Re: Spline Lube

[Seth Miller <smail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 > It's different in car vs motorcycle: the BMW Paralever design is such
 > that the pivot point is designed in a way that necessitates the
 > elongating and shortening of the drive shaft, and therefore requires a
 > spline. My understanding is that this does not occur in a car which
 > has a fixed-length drive shaft and universal joints connecting the
 > bits together.


I was referring to the flywheel-clutch interface which has nothing to do 
with the driveshaft. The clutch itself is essentially the same as in a car.

But, this leads me to another question... has anyone actually seen or 
personally know of a failed clutch input spline on an oilhead? This was 
a common problem for some of the early K-bikes and was fixed (err, 
excuse me, 'updated')in later models by some metallurgy improvements I 
believe, and this seems to have generated a continuing legacy of great 
concern in this area regarding all BMW motorcycles with a dry clutch - 
but I'm not sure whether the concern is really warranted. I have read 
accounts of those going into their high-mile oilheads and noting that 
the input spline was dry, but have never heard of anyone who had one 
that was actually damaged... and neither had the service manager at the 
dealer where I purchased by bike - he said that the splines should be 
lubed if one was into the bike for some reason, but otherwise felt that 
there was no need for routine maintenance - just lube the splines 
whenever the clutch (or transmisison :-( ) needs service and don't worry 
about it beyond that.

Perhaps this is good advice, or is there a real and documented problem 
with spline failures on the oilhead line? If not then a spline lube on 
an oilhead seems like a lot of work to do for something that isn't 
absolutely required.

- - Seth

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