Now it's the rear end service...

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

Since I put the bike up for the Winter finally due to the heavy salting of the roads, I started the first major servicing since I bought it in the Spring. I had to do fork seals in June, even though they were "done" prior to my purchasing. Well,one side was done anyway...

The bike had recent tires, and I asked the prior owner about spline servicing, and was assured it was done when the rear tire was replaced. Yeah, ummm. About that.

Pulled the rear tire this evening. Splines on the flange were OK. Didn't appear to have been greased recently, or with anything more than wheel bearing grease when they were. Pulled the pumpkin, and that's where the fun ($$) started. Driveshaft and pinion cup splines are wasted; like, thankfully I didn't get stranded somewhere - wasted. More rust dust than metal. Cleaned the splines and the damage is obvious. I fit them together for a laugh and it feels like I could almost strip it by hand by manipulating the shaft angle a bit.

Time to order more parts. At least the bike will finally be decent when I go through it top to bottom. Was hoping not to have to, but where would the fun be in that, right?

[Bighead]

It will be money well spent

[Moofner]

I fear that I will also need to pull my pumpkin apart and see if I've got the same thing. My wheel splines were wretched.

Please let me know if you find a good source of parts (after you take care of yourself, of course). I'm new to the Valkyrie spare parts game.

[98valk]

GW GL1500 spare parts
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,48990.0.html

[TTG53#1717]

Can’t stress enough the importance of using the correct type of grease in this application.
The FSM tells us what to use and unfortunately regular auto store wheel bearing grease just doesn’t hold up under that kind of load. If I remember right, I ordered my grease from McMaster-Carr.
Hope it works out for both of you.

[sandy]

I sold my previous valk with 155K and only used Bel Ray waterproof wheel bearing grease. The FSM says to used 60% moly paste which most of us have abandoned due to many rusty failures.

Can’t stress enough the importance of using the correct type of grease in this application.
The FSM tells us what to use and unfortunately regular auto store wheel bearing grease just doesn’t hold up under that kind of load. If I remember right, I ordered my grease from McMaster-Carr.
Hope it works out for both of you.

[Chrisj CMA]

As far as the drive splines my slide show details the grease I use. For the pinion cup. It's critical to keep a good oil seal on that drive shaft. Any change from spanking new looking and tight and it needs to be changed. No, it can't make it to the next time change.

[da prez]

  If I get a bike that was serviced or had a tire change by  a dealer , a red flag goes up. The rear end service is usually non existent. I had O-rings fall out. I could go on , but it is best to learn to do your own service or ask a fellow Valker for help. There is always one near by.

                                   da prez

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

As far as the drive splines my slide show details the grease I use. For the pinion cup. It's critical to keep a good oil seal on that drive shaft. Any change from spanking new looking and tight and it needs to be changed. No, it can't make it to the next time change.

When I pulled the driveshaft out of the pinion cup, the seal was in three pieces. The main body of the seal was still on the shaft, but the seal lip came off in one ring, and the spring that tensions the lip of the seal was separated, too. I think they got there money's worth out of that seal; probably the whole 45K that's on the bike. I tend to doubt that anyone ever did the driveshaft maintenance on it, even though I was assured that it was done.

Well, at least the hub splines got some sort of attention during tire changes. The splines aren't mint, but they're still there, which is more than I can say for the driveshaft. I think I was one holeshot away from being towed home.

[The emperor has no clothes]

As far as the drive splines my slide show details the grease I use. For the pinion cup. It's critical to keep a good oil seal on that drive shaft. Any change from spanking new looking and tight and it needs to be changed. No, it can't make it to the next time change.

When I pulled the driveshaft out of the pinion cup, the seal was in three pieces. The main body of the seal was still on the shaft, but the seal lip came off in one ring, and the spring that tensions the lip of the seal was separated, too. I think they got there money's worth out of that seal; probably the whole 45K that's on the bike. I tend to doubt that anyone ever did the driveshaft maintenance on it, even though I was assured that it was done.

Well, at least the hub splines got some sort of attention during tire changes. The splines aren't mint, but they're still there, which is more than I can say for the driveshaft. I think I was one holeshot away from being towed home.

When I first got my Standard, I took it to a shop to have new tires put on. I think most people and places don't know the proper way to put the shaft and pumpkin on. I think they put the shaft in first and then put the pumpkin on. Which buggered up the seal. Luckily it never rains here and everything was fine.

[Ramie]

As far as the drive splines my slide show details the grease I use. For the pinion cup. It's critical to keep a good oil seal on that drive shaft. Any change from spanking new looking and tight and it needs to be changed. No, it can't make it to the next time change.

I followed Chrisj CMA's instructions in shoptalk and it was a big help the first time.

[98valk]

my last service I put a ball joint boot on the end of the cup as a secondary grease seal.  sometime this year will be time to service and will see if it survived and made a difference.
see my post and pics.
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,93344.0.html

[RWhitehouse]

I've found that when a lot of owners hear about "spline lube" or "grease the rear end" they assume it's just the splines on the wheel. "Oh yeah, I did that", failing to realize the driveshaft/pinion cup is what's being referenced.

I pulled it apart on my '98 with about 40k miles. It lived near the Gulf coast for most of it's life, so typical oxidation on the engine cases from salty air. There was evidence of the "red rust", but it was clear someone had been in there to grease it at some point in the past and once cleaned up, there was virtually zero wear on the splines. The two oil holes were also plugged with old grease residue. A cordless impact blasted the nut off the pinion cup no problem and cleaned it up good. One of the three o-rings (the hidden third one) was in several pieces so replaced that. Regreased everything with a good quality moly wheel bearing grease, but was careful not to slop too much on the pinion cup splines so the grease wouldn't squish out and plug up the oil holes. At disassembly, it was clear zero drive oil was making it's way up there as intended.

I also found the left side wheel bearing was getting a little sloppy. Not awful yet, but putting the axle into it and leaning on the end to put a little load, you could feel it was a little crunchy. Replaced that. The double bearing on the right side still felt butter smooth so left it alone. Put it all back together. I also tried over-filling the final drive a bit, by slightly jacking the rear wheel with the bike on the sidestand. Filled the drive to the fill hole, gave the wheel a quick spin so the ring gear "sucked up" oil, then squirted another ounce or two in there before screwing the cap on. I also used a synthetic 75-90 gear oil, vs the 90wt regular I used before. It has very noticeably lower viscosity, at least at room temperature.

A few months later I got a nail and pulled the wheel to do an internal patch on the ATT. There was no issue with drive oil coming out the vent or leaks or anything like that, did a few thousand miles in that time with sustained high speed highway riding.   For the hell of it, I pulled the drive again, curious if oil was now getting to the pinion cup. Yep. Now the pinion cup and driveshaft end was sloppy wet with gear oil, which from what I've read was Honda's intent, you were never supposed to have to manually disassemble and lube this.

So not sure if it was cleaning out the oil holes in the cup, over-filling the drive slightly, using a thinner oil or some combination of all three, but now it seems that it is self-lubricating as intended.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

my last service I put a ball joint boot on the end of the cup as a secondary grease seal.  sometime this year will be time to service and will see if it survived and made a difference.
see my post and pics.
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,93344.0.html

Think I'm going to give that a go as well. Don't see how it could hurt anything.

Thanks for the info.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

Thanks for the information everybody.

Oh, and thanks for listening to my whining. It's not a huge deal; I've been an auto tech for over 25 years, so I've got the tools and I'm not afraid to dig in. I've recently become an independent Amsoil dealer too, so I've got the gear oil in stock. It would have been nice to just be able to service it and move on to the next thing, but either way, at least I know what I've got now.