While I got the wheel off...

[copracr]

I pulled my rear tire to replace the dry rotted metzeler marathon with a "forum recommended" 140 elite 3 today. I figure i'll throw some grease on the exposed gears but is there anything else i should do while its apart?
I have 34k on the odo. My only driveline complaint is some jerking coming on and off the throttle (like a loose chain feeling), but otherwise i think its pretty healthy. The bearings seemed ok when i tried wiggling the rear wheel when it was still on the bike. Should i try to grease them too? any other advise?

On a side note, That wheel came off surprisingly easy. I thought that gear drive was going to be a headache, but i had the wheel on the ground in 20 minutes. Basically, I opened the bleeder to spread the pads, pulled the axle, and it fell right out. Nice.

[tinman905]

I would check your wheel bearing also take the dust cover off the right side and check the condition of that hard to get bearing. New grease in there will be a good thing.

Use a moly grease or moly paste on your final drive gear and wheel, just enough to cover the gear teeth more than that will just end up in your gear cover.

You shouldn't need to take the bleed screw out to reinstall your tire if the piston in your caliper doesn't retract with a bit of force than you will need to address that before the wheel is installed.

[XS1100 Newbie]

I am starting to develop the small clunk in the final drive as well. It sounds like a ford when the differential gets a little sloppy. I would suppose it may be the same thing, but it may also be the u-joint. Dang, now that i said that, i don't like the thought of it. That could prevent me from going out of town this summer.

[tinman905]

There are lots of final drives kicking around to be had on the cheap. If you do more highway than city riding than a 750/850 final drive swap would be something you might want to think about.
Taking the final drive off and replacing it is not as intimidating as it might seem to some. If you have the skills to remove the rear wheel than you are half way there and replacing the u-joint and final drive is not much more work. Removing the final drive is something that should be done every so often anyway so you can grease the gears on the drive shaft.

I am starting to develop the small clunk in the final drive as well. It sounds like a ford when the differential gets a little sloppy. I would suppose it may be the same thing, but it may also be the u-joint. Dang, now that i said that, i don't like the thought of it. That could prevent me from going out of town this summer.

[trbig]

I am starting to develop the small clunk in the final drive as well.

You could be getting a bit of stretch in your main (Non stretching ) primary chain. Also, a lot of back and forth slop can be from the middle drive. I doubt you'll get and noticeable slop in the actual final drive. There's a way to test the free-play in the middle drive... but if there's oil in it.. preferably full synthetic... take off out of town. It'll go many many more miles.. just remember before you start doing quick accel/decels. Most of mine went away when I changed the middle drive.. and bad u-joint. When my u-joint finally got bad enough, it caused a bad vibration.


Tod

P.S. Also... I'd take those 4 nuts off that hold the final drive onto the driveline cover and throw some grease in there on the driveline/final drive gears. Might never have had any.

[XS1100 Newbie]

I put full synthetic in the middle, and final drives last year. I'll look for the procedure for checking the free play.

[trbig]

You have to take it off to do so, but it is in the manual.


Tod

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Copracr,

What TrBig was saying was to pull the final drive off of the swingarm housing, and grease up the DRIVESHAFT splines(driveline) where they fit into the final drive. The Zerk fitting does NOTHING to put grease where it's needed in there, and a few folks have damaged their driveshaft splines by allowing it to get too dry!

T.C.

[fredintoon]

Hey Copracr,
What TrBig was saying was to pull the final drive off of the swingarm housing, and grease up the DRIVESHAFT splines(driveline) where they fit into the final drive. The Zerk fitting does NOTHING to put grease where it's needed in there, and a few folks have damaged their driveshaft splines by allowing it to get too dry!
T.C.

HI copracr,
what T.C. said. Seems the recommended interval for applying hi-test moly grease to the final drive spline coincides with how long it takes to wear the rear tire out.
So there is a downside to a rear tire that wears like iron.
You either have to remove the rear wheel before the tire wears out just to moly-grease the final drive spline
or run the risk of the spline running dry while the tread is still good.

[Yard Dogg]

I pulled my rear tire to replace the dry rotted metzeler marathon with a "forum recommended" 140 elite 3 today. I figure i'll throw some grease on the exposed gears but is there anything else i should do while its apart?
I have 34k on the odo. My only driveline complaint is some jerking coming on and off the throttle (like a loose chain feeling), but otherwise i think its pretty healthy. The bearings seemed ok when i tried wiggling the rear wheel when it was still on the bike. Should i try to grease them too? any other advise?

On a side note, That wheel came off surprisingly easy. I thought that gear drive was going to be a headache, but i had the wheel on the ground in 20 minutes. Basically, I opened the bleeder to spread the pads, pulled the axle, and it fell right out. Nice.

My rear end uses 10 ounces of 90-W gear oil, not grease. You should see a drain plug and a fill plug on it. Unless I'm misunderstanding your post. When I filled mine up, it took a while. I would add a few ounces, then it would slowly drain down, then I would add a few more until it took all the 10 ounces. You should check a manual for your year of bike. If your rear end is making noises, it may be due to having no gear oil in it.

[fredintoon]

My rear end uses 10 ounces of 90-W gear oil, not grease. You should see a drain plug and a fill plug on it. Unless I'm misunderstanding your post. - - -

Hi Dogg,
it was asked:- "what else to do while the wheel is off"
Two things that can't be done with the wheel in place is to re-grease the spline where the wheel plugs in and to pull the final drive unit to re-grease the spline where the drive shaft plugs into it. Note that the grease nipple on the final drive unit dumps grease onto the outside of the spline where it does no good. You gotta pull the final drive unit to re-pack the spline internals.
And while the FDU does need to have 10oz of 80W90 gear oil inside it, that can be checked & refilled without removing the wheel.

[skids]

So there is a downside to a rear tire that wears like iron.
You either have to remove the rear wheel before the tire wears out just to moly-grease the final drive spline
or run the risk of the spline running dry while the tread is still good.

As long as you lube it when you change out the rear tire, even with a long lasting tire, you should be OK. Never done it? Do it now.

[Yard Dogg]

Hi Dogg,
it was asked:- "what else to do while the wheel is off"
Two things that can't be done with the wheel in place is to re-grease the spline where the wheel plugs in and to pull the final drive unit to re-grease the spline where the drive shaft plugs into it. Note that the grease nipple on the final drive unit dumps grease onto the outside of the spline where it does no good. You gotta pull the final drive unit to re-pack the spline internals.
And while the FDU does need to have 10oz of 80W90 gear oil inside it, that can be checked & refilled without removing the wheel.

I was just making sure he knew that. Cause when I read it it sounded like he wanted to grease the exposed gears, meaning the rear diff to me, and the wheel bearings. I just didn't want to see him smoke his wheel bearings and rear differential.

[copracr]

Thanks guys, lots of great advice there. i greased those splines as suggested and greased the gears that mesh with the rim. Now my rear brake pedal is low so i'll be fixing that next.

[motoman]

+1 on all the previous advice. Many, many, many years ago I "cheated", so my final drive has never been removed from shaft housing to grease shaft input splines. Otherwise a definite good idea to remove, clean spines on both ends of any metallic material and gingerly lube before assembly.