i was just wondering with all the spline issues has anyone ever tapped a grease fitting on the shaft housing? is there is enough void space to allow a shot of grease? then you can just give it a pump or two of grease during an oil change. i have added fittings to some of my 4 X 4 pickup trucks over the years.

The spline shaft slides into a full splined collar, so greasing through a fitting on the outside of the housing would grease the outside of the collar, but very little if any would get into the splines themselves where it's needed. IMHO.

Got to bring up missing member Edalbris again. He did this, and I believe he has pics somewhere in the gallery of it.
Not sure how it finally worked for him.

IMO, It would take a good bit of grease to fill the driveshaft tube. And then (unless you spend a good bit on Moly60) it's gonna fling out all over the place. Even the Moly60 might if ya fill it up that much.

The spline shaft slides into a full splined collar, so greasing through a fitting on the outside of the housing would grease the outside of the collar, but very little if any would get into the splines themselves where it's needed. IMHO.

thanks, just a thought, i never took mine apart yet. some grease may be drawn in depending on the thickness of the grease and how tight the pieces fit together but probably not much if at all like you said. what kind of grease do you use? i got the bike off a good friend & it was well maintained although i want to check mine soon.

I used the Honda Moly 60 that's widely suggested by everybody around here.

I'd like to see pics of what that other guy did, I don't understand how much of the grease/moly (whatever he used) could have got in between the spline shaft and spline collar. At least not without filling the whole drive shaft tube up first...

Question: If excess spline lube is supposed to leak out of a vent hole somewhere, why can't we reverse this process and add spline lube through this hole somehow. Then we could lube the splines without taking everything apart.

Because of the way the spline assembly was designed. The grease works its way out of the coupler due to the in/out motion of the drive shaft inside the coupler as the rear swing arms move to take shocks and bumps. Because there is no way to force grease in there from the outside, the vent hole is an exit only. Even if you tapped a zerk fitting into the final drive area of the drive shaft, I doubt much, if any, grease would make its way into the coupling. You would have to pump a ton of grease in there and the excess grease would cause added resistance to the driveshaft turning due to the viscosity of the grease. The vast majority of it would simply drain out as it heated up and would be messy. As it is, even if you put a full 3 tablespoons of grease into the coupling, most gets pushed out either during reassembly or during riding and gets slung out to finally drain through the vent hole.

I'd like to see pics of what that other guy did, I don't understand how much of the grease/moly (whatever he used) could have got in between the spline shaft and spline collar. At least not without filling the whole drive shaft tube up first...


HERE (http://www.vn750.com/forum/showpost.php?p=40028&postcount=9) is a post of his, along with a link in it to pics.

This guy has done some things to a Vulcan that not many have, including some internal engine mods.
Even went as far as making (or was in the process of) the front half of the frame completely removable from the rear, for super easy stator replacement.
He does have pics of something I almost did, which was to make the left frame rail removable, like the right. There are pics of that with the zerk fitting pics.

Based on the pics, he would have to fill the drive shaft housing up with grease and even then, I doubt much would get into the coupling/final drive splines to do much good. I also think he's going to have a mess as the grease makes its way forward to slop out the rubber boot at the forward bevel gear.

He did say:
I JUST FILL THE WHOLE SHAFT TUBE AND THEY LUBE THEMSELVES

Sounds like a big mess, because that is a big cavity to fill. <insert pun here>

In the process of more modding (should be finished in about a week), I lubed the drive line again even if it didn't need it. Realizing I need a new rear tire soon, I tried Lucas Red N' Tacky on the drive shaft and rear wheel splines. I know some or most of you are saying "stupid, use moly" but hey, I figure in October I'll be replacing the rear tire anyway, then I'll moly it. The red N Tacky is sure sticky, I'm interested if any of it will spill out the vent hole as I really packed it in there.

BTW, my GL500 does have a zerk on the drive shaft, but there's a seal that blocks the grease from needing to fill the whole shaft housing. Good engineering from Honda.

