want to think about what would happen if the splines were welded up.......

I guess you are missing what I am seeing in the parts break down. The shaft has a gear on the outside and a sleeve with an inner gear that matches the shaft. The shaft is spring loaded forward so the splines at the front are staionary and do not slide. It looks like the plunge is taken up at the rear where the spring and sleeve are located. It looks like the front is not supposed to slide like a slip joint of a car driveshaft.

Or maybe I have it wrong and you are correct. Maybe someone that has it appart can check to see if my guess is correct.

 

[Bounce]

The bottom line is that it's not an either/or thing. It's easy to do. Failure to do so will EVENTUALLY lead to issues as shown on a plethora of other shaft driven bikes. It's relatively inexpensive over the life of the bike (a few bucks for a tube of Moly paste that will last the life of the bike and is also used on the hub spines). Servicing the hub and shaft splines during each tire change adds only about 10 minutes to the job.

What's to debate?

The whole documentation and discussion is an awareness effort more than anything else. There are those who in other owners groups of the past didn't know and some time in the life of their bike, faced large replacement bills that this awareness resolved.

 

[jscasteel]

A member on the other FJR forum bought a badly neglected FJR. When he tried to remove the driveshaft from the U-joint, he discovered that it was apparently rusted to the U-joint:

https://www.fjrowners.com/forums/9-fjr-technical/14089-drive-shaft-stuck-u-joint.html

An extra 10 minutes of work every other tire change seems like a small price to pay.

 

[Bounce]

Yep. That's a nightmare of hassle for the current owner than a thoughtful prior owner could have completely avoided.

 

[FJRMGM]

one question - has ANYONE ever seen any kind of excessive wear on the splines of an FJR due to lack of or no lube?

Mostly what I see is people complaining about the mess from using the old "if a little lube is good then a LOT of lube must be much better" practice.

Do we really think that after ten years of FJR production Yamaha would still not be applying lube if it was needed?

 

[xcsp]

one question - has ANYONE ever seen any kind of excessive wear on the splines of an FJR due to lack of or no lube?
Mostly what I see is people complaining about the mess from using the old "if a little lube is good then a LOT of lube must be much better" practice.

Do we really think that after ten years of FJR production Yamaha would still not be applying lube if it was needed?

Not necessarily need "alot" but a little is much better than nothing at all.

Sure, then they can sell you new parts.

 

[MCRIDER007]

one question - has ANYONE ever seen any kind of excessive wear on the splines of an FJR due to lack of or no lube?

The Yamaha Venture touring bike came out in 1983 and had the same splines on the end of the driveshaft. They also had a grease fitting in the swing arm area that was supposed to lube the splines.....problem was that the grease never reached the splines and they started failing at about 40k miles. I read about it when my Venture had 30k miles and the splines were badly worn by then. The mechanic that checked the splines was totally unaware of the problem but said he was going to start checking the splines on every Venture when he changed the rear tire. I sold the bike at 53K and heard the splines failed at 58k.