Frt of Driveshaft

[mjpxs11sh]

doesnt the frt of the driveshaft splines to the middle gear box need lubed? if theres no zirc fitting (as if that would help) it should be cleaned and repacked right? im pulling the final drive to lube it, and then it dawned on me,
what about everything forward of the final. ive never seen any posts on the subject and the manual doesnt specify much of anything about spline maintenance. is the factory installed lube good forever? its a little too cold to work on my bike right now, but im just waiting for some sun to show up for some garage heat.

[motoman]

Nope.........NO driveshaft has a spined slip joint end on both ends! Front-side under the boot is the u-joint(lifetime, non servicable, least for the common folk). From there a 4 bolt round mounting flange that bolts up to a same flange off the middle drive. I presume you know that middle drive has a drain and fill plug also..........and needs to be serviced with a lube change also. U can use the manual reccomended 80-90- weight, but several of us here use a 75-140w syn. such as Royal Purple. Do NOT...I repeat do NOT use a 80-90w if using a syn. in either the middle or final drive. They do NOT have the same lubricating properties( and that goes for your vehicles also).

[mjpxs11sh]

driveline

yeah, i changed the middle and final drive oil 6mos ago with Royal Purple 75W140 and it seems theres more whinning noise from the middle gear box area than before i changed it. my bike has 14K miles on it and has been ridin maturely. ive got the shaft drive manual for the 750 which i think is the same as the 1100, but its not very clear on maintenance. i just ordered the missing tool bag oil guage to dbl check level, but i put 12oz in the middle and 10oz in the final drives. im putting some $ into this bike and want it as good as can be expected. thanks moto!

[motoman]

Know the purple stuff is expensive @$20 a bottle, but for the small amount used, might wanna change oil in that middle drive again just for grins to see if it quiets down. Not sure what your USED to hearing riding, but after going to the syn. RoyalPurple in the middle and final on mine, no more whine, least not what I had been USED to hearing.........but of course, my hearing to certain tones has diminished substansually the last 30yrs. too.......so results may vary.

[BA80]

Are you sure it's the middle drive and not the transmission? These transmissions will have a whine no matter what because of the straight cut gears.

It's just the nature of the beast.

[mjpxs11sh]

guess

i would say its just a guess. it just seems noisier when slowing down. ive put Mobil 1 20W50 synthetic in the engine/trans, and its def smoother. and Royal Purple 75W140 in the driveline. i havent experienced any of the shift issues ive read here with 14K on the odo. but the noise can be from any moving gears. its difficult to diagnoss, but ive done whatever i could with synth oils and it seems it hasnt changed. maybe its just normal. these bikes are kinda noisy.

[BA80]

maybe its just normal. these bikes are kinda noisy.

Yes, they are noisy but you get used to it. I thought mine was going to fly apart the first time I rode it............4 years ago.

Be careful with the synthetic in the engine, it plays well with the gears and bearings but the old clutch linings weren't designed for it and you may get some slipping.

[James England]

I always use 100% mineral oil in the XS1100.... no semi or full synthetic. I would stick to plain ol 80/90 for th middle gearbox too. These bikes were on the road before anyone used semi or full synthetic and they are designed to run on what was available at the time.... 100% mineral oil

[trbig]

James, they were designed for that becasue that's all they had. Molecularly, both mineral (Dino) and semi-synthetic break down considerably in the first 800 miles. After that is where the differences start. The synthetic continues to keep acting as little ball bearings between your moving steel parts and the dino oil continues to break down. Your moving metal parts will be much more protected, especially for those who aren't religious about oil changes, at the 3k mile intervals many use for engine oils, with the use of synthetic. The main problem is that many of our clutches don't like the synthetic stuff.. too slippery. I've wondered if replacing the clutch discs with a modern replacement, such as those offered by Barnett, would get rid of the slipping problems the old fiber discs tend to have. But I'm sure you'd never want any clutch discs in your bike that have 30 years of advancements built into making them either.. lol.


In the case of gear oils for use in our middle and final drives, the synthetic oil is going to beat out mineral oil all day long, every day, in every catagory except the "Which goes bad fastest" category. Sure, you'll probably be able to run a long time on the mineral oil, but you'll run a much longer time with less gear wear using the synthetic.

There's been 30 years of advancements to the oils used today. Just as I suppose many people still cook with hydrogenated lard, there are better options now days.

