Spline Lubes... Epilogue

["Seth Miller" <smail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, after obtaining the list's collective wisdom last week concerning the
necessity for regular spline lube maintenance I decided that it was worth
going into my '96 RT (w/ 50k miles) this weekend to check for myself. The
short answer to the question of whether spline lubes are required is, in my
case at least, unfortunately yes, looks like one ought to pay a little
attention to this. I found all the driveshaft splines to be still reasonably
well lubricated and in good shape. The clutch input spline. however, was
bone dry. Luckily the spline set still appears to be in excellent condition
with no visible wear, so apparently no damage was done. Hard to say of
course whether they would have gone another 10k or 100k miles before wear
began, but that seems like an expensive risk to take. I have to note that
the spline set sure looked kind of delicate... which is probably because
most of my transmission experience is with cars so not a fair comparison,
but I did expect something a little more stout than what I saw. Again, maybe
they are no better and no worse than any other bike as I don't have much to
compare with, but suffice it to say that there isn't much room for wear and
I could see how they might fail if run dry for extended periods. So, my
opinion... no need to be frantic about it, but if your bike has seen the
better part of 50k or so without anyone having been into the clutch or
transmission (I won't start any nasty threads by suggesting just what
percentage of oilheads that might be ;) it does seem like it's worth the
effort to go in and check the splines. For lube I elected to use some of
that Permatex 'never-seeze' stuff... which stays on forever and is good for
prevention of wear and galling under high loads. It's not appropriate for
high-speed roller bearings and such but seemed like a reasonable choice for
something like hard-to-get-to splines where a lubricant's ability to stay in
place for extended periods is of high importance.

BTW my clutch lining is just about at the 4.5 mm service limit so I guess
I'll replace it. Looks like there could be a fair amount of life left on it
but it seems silly to go through all the effort of tearing down the bike and
not replace it, especially since it is at least 'technically' worn out.

How much effort to the job? I've seen those who say it can be done in a long
day but I would plan on two, especially on the first go. If you have a
decent place to work and a very complete tool set then it's a minor PITA but
not rocket science... just a lot of work. But not too bad to do if it's only
every 50-75k miles, at which point you will likely be near needing a new
clutch disk anyway. I must say the experience has given me some more
appreciation for the engineering effort that went into the bike as the job
could have been much worse than it was (well, 'is', because I don't have
everything back together yet). Now, even better would be to not need the
maintenance at all...

Finally, a few questions to any who have done this job... any tips on making
sure that I get the right part? The clutch disk was changed several times
over the years, and I have so far found at least 5 part numbers that might
be appropriate for my bike (build date of 10-95). Hopefully the guys at the
parts desk can help. Chicago BMW seems to have the best on-line prices.
Also, did you use one of the 'one-size-fits-all' universal clutch alignment
tools, or the BMW special tool?  Please copy any replies to my personal
email address above in addition to the list as I get the digest and will see
your response a lot sooner if sent directly.

Thanks -

- - Seth

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