Rear Wheel and Driveshaft Lube

[blue04fjr]

I've heard much of the fears concerning the lack of drive line lubrication on these bikes, so I decided to check mine: an '04 w/about 5K miles.

First, the diff gears:

Those are OK, so onto the wheel:

All looks very, very good there. I had quite a bit of concern after hearing stories of these bikes with little or no lube in these very, very critical areas. So, I got a bit worried, stopped riding very much, and let it sit while I was out of town for an extended time.

So, I move onto the driveshaft:

Those are good, too! What gives? I would seriously doubt that I got the only one that was lubed properly....

 

[slapnpop]

Uhm.... no offense, but there's surface corrosion on your drive shaft (with only 5k miles on the bike), and only a 1/4 (being generous) of you shaft splines are lubed...

 

[weekend rider]

Blue 04 fjr hoped you lubed her up real good . From your pictures no sign of wear thats good.

It does not take much grease to for correct lubrication for those gears. One thing you do not want is for the grease to be ozzing out from the shat and hub. Every tire change lube her up and she will last for ever. good luck :agent:

 

[Warchild]

I wouldn't consider your driveshaft to be generously lubed by any stretch of the imagination.

And while your splines look more-or-less okay, it wouldn't hurt to see a touch more lube on them, either. Hard to tell from the photo, but it looks conceivable that you might have just a pinch of surface corrosion on the driving splines (near the top). That, or the grease is doing a fair job of looking like surface corrosion....

 

[SkooterG]

5000 miles on an 04?!?!?

Good God man!

Get out and ride the thing!

Here's what MY 04 looked like with 5000 miles on the clock, and this only 4 months after I bought it:

 

[weekend rider]

Maybe it is not lack of lube. How about air from the salt water that causes all the concern? It takes awhile for them there ships to get her you know.........

:haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[Bounce]

It looks like the shaft splines are the classic oem under-enthusiastic effort from the lube technician. :-/ The assembly line looks like it's calibrated to dip the shaft less than about 1/4 th of it's spline length into the lube vat.

4/2003 check of a 10/2002 delivered bike with 6,000 miles on it.

 

[S76]

Oh that shaft looks bad! Not really bad but certainly not desirable. I do not have any experience with the FJR yet, (waiting), but I have been a helicopter mechanic for 25 years and learned this. The factory doesn't put enough of anything on everything. Yes, the splines need a good moly lube, but the entire shaft itself should have a thin coat of grease to prevent corrosion just like on that one pictured. And what about the internal part of the shaft housing? If moisture gets in to work on the shaft it is also there to corrode the shaft housing eventually. I will ride the FJR when I get it because I'll be too excited not to. But come the first winter and that bad boy gets taken apart to preserve all of the things you cannot see. Suspension bolts and bolt bores. Head bearings, along with the shaft and frame head inner walls etc. Spraying oil inside the drain holes on the main stand to prevent internal corrosion, (sound familiar). Remove the exhaust header bolts and apply antisieze so when you do have to do some work there it's not all frozen up and the bolts break off, and on and on. Once you get all this done the bike is good for a few years.

For folks that trade every few years it is a waste of time. But I'll "have this bike for a long long time and never get another" or so the wife tells me. LOL

My rule of thumb is every bolt or part gets something. Either loctite, antisieze, grease, paint, silicone grease if it is part of the brake system, or whatever to either lube or prevent corrosion.

Yeah, I know, way over the top. I've been told before. So maybe you don't want to dissasemble your whole bike, but by keeping some of these things in mind at least in the areas of your bike you do disassemble, you will certainly find them in good shape the next time you go there. And I bet parts for this guy aren't cheap.

Just my $.02

bob

 

[LSUBOY]

I lube my shafts everytime I put new tires on my bikes {10 times since 97} and have a feel for how much lube will be on my splines when I take them apart {every 10,000 miles or so} Now that you know how to do the job, you should use MORE lube than the factory.

Don't be afraid to use too much because if you do, you will be able to tell that you are using too much when you take it apart the next time. TOO MUCH LUBE USUALLY RESULTS IN LUBE BEING EVERYWHERE when you take it apart again.

I have used everything from Honda Moly to auto wheel bearing grease to the stuff that Yamaha recommends. That Honda Grey Moly Paste is tha best at staying where you put it. It's thick, it dosent slosh around. Rated A-1 By LSUBOY!

