Re: Spline Lube

[Bob Hadden <kbhadden@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Clive,   The drive shaft splines were fine and had a nice coat of 
grease on them.  The clutch spline was dry, but had been lubed.  So it 
was time to lube them.  Much better to go in and find this out, then to 
not go in and find out after the  splines are damaged.

As far as I know, the only reason for worn out splines would be a lack 
of lubrication.  Just because BMW doesn't say these things need 
lubrication, doesn't make it true.  It is freely admitted that air 
heads need this service.  My limited experience changing clutches in 
cars is that, in every case, I found dry splines were a major part of 
the problem.

Bob Hadden '98RS

On Feb 25, 2004, at 4:53 AM, Clive Liddell wrote:

> Bob, you wrote: "So it was time to do this service at 40k miles."
>
> If I may transpose two words and add one to ask:  So was it *really* 
> time to
> do this service at 40k miles?
>
> I understand and empathise with all those notherners suffering PMS and 
> I am
> also not averse to anyone wanting to see what their bike's innards look
> like - but to HAVE to do it, even occasionally, goes against all modern
> design philosophy IMO.
>
> So, surely we need to do more research into why some splines fail early
> while others not at all.  IMO again, it probably has more to do with 
> riding
> style, ie. lugging, gear changing at high (low) rpm, blipping (not 
> blipping)
> throttle, smooth pull off or just drop the clutch and so on...
>
> Regards
> Clive Liddell
> Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
> '96 R850R   70k.km
> '01 R1100RT 40k.km

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