DT

any grease specifically formulated for constant velocity joints (moly fortified stuff) should work just fine. No need to buy the stuff from honda. I wouldn't use the red n tacky on splines that are in good shape tho.

any grease specifically formulated for constant velocity joints (moly fortified stuff) should work just fine. No need to buy the stuff from honda. I wouldn't use the red n tacky on splines that are in good shape tho.


The reason most here suggest the Honda Moly 60 is because it seems to be one of the most fortified with moly. There's lots of other moly fortified greases, but few with as much.

I hope I didn't offend anyone It wasn't my intension.

just thought I'd let others know that there is alternative stuff that's adequate.

Didn't offend me Kay. I didn't use the Honda stuff. If you use a High Quality, High temp grease and do it at the 6200 mile mark and every time you change the rear tire there after, there shouldn't be a problem.

No offense at all, Kay. :beerchug:
I was just pointing out why the Honda stuff is often recommended here.
Most of our suggestions are due to experiance and/or trial & error.
The Moly-60, like Seafoam, has a good track record amoung the group.
Yes, other stuff can be used, but the Moly-60 is known to work, and to work well.

Hi all...newbie (to the 750 Vulcan.....not to cycles) I just got a mint '97 14k miles, love it......so far I have marbled, drilled stock exhaust, installed new air filters. I am very attracted to installing a grease nipple near the spline, I would think enough moly would get into the splines after i pumped a bunch in thru a newly installed nipple...2 questions.......1. HOW do you know the splines need greasing, WITHOUT disassembly??? I do not want to take apart rear end unless I am forced to. Runs fine now, My pirelli rear tire has 70% tread left.
2. With trepadation and slowly.......Drilling and tapping for a grease nipple WITHOUT taking ANYTHING apart...that is...Using a powerful shop vacuum with a small mouth/head (to increase suction) next to the drill bit and tap...to suck up the metal shavings...SLOWLY drilling and tapping a hole for a grease fitting. The only problem I see is the last 32nd" of metal before punching thru the housing.....slight bit of metal shavings getting into the assembly? but maybe not,I'm thinking , with a second person holding the vachead next to the drillbit very little if any would fall.... Sounds like a maybe....what do you think??? love this site........Jeff in Tampa

There is no way to tell if your splines are worn without taking it apart unless of course you wait until they fail. Then there is no question.

Additionally, even with a grease fitting in the shaft alley, you would have to pump the whole thing full of grease and there is no guarantee that any of it would get to the splines. The resultant mess from all the grease being slung out of the ends would be horrific to clean up as well.

Hi all...newbie (to the 750 Vulcan.....not to cycles) I just got a mint '97 14k miles, love it......so far I have marbled, drilled stock exhaust, installed new air filters. I am very attracted to installing a grease nipple near the spline, I would think enough moly would get into the splines after i pumped a bunch in thru a newly installed nipple...2 questions.......1. HOW do you know the splines need greasing, WITHOUT disassembly??? I do not want to take apart rear end unless I am forced to. Runs fine now, My pirelli rear tire has 70% tread left.
2. With trepadation and slowly.......Drilling and tapping for a grease nipple WITHOUT taking ANYTHING apart...that is...Using a powerful shop vacuum with a small mouth/head (to increase suction) next to the drill bit and tap...to suck up the metal shavings...SLOWLY drilling and tapping a hole for a grease fitting. The only problem I see is the last 32nd" of metal before punching thru the housing.....slight bit of metal shavings getting into the assembly? but maybe not,I'm thinking , with a second person holding the vachead next to the drillbit very little if any would fall.... Sounds like a maybe....what do you think??? love this site........Jeff in Tampa

That's a lot work for nothing. Like Sky Rider said, filling the drive shaft tube full of grease won't do anything but make a mess. Pull it apart and check the splines and grease them. Then every time you change the rear tire grease them, no big deal.

IMO (like Sky Rider & Glenn) you'd end up with quite a mess once grease started working it's way out of the assembly.
I would also think you'd need more than one tube (they're small) of the moly 60.
That'd be A LOT more expensive that the time it takes to remove the final drive (maybe an hour at most) and give the splines the slight bit of grease they actually need.

The spline shaft slides into a full splined collar, so greasing through a fitting on the outside of the housing would grease the outside of the collar, but very little if any would get into the splines themselves where it's needed. IMHO.

