My bike came to me without service records so I had a long list of maintenance items, including lubing the drive shaft splines. I did it this week and was very pleased to find the splines in great shape with lots of lube remaining. While I was at it, I replaced the rear shock... and shot a video.

Nice job all round! At least someone appeared to be fond of copaslip - always a good sign for the maintenance.

Wow!
Well done, the video as well as the work.

Dai, Shep, thanks for the kind words.

Yes, it was very nice to see all the anti-seize on the fasteners and doubly so to see the lube on the splines!

I started making these videos in 2018 as I worked on my 1999 Suzuki Bandit 1200. It's a part of the maintenance and repair process that I really enjoy!

grosbeak wrote:My bike came to me without service records so I had a long list of maintenance items, including lubing the drive shaft splines. I did it this week and was very pleased to find the splines in great shape . . .

The spines of the drive shaft u-joint and the transmission output shaft hardly will show any wear over the life of most Bricks because wear caused by sliding contact is reduced by their being clipped together. The major parts experiencing spline wear are the clutch hub splines and the driveshaft rear socket splines. Wear creates a sawtooth profile in the splines when viewed from their ends. New splines have flat tops that slope outwards.

Here are driveshaft socket splines from a 1993 K75S with 40K miles. They are in good condition; wear is just starting to appear as the arrows indicate, but they could still be in good shape after another 60K miles, depending upon lubrication and whether the drive line is being bashed by during hard or unskilled usage.



The splines of your Brick's driveshaft socket are starting show typical sawtooth profiles—concave slopes and pointed tips developing, as circled. There are still thousands of miles left in them.

Can the splines be filed?
I have a 600cc single bike made in 1960, with a gearbox that uses "soft" gears.
They can be easily filed by hand, yet they last very well.
The engine produces 26 horsepower.

Thought of the day provoked by watching the video…anti-seize grease on wheel studs? 

I love the stuff and swear by it…but I have never used it on wheel studs on any of the cars or bikes I have owned over the last 40 years. Something buried deep in my psyche perhaps that tells me not to. I certainly haven’t noticed any (car) tyre fitting outlets use it either.

Torquing the studs correctly applies the right amount of stretch to the threads to hold the studs firmly in place and stop them vibrating loose in use…and the use of anti-seize grease shouldn’t alter that so is it fact or myth about using the stuff on wheel studs?

Born Again Eccentric wrote:Torquing the studs correctly applies the right amount of stretch to the threads to hold the studs firmly in place and stop them vibrating loose in use…and the use of anti-seize grease shouldn’t alter that so is it fact or myth about using the stuff on wheel studs?

It's a myth. The primary function of anti-seize is to prevent electrolytic corrosion, not to provide a slippery surface. As it happens the tyre fitter I use has always dunked the bolts in copaslip before torquing them up. I've been going to him for the last twenty-five years.

Jordan53 wrote:Can the splines be filed?

Nope. When they get that worn there's nothing left to file. Also, if they're manufactured anything like Guzzi driveshafts, they're semi-hardened so a file has a tendancy to slide off them.

Hmmm. 600cc. Single. 1960. VB, M100 or something else entirely?

Laitch, duck... thanks for the info. Guessing that I am going to have a big expensive job ahead of me within the next few years.

At the risk of jinxing myself, let me say I have been using anti-seize on wheel studs for years with no negative effect.  I put that stuff on everything because I hate messing with corroded threads.

Dai wrote:
Hmmm. 600cc. Single. 1960. VB, M100 or something else entirely?

M100
Sort of the opposite of K100.

Point-Seven-five wrote:At the risk of jinxing myself, let me say I have been using anti-seize on wheel studs for years with no negative effect.  I put that stuff on everything because I hate messing with corroded threads.

I only use anti-seize on the peg plate bolts and alternator mounting bolts as those seem to be the worst when it comes to thread corrosion.

grosbeak wrote:Laitch, duck... thanks for the info. Guessing that I am going to have a big expensive job ahead of me within the next few years.

It isn't necessarily a big job. Motobins UK sells a rear driveshaft socket to replace the worn one. A competent machine shop can perform that in short order, or you can do it yourself for the thrill. It appears Motobins has a cottage industry of driveshaft rehabs for riders in the UK but I haven't read any reviews of the outcomes yet.



You could also choose to replace the whole transmission and rear end with a Paralever unit from a 4-valve K1, K100RS or K1100

Jordan53 wrote:

Dai wrote:
Hmmm. 600cc. Single. 1960. VB, M100 or something else entirely?

M100
Sort of the opposite of K100.

Had a '58 which I never finished restoring before passing it on. Some clown had malleted the crank back in and destroyed the driveside thread. I also had a '59 VB which is one of only two bikes I ever regret parting with. The other one was a 1978 genuine ex-LAPD Moto Guzzi 850-T3 California, complete with all the police paperwork.