New swing arm/ final drive gasket

[Tony Smith]

I'm not saying that Molypaste will not work in the coupler, but you would need three or four tubes of the stuff to get the amount I'm talking about in there.

[mrclubike]

Heavy axle grease goes on the rear wheel drive dogs
                   

Sorry Tony, just need a bit of clarifying - by rear wheel drive dogs you mean the coupling I just replaced the gasket on?  S**t I better change the oil a couple times then. My bad.
Cheers

The splines between the drive shaft and final drive input shaft Do not need grease
they are lubricated by the gear oil in the drive shaft housing
this oil also lubricates the universal joint at the trans end of the drive shaft

The Rear Wheel drive dogs are the splines between the rear wheel and the final drive
They are lubricated by High Molly or heavy grease  as Tony states

The transmission input splines are on the front of the transmission  and has the friction plate of the clutch sliding on it and it  need to be greased with high Molly every 20,000 miles

[mrclubike]

rear end lube

[Tony Smith]

The splines between the drive shaft and final drive input shaft Do not need grease
they are lubricated by the gear oil in the drive shaft housing
this oil also lubricates the universal joint at the trans end of the drive shaft

 

Except where trans oil migrates past the seal on the pinon shaft of the final drive.

This can be a problem even with the seal in good condition - the BMW service bulletin on the topic says to pack the coupler with axle grease.

It also works a treat for failed seals if you do not have the $s or tools to do a proper fix.


I'd be interested in how you caption your photos by the way.

[mrclubike]

Thanks Tony for the wonderfully detailed know how, hopefully I never have to look further into the rear drive.    If I do I now know where to look first ;-)....  I'm lucky enough to report that every time I've replaced my swing arm oil there's been the same amount in there as I put in. My questions are simply based on how far the swing arm oil travels and whether lubing the drive shaft female/ rear diff male coupling splines with moly paste might damage any bearings. I find it hard to believe the moly paste would stay on the splines for long... But I'm just guessing sorry, have no research into the matter available.

Molly paste was not needed on the splines in  the drive shaft housing
As far as I know the molly grease will not harm a thing in there 

[mrclubike]

I caption my photos and snips with FastStone Image Viewer 6.4

It is free 
http://www.faststone.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastStone_Image_Viewer

[tunnelrider]

Thanks for your replies Tony and Mrclubike, I feel more at ease with the molypaste being in there.  I'll still dump the swing arm oil a couple of times though I think.

I moly'ed my transmission input shaft splines 25K km ago when I put new bearings in the trans, I'll probably wait until the clutch feels grabby before doing it again. What's the best way to reveal the trans input shaft splines?  I recall reading something like taking the swing arm off the frame and pull the swing arm and trans to the rear?  I moved the engine forward when I removed the trans and left the swing arm in place.

[Tony Smith]

To spline lube the quickest way to do it is to release the swingarm bearings, the shocks and the brake actuating arm. Then remove the aircleaner and undo the gearbox mounting bolts. You can then move the entire gearbox/swingarm/rear wheel etc rearwards enough to get a toothbrush in to furstly clean and then lube the splines.

Fun times.

[Barry]

To spline lube the quickest way to do it is to release the swingarm bearings, the shocks and the brake actuating arm. Then remove the aircleaner and undo the gearbox mounting bolts. You can then move the entire gearbox/swingarm/rear wheel etc rearwards enough to get a toothbrush in to furstly clean and then lube the splines.

Fun times.

That's the way I do it  although I found I need a rope pulling back on the rear wheel to maintain the gap. Perhaps that's because I left the shocks attached.   Don't remember exactly.

Yikes, on checking, I haven't done it since 2008. Must have been good moly grease because the gear change is still fine.

[Tony Smith]

Yikes, on checking, I haven't done it since 2008. Must have been good moly grease because the gear change is still fine.

I think useage has a bit to do with it. At the current rate of utilization of the wifes R65/80 and my R65 I'd reckon that every decade or so will be just fine. I've also switched to yearly oil and filter changes on both bikes - hers in the last year has done less than 300miles, mine around 900.