So I just got around to checking my splines out. Dry and rusted and worn. I want to replace the final drive and coupling. I looked on Ebay but had no luck. Anyone got any ideas?

Frustrated rider.

how bad are they.. any life yet? splined gears can look pretty ugly and still last longer than expected!

I took my final drive to the Kawasaki dealer and decided just to clean the splines up and lube it. I haven't had any problems while driving. In the meantime I'll just keep an eye out on ebay for a final drive and coupling case I ever decide to replace it.

Too bad you didn't post some pictures of both parts with any/all lube cleaned off. We could have had a look.

Jon

You have my deepest sympathies - have been there myself a few years ago. Seems to happen far too often with these bikes - i'm sure many of them left the factory with no lube at all on the splines. Fortunately I managed to locate a 2nd hand driveshaft & final drive quickly when mine failed.
I agree with borto1990, sometimes they are not as bad a they look, as long as they still grip they will probably go on for a while if they are properly lubed. At least it will give you time to find some secondhand spares.
Needless to say, whenever you have the back wheel out for a tire change it's well worth spending the extra time & re-lubing everything while you are at it.
Take care & ride safe.
Ernie.

I must be really lucky. Lubed mine this weekend and had to clean lots of grease out of the spline. The lube guy must have given me 3 bikes worth of grease. Any way cleaned and moly60'd and feeling much better about my bike.

Well, add me to the list of final drive seekers. After pulling the rear wheel and exposing the drive shaft, the red powder that dropped out was what was left of my splines. Some meat left on the pinion shaft, but don't know if its worth risking putting on a new pinion joint and driving till I can get another final drive. Has anyone ever had these things rebuilt? I know they're pricey bought new. I'll try to attach a pic of the pinion shaft....and see what you think about running it for a while as is.

609

When I got my bike (used), the first thing I did was to find this web site and took heed to lubing the splines whenever you take the rear tire off. Never would have thought about the splines being so important (since I never owned a shaft drive before). Bought new tires within the month of getting the bike and had the splines lubed - it was a good thing too since I was told they were dry...

I don't understand why this spline-lube problem is unique to Kawasaki. Didn't they learn anything after 25 years? I have had three other shaft-drive bikes and the spline lube was not even a minor issue. When I changed the rear tire I would lube everything but it was far from dry.

The more I read about the spiines the more I realize that I need to check that and quit putting it off. And I just got back from a 600 mile round trip, I really need to check them. Thanx for the info.

I've got a spare final drive in great shape that I picked up off of eBay (I still need to 'detail' it, but the splines are in fabulous shape). BBrian or Captain, if you're interested, drop me a pm. It's not doing me any good sitting in the garage taking up space. :)

I don't understand why this spline-lube problem is unique to Kawasaki. Didn't they learn anything after 25 years? I have had three other shaft-drive bikes and the spline lube was not even a minor issue. When I changed the rear tire I would lube everything but it was far from dry.

It's not really unique to only Kawi's, just that it seems in some more recent years, they didn't get much (if any) lube from the factory for some reason.

It's been brought up here several times that the issue of lubing the splines is mentioned on other makes/model bike forums almost as often as it is here.
It's just like on cars, some people can go forever never having any troubles with a driveshaft u-joint, yet others are replacing them again and again.