Clutch Spline lube

[flongr65]

I have 24,000 miles on my 1981 R65. When I purchased it in 1992 it had 17,000 miles and I'm not sure if the spline was ever lubed. Bike runs great, no issues at all and I'm wondering if I should do a spline lube and if so at what miles? Appreciate any advice on this subject.

[Bob_Roller]

You need to get it done, the grease 'dries' out and you get two rusty parts moving together.

nhmaf had around 15,000 miles on his LS, when the splines failed, the transmission needs to be opened up and replace the input shaft ( last time I looked, the price was around $300 for the shaft), labor cost is several hundred dollars, and you'll need a new clutch disc, around $75.

Plus if it fails on the road, the cost to get you and the bike back home again.

[flongr65]

I came across an article on webbikeworld (see attachment) which explains how to simply lube the spline. Has anyone else performed this procedure? With all due respect to your reply Bob 15,000 miles and a spline failure. Wow! Now I'm a little paranoid about the road trip I'm planning on in a week or so. Thanks.

http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/airheads/rbike.spline.shtml

[nhmaf]

Yes !

The bike actually had just under 15,000 miles, but had spent about 10 years sitting in storage.  At elast the tank, etc was all in good repair, but the steering head bearings were pretty much encased in solid, dried out grease.  Once things were cleaned up, oil/filter change, wheel bearings/swingarm grease, rebuild forks, new fork seals, springs, all new cables new air filter, new shocks, etc. I figured that I'd ride the bike for a few months (it was September) and then do the spline lube thing in  November when I put the bikes away for winter.   Put about 800 miles on the bike in September and this happened.   Granted, it was probably too late to have been saved even if I had done a spline lube at that point, but the critical thing is that if you have no history on the bike to tell when/if it was done, assume it needs it.

I was writing up a process for doing this, and changing the clutch disk, as I had taken pics of the process, but have been too busy to finish it yet.
With Justin's help I did finish a procedure with pics for installing dual FIAMM horns on the wiki, and the clutch job will be coming next.

I can send you some pics and some general instructions if you're ready to tackle it before I get the wiki article done.

If you have a clutch spline failure on the road/underway as I did, it may come with no early warning signs - just a gawdawful racket and loss of all forward momentum.   The input shaft splines get somewhat ground down - they *might* still work in a pinch, but these lost about 50% of their service life in a hurry.  All that shiny sparkly stuff all over are metal particles.



The part that really self destructs (usually) is the center splined "hub" on the clutch friction disk.  There once were nice pointy mating splines inside that center hole - now it is just some slightly wavy bumps.

[Justin B.]

If you use the "just pull tranny back an inch" method you can do an acceptable half-a$$ job in just a couple of hours and might want to consider it if you're hitting the road for a trip.  I have used the procedure at IBMWR.  You can then pull the trans and clean/lube properly when you have time.  I've done it both ways...

[flongr65]

thanks for the info........

[Justin B.]

I feel a lot has to do with your riding/storage environment.  Until about 6 years ago I had never greased any splines except for those on the final and rear wheel and I have exclusively ridden Airheads since 1976!  I have never lived/traveled in/or even thought about humid coastal cities and abhor riding in the rain so that might have something to do with it.

It's like a great man, Harry Callahan, sometimes asked, "Do you feel lucky???"

[flongr65]

Like you Justin, I avoid riding in the rain when possible and the bike has always been stored inside. you couldn't find a speck of rust or corrosion anywhere. But doing the spline lube is worth the piece of mind. My local independent here in Salt Lake City quotes around $300 or $400 including replacing the clutch cable and driveshaft boots. Apparently very few owners attend to this service according to him. He also says he hasn't seen many failures. I'll probably tackle this myself.

[flongr65]

Curiously......how many of us have actual done or had their mechanic perform the spline lube?

[Bob_Roller]

I've performed the spline lube 5 times on the '81 R65, 28 years, and 80,000 miles .

[nhmaf]

The frequency debate on this can turn into something like an oil thread, or tire thread.  Some Luddites believe it must be done ever year and with the proper white lab coat on.  In general, I'd recommend that it be done every 5 years or 20,000 miles, whichever comes first - once you know that it has been done at least once.    Storage or operation in extreme environments - either very wet&salty, muddy, or perhaps in the dry dusty desert may dictate different intervals.     I'd still think that the grease would suck up the dust and all that dry heat would accelerate the grease breakdown in the southwest.   But, nothing seems to rust down there so maybe even if your splines are dry they aren't rusting as fast as they would up here in the northeast.

[Bob_Roller]

It may well depend on the type of lubricant used as well.

I know the standard red grease that BMW recommended at one time, didn't last 2 years here in Phoenix.

I'm thinking that the Honda Moly 60 grease, even if the grease part of the lube dried out, that the moly coating on everything would be better than nothing at all.

I used a BMW Microlube the last time I had things apart, see what it looks like in 5 years or so.

[nothing]

I can help you do it if you like. I've done it many times and have the supplies and tools. Send me an message here if you'd like a hand.

Was it Ron that quoted 300-400 to do this? They do great work and really know their stuff at R&R, but after you do it yourself you'll be glad you didn't pay that much for it, it's really quite easy to do.

I fall into the camp of people who strongly recommend doing this job yearly.

[Bob_Roller]

The frequency debate on this can turn into something like an oil thread, or tire thread.  Some Luddites believe it must be done ever year and with the proper white lab coat on.  In general, I'd recommend that it be done every 5 years or 20,000 miles, whichever comes first - once you know that it has been done at least once.    Storage or operation in extreme environments - either very wet&salty, muddy, or perhaps in the dry dusty desert may dictate different intervals.     I'd still think that the grease would suck up the dust and all that dry heat would accelerate the grease breakdown in the southwest.   But, nothing seems to rust down there so maybe even if your splines are dry they aren't rusting as fast as they would up here in the northeast.

There is a type of corrosion called 'fretting corrosion', it's caused by small amounts of movement on highly loaded surfaces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fretting

[flongr65]

thanks very much, I'll take you up on that offer, having not done this before.

You can reach me at flongima@aol.com or my cell 774 994 0141

Frank