When did you last get your shaft out?

I had a couple of hours spare this AM so thought I'd pull my shaft out just to ensure all was good... Its a 15 plate bike with 13K miles on the clock and I know its never been off road or even out in the wet much, so it will be in good shape right?.... Mmmm...

I had a TC last year and had to replace the shaft and arm bearings on that, but that had been off road and in water so I guess its to be expected.

But although the compnents were fine, I was shocked at the lack of grease on them!!... I just gave each a quick wipe before I took the phote.. nothing into the splines or anything. As you can see, the shaft has surface rust on the bottom end and even the rear bevel drive has a bit of rust on it (or had).... all cleaned up now and re-assembled, but well worth a check.. doing many more miles like this and the splines would start to break down I'm sure!

why can't they grease them up right from new.. very poor indeed!....

BTW... I bought some silicone grease for the rear boots but it's clear and is quite thin out of a tube.. is there any diferance between white and clear silicone grease?...

and a few more....

beaver said:

and a few more....

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I clean & grease my splined shaft parts once a year using Stabarag which was the grease originally used by BMW I believe they recommend a different grease now?

So where do you even start on this job?

I'd happily give it a go but only have a Haynes Manual and tools

Warlord said:

So where do you even start on this job?

I'd happily give it a go but only have a Haynes Manual and tools

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Did mine 6 weeks ago, all was rust free but very dry. It’s a 15 GS with 25,000 km on it bought new. Its a relatively easy job to do and well worth it for the peace of mind.

Rockred said:

Did mine 6 weeks ago, all was rust free but very dry. It’s a 15 GS with 25,000 km on it bought new. Its a relatively easy job to do and well worth it for the peace of mind.

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Any reason for dryness or is that the way they come from the factory, maybe a bit of spray on Silicone grease.........

It’s easy.. took about 2 hours all in, but a lot of that was spent brushing the new grease into the splines etc..

Remove wheel and mud flinger
remove calliper (tie up) and speedo sensor (plug hole)
Chock under disc and remove rear bolt on para-lever arm.....
You can now lower the diff down having released the rubber gaiter clip into the arm
Rear splines and drive shaft will come apart.

To remove the drive shaft... remove the arm side of the front gaiter..
Push it towards the engine.
I used an Allen key on the back of the engine as a spacer and with a big screwdriver into to U section of the UJ, push the shaft back down the arm, and it will pop off the clip and splines.
Work the shaft out (you'll need to push down the rear gaiter to get clearance) (15 mins to this point)

Clean out splines internal / external both ends

Get some more grease (I used Honda M77)
do the front first working it into the splines with a tooth brush internal and external rotating things as you go (spend a bit of time here and rub it up and down the splines so its fully worked in)
replace the drive shaft and get your fingers into the area between the swing arm and the engine so you can get it lined up and push the shaft onto the male spline.
put a piece of wood onto the end of the arm and lever against this to push the shaft back over the clip so it's secured (just pops back on)
Now do the rear... work the grease in with the brush as before.
I removed fully the rear gaiter so at this point I greased the diff side and re-fit it.
Bring the diff up and with your fingers inside holding the shaft, locate the female onto the male (you may have to rotate to get them on)
chock under disc.
grease up the gaiters back and front and re-clip back into place

Re-fit the torque arm bolt.

replace the calliper / speedo sensor / mud flinger / wheel... job done

as I said... about 2 hours all in but I did spend a bit of time cleaning the shaft and greasing it where the rust was.
You don't need any special tools other than Torx bits and the Haynes comes in handy for the Torque settings

Ok great, I'll give that a go when I do the 12000 mile service. Cheers

It's a must... we can't be putting these bikes through what we do with dry splines... the shaft won't last too long if we do!!...

Well my bikes at 10,000 miles and 15 months old.

So another 2 months and I'll do it

Smogbob said:

Any reason for dryness or is that the way they come from the factory, maybe a bit of spray on Silicone grease.........

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I was expecting to find some grease, but found virtually none. Could be it was skimped at the factory, or the very hot and dry climate down here. The good news , there was not a hint of rust anywhere.

its not the rust you should worry about... ITs damage the the splines.. it these are damaged it gets very expensive indeed!!

All the splines looked unmarked and in perfect condition.

Per main dealer the bevel box to shaft bearings are a known issue on the WC bikes with noticeable play being present in most bikes after 10,000 or so miles or a couple of years ............ nothing to do with water ingress .

BMW apparently know of the issue but do not recognise it as a problem ....... main wear occurs in the needle roller which appear to be assembled without any grease at the factory .......... changed mine with that issue at 12,500 miles and added copious amounts of grease to the replacement

I wonder if i should go whip my spines out on my Van or my car
They've done many many miles now

Rockred said:

I was expecting to find some grease, but found virtually none. Could be it was skimped at the factory, or the very hot and dry climate down here. The good news , there was not a hint of rust anywhere.

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Something to do in the winter then, now just ride and hope nothing disintegrates............

There appeared to be lots of grease in the needle bearings... Just not the splines? In your car/van they will be in a boot and lots of grease in there.
If you want to see what running without grease does I'll take pics of my 09 shaft.. not nice

I wonder what my 14 year old 85K R1150GS spines were like ?

Onahi said:

I wonder what my 14 year old 85K R1150GS spines were like ?

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If they have no grease on them, fooked ��