 

[radman]

Oh that shaft looks bad! Not really bad but certainly not desirable. I do not have any experience with the FJR yet, (waiting), but I have been a helicopter mechanic for 25 years and learned this. The factory doesn't put enough of anything on everything. Yes, the splines need a good moly lube, but the entire shaft itself should have a thin coat of grease to prevent corrosion just like on that one pictured. And what about the internal part of the shaft housing? If moisture gets in to work on the shaft it is also there to corrode the shaft housing eventually. I will ride the FJR when I get it because I'll be too excited not to. But come the first winter and that bad boy gets taken apart to preserve all of the things you cannot see. Suspension bolts and bolt bores. Head bearings, along with the shaft and frame head inner walls etc. Spraying oil inside the drain holes on the main stand to prevent internal corrosion, (sound familiar). Remove the exhaust header bolts and apply antisieze so when you do have to do some work there it's not all frozen up and the bolts break off, and on and on. Once you get all this done the bike is good for a few years.
For folks that trade every few years it is a waste of time. But I'll "have this bike for a long long time and never get another" or so the wife tells me. LOL

My rule of thumb is every bolt or part gets something. Either loctite, antisieze, grease, paint, silicone grease if it is part of the brake system, or whatever to either lube or prevent corrosion.

Yeah, I know, way over the top. I've been told before. So maybe you don't want to dissasemble your whole bike, but by keeping some of these things in mind at least in the areas of your bike you do disassemble, you will certainly find them in good shape the next time you go there. And I bet parts for this guy aren't cheap.

Just my $.02

bob

+1

 

[madmike2]

It seems the main difference in opinion is that some will settle for not bad while the more experienced here want to see us lube our gears and shafts so there is not rust .

I fall into the latter category, and while mine weren't even as bad as pictures blue04fjr posted whilst opening this discussion, I followed the recommendation of the "senior members" here, thus cleaned and lubed every mating part. I fall into the category described by S76 and want my bike to be at its optimum for a long time.

In the end, its your bike, treat and maintain it however you want.

 

[gr8eyes]

Scooter, what did you do about the rust? Do you clean it off somehow or let it go and just keep it lubed better? If you cleaned it, how?

Glenn

 

[Geezer]

After looking at the oxidation on ScooterGs shaft splines makes me wonder if it was rusty before it was installed in the first place. Maybe sitting at the bottom of the parts bin for a while collecting condensate.

 

[Skippy]

It seems the main difference in opinion is that some will settle for not bad while the more experienced here want to see us lube our gears and shafts so there is not rust .I fall into the latter category, and while mine weren't even as bad as pictures blue04fjr posted whilst opening this discussion, I followed the recommendation of the "senior members" here, thus cleaned and lubed every mating part. I fall into the category described by S76 and want my bike to be at its optimum for a long time.

In the end, its your bike, treat and maintain it however you want.

I think some clarification may be warranted here, "experienced members" experienced in what, anonymously spouting off useless anecdotal diatribe on an Internet message board hardly warrants the term "experienced"

When considering following any advice given on this board from ANY members, whether they be Senior or Senile, one should also consider this little jewl or nugget of information:

Buy the freaking manual, read the freaking manual, follow the suggestions in the manual or purchase the YES and ride it till it breaks.

However, for the love of God, I cannot see how a thread gets started over such triviel matters...lube this lube that check the torque specs.....AHHHHHH

I know I know, I need more powerful drugs than just the coffee, so I'll go riding on my 19,000 mile poorly maintained, never had a problem 05, cause it's still in the 70's here in NW Florida.

SKippy

A Senior Senile anonymous Internet Poster.

 

[markjenn]

The internet tends to blow things out of proportion. Nature of the beast. There is somebody over on ThumperTalk that swears you have to check valve clearances after every ride or your bike will blow up. Some reasonableness filtering is always in order.

- Mark

 

[Bounce]

Scooter, what did you do about the rust? Do you clean it off somehow or let it go and just keep it lubed better?  If you cleaned it, how?
Glenn

You can take a Scotchbright pad to the surfaces and, with a little light scrubbing, get the surface rust off. Then coat all but the splines with a light coat of standard grease as a protectant.

As for "overblown", the list of dusted splines from lack of maintenance is well documented in the Wing community. We're talking about a bike with lower torque and power numbers but which are expected to run between 100,000 and 200,000 miles without major problems. Those who ignored the spline maintenance are significantly more likely to need to replace major (costly) final drive components over the life of the bike when compared to those who took a couple of minutes and lubed things up as documented.

The bottom line is that most people don't care if you neglect standard maintenance items. It's your bike... until it hits the used bike market and either makes or breaks the rep of the model over the next 15 years.

 

[blue04fjr]

Uhm.... no offense, but there's surface corrosion on your drive shaft (with only 5k miles on the bike), and only a 1/4 (being generous) of you shaft splines are lubed...

Yeah, but that 1/4" is the only part of the driveshaft that's being engaged. Knowing that, it's got plenty of grease...

That's what was the bigger surprise to me: that so little of the driveshaft was engaged.

 

[blue04fjr]

5000 miles on an 04?!?!?
Good God man!

Get out and ride the thing!

Yeah, I was out of the country for quite a while and we just had a baby, so....

It WAS late in '04, tho!

 

[JSimon]

Err, the reason it looks as though the grease is only on the end of the shaft is the grease is naturally pushed back into the housing by the shaft when it's inserted.

JS