I've been wanting to check this for quite some time but couldn't due
to my shoulder being on the mend. Well after hearing/seeing yet more pics of
recent horror stories on our Yahoo group I finally decided to remove the final drive unit on my '96 that has 7,900 miles. I bought it used with 3,400 miles and it had the original Bridgestone Exedra tires so I highly doubt
the shaft had ever been looked at. Yep, the Kaw factory did indeed
lube my driveshaft's rear splines and quite well at that - WHEW!!! I
practically needed a drum roll before I pulled off the final drive
unit. The front splines were dry as a bone but looked fine and had no
wear. I lubed front and back splines with the "Honda 60% Moly paste"
and sprayed the u-joint with White Lithium. A rag with Kerosene and Q-
tips do a great job of cleaning the rear splines and coupler. I had
already lubed the wheel's splines with Valvoline semi-syn Durablend
when I installed my Metzelers in '03 and that grease was holding up
quite well and the wheel came right off and went back on easily. Yes,
the discussion of splines and Moly lube happened right after I installed
new tires otherwise I would have have cleaned/lubed the splines back in the spring of '03.

Wow, no questions or comments! This is a fairly hot topic on the VN750 Yahoo group.

That's great, Bruce.
This is not that hard of a job, really, and once you actually go thru it, it is even less intimidating.
I guess Kaw might have had some probs at the factory w/ this, and their dealers have even less of a clue, it seems, but a lot of (new) VN750 owners will be spared a lot of hassel if we keep up the posts on this subject.
I did mine (my first) @ 25,000mi (after the original blew up @20,000), checked it at 32,000mi when I installed my new Metz880s. I plan on re-checking every 10,000mi.
Nothing beats the TLC you give you own machine, and the confidence on the road you get because of it....

Sorry to hear yours blew up at 20k. Was it just not lubed at the factory or did the factory lube brake down after the 20k?

It's not just our scoots, it seems that this is not a well known maint item for any shaftie, be it a VN750, Gold Wing or BMW but thanks to the many MC forums the word is getting out.

Sorry to hear yours blew up at 20k. Was it just not lubed at the factory or did the factory lube brake down after the 20k?

It's not just our scoots, it seems that this is not a well known maint item for any shaftie, be it a VN750, Gold Wing or BMW but thanks to the many MC forums the word is getting out.Bruce...dealer never had a clue abt the need to do this...they admitted it. I had it in to them @ 600, 3000, 6000, and twice around 12000 for preventative maint and new tires. They never checked, even tho their service checklists are signed by the 'tech' and say they perform all maint as required in the Kaw service manual. They replaced my drive sys from the the bevel gear on back for free, but for 300 bucks labor. I broke down doing ~60mph...no warning signs at all IIRC.
I've posted numerous times on here and Y! abt this, and you're right...the word is getting around. That's a good thing. Ultimately it's our responsibility to CYA...I know that now.
To me tho, it's in the same category as this maint free battery thing...
the companies and dealers will eagerly take our money, but IMHO in a lot of cases, riders are not taken very seriously when the bike is designed or after it's sold. Oh, well...so much for a 'recreational' item I guess.