And James, I hope this doesn't come across as insulting or trying to rag on you. It's honestly not meant that way.

[BA80]

The gears and bearings are pretty much the same now as they were then but the lubricants have improved greatly. I run 75w140 full synthetic in my middle and final drives and they run cooler and quieter. The friction materials, clutch facings and such,have changed quite a bit however. The old asbestos fiber doesn't like sythetics but the newer ceramics do.

[DGXSER]

Reminds me of the old engineering "proverb" about the girl learning to cook meatloaf. Watches mom cut the ends off the meatloaf and throw them away then put it in the pan to cook, She ask why and gets three generations deep asking the question, finally great great grandma tells her that when she was a girl the stoves and pans wer mcuh smaller, so they had to cut the ends off to make it fit. Sometimes doing things the same way they used to do it is not the best answer.

[mjpxs11sh]

clutch

my Black Beast has a new clutch and i used Mobil 1 20W50 for Air Cooled engines and doesnt have the all friction modifiers or Enery Savings additives in it. this is the first time using Mobil 1. ever since i owned the bike, i used Golden Spectro Semi-Synthetic 20W40. ive had no slippage issues with either. i dont nec like spending the xtra $ for synthetics, but i do do feel the difference with Mobil 1. its still a cheap way of taking care of the internals in my opinion. i even use synthetics in my cars for winter start up ease. oil can be debated greatly, but its just a personal choice.

[motoman]

[QUOTE=James England;359444]I always use 100% mineral oil in the XS1100.../QUOTE]

Interesting that you DO use mineral oil James. Some years ago when I had this scoot new, I also used 90#mineral oil in the middle drive just because of the fact that it does NOT foam causing areation. Learned this in our large truck transfer case applications. Did NOT use it in the final drive as it does NOT carry the properties to lubricate under extreme pressures created from ring and pinion gear contact under heavy load, simply put, squished out under load. I know there is a proper term and numbering for that as can be seen on alot of quality packaged lubricants in that catagory, a 'pound out' numbering system if you will. Alot of applications in the automotive world today use light multi viscostity lubes, some of those reasons being for better economy with the less resistance from flow and the fact that alot of areas that previously used a roller bearing application have been replaced with bushings giving tight contact clearances, which does nothing more than reduce production cost. Along the lines of what Tod stated, the synthetic lubes of today, in alot of applications have WAY better lubricating and protection properties than a quarter century ago. So, in alot of applications, but not necessarily all, they offer a much better barrier for wear protection. And as Greg stated, there IS definitely a noticable heat reduction. Heat in these applications in nothing more than created frition, which is wear that if can be reduced IS a good thing.

[motoman]

BTW James, if using an 80-90w gear oil, the diff./final dr. on ANY vehicle application should be of the EP(extreme pressure) variety ONLY, for reasons I can explain in detail, if your interest prevails, PM me. Using a syn./semi-syn. gear oil in the same viscosity rating as a conventional same rated viscosity is ill-advised, and I can attest to findings as a result. To give an example and keeping it short, My F-350 short bed diesel's Dana diff. wears a tag saying exactly this: 75-140w syn. ONLY. Now that same Dana series in years past, even having a Posi-Trac as this one does used conventional EP 80-90w suitable for Posi-Trac. Now internally, unless tight tollerance bushings were used in place of roller bearings(which I doubt having some 550ft.lbs.of torque that can be applied), IMO, that tells me an 80-90w syn. gear oil does NOT have the same lubricating/protection properties, hence the reccomended syn. 75-140w. Attributing that viscosity difference to it's 'cling' ability more so than to lubricating ability because of centrifical forces that exist. IMO, I also attribute the pictured ring and pinion excessive wear shown by Scott(3Phase) to this phenonema, more so than the somewhat more flexing of the lighter housing of the 750 final drive since the 80-90w syn. RoyalPurple was what was used in the diff. at that time instad of the 75-140w, along with the majority of those some 40K miles were LD 'super-slab' miles. Mind you, some of this IS knowleagable fact, but some of the OUTCOMES are JMO.......again, results may vary........

[jetmechmarty]

clutch w/ synthetic oil

I have run synthetic oil in my XS11 and my XS650 with the old fashioned clutch plates. No slipping. This was motorcycle specific synthetic oil.