I used the Honda Moly 60 that's widely suggested by everybody around here.

I'd like to see pics of what that other guy did, I don't understand how much of the grease/moly (whatever he used) could have got in between the spline shaft and spline collar. At least not without filling the whole drive shaft tube up first...

Because of the way the spline assembly was designed. The grease works its way out of the coupler due to the in/out motion of the drive shaft inside the coupler as the rear swing arms move to take shocks and bumps. Because there is no way to force grease in there from the outside, the vent hole is an exit only. Even if you tapped a zerk fitting into the final drive area of the drive shaft, I doubt much, if any, grease would make its way into the coupling. You would have to pump a ton of grease in there and the excess grease would cause added resistance to the driveshaft turning due to the viscosity of the grease. The vast majority of it would simply drain out as it heated up and would be messy. As it is, even if you put a full 3 tablespoons of grease into the coupling, most gets pushed out either during reassembly or during riding and gets slung out to finally drain through the vent hole.

Based on the pics, he would have to fill the drive shaft housing up with grease and even then, I doubt much would get into the coupling/final drive splines to do much good. I also think he's going to have a mess as the grease makes its way forward to slop out the rubber boot at the forward bevel gear.

He did say:


Sounds like a big mess, because that is a big cavity to fill. <insert pun here>

There is no way to tell if your splines are worn without taking it apart unless of course you wait until they fail. Then there is no question.

Additionally, even with a grease fitting in the shaft alley, you would have to pump the whole thing full of grease and there is no guarantee that any of it would get to the splines. The resultant mess from all the grease being slung out of the ends would be horrific to clean up as well.

That's a lot work for nothing. Like Sky Rider said, filling the drive shaft tube full of grease won't do anything but make a mess. Pull it apart and check the splines and grease them. Then every time you change the rear tire grease them, no big deal.

Hmmmm....

there is another problem with drilling a hole in the driveshaft tube . the tube is also one side of the swing arm.any time you drill ahole in a piece of metal that is subject to constant stress and vibration there is always the possibility of stress cracking.the thinner the metal the more likely a crack will occur.you sure dont wont the swingarm breaking while you are tooling down the freeway at 70 mph.if the kawasaki engineers thought it was a good idea they probably would have done it at the factory.much easier and safer to just pull the final drive occasionally and lube them the old fashioned way

Hyper and/or Blue Crush,
I noticed you have engine gard/& pegs and a luggage rack.
I would like to add both to my 2002 after I get it out of the shop.
Any suggestions on where to purchase each. Do you like the hwy peds?
Eddie

Thanks for the informed replies.....I bought moly 60 today and o rings and will be doing the spline lube soon......

Hyper and/or Blue Crush,
I noticed you have engine gard/& pegs and a luggage rack.

I have the luggage rack, but no engine guard. Mine is the OEM Kawasaki one.
They often times show up on eBay when someone parts out a bike. Or, if ya keep an eye out on the forum here, someone might also have one.
I believe there was also one offered by Highway Hawk (which is no longer in business), but I've heard that one isn't as sturdy as the OEM one.

P.S.
Blue Crush is just the name of Dave's bike

Hyper and/or Blue Crush,
I noticed you have engine gard/& pegs and a luggage rack.
I would like to add both to my 2002 after I get it out of the shop.
Any suggestions on where to purchase each. Do you like the hwy peds?
Eddie

My engine guard was installed by the dealer when the PO originally bought it. (PO dropped it mildly by the first 100 miles and traded it for a scooter instead:confused: works for me:smiley_th)
anyway, there is a guard on ebay now: here (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/89-Kawasaki-VN750-Vulcan-89-VN-750-Highway-Bar_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ10066QQihZ016QQitem Z260287543767QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW)

My description of the peg assembly is in this thread (http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7237), but I recently drilled them as sgsibob said he did (they started to get loose on these crappy Chicago area roads)
A few people drop a bit more cash for the Kuryakin offset pegs, but if I were to do it over, I may just go with knifemaker's design (http://tinyurl.com/23z46x) and clamp it to the front of the guard. It looks nice and the materials are fairly cheap.

good luck!