Random thought here.
I’ve read about removing the shaft drive to soak the UJ to make it last longer. Can’t the shaft drive housing be drilled with , say a Ø5 hole, so that an oil can’s nozzle can be used to lubricate said UJ?
The correct position to be drilled would be paramount, the hole could be plugged with a rubber bung. Also the hole would need to be drilled below the UJ, so that swarf did not drop onto it.
As I said, just a random thought.
I have no idea of the location of the UJ in the shaft drive housing.
Opinions anyone?
Ordinarily the UJ sits in a fairly ‘comfortable’ environment. Assuming the rubber boot isn’t torn the only contaminants you would expect there would be oil – either from the g/box or d/box. I’m thinking that the spiders for the UJ are sealed in themselves so there would be little benefit in looking to add additional lubricant. Pulling the arm, at least on the earlier bikes, is a fairly simple operation, and I presume that a lot of us here do that on at least an annual service basis to grease the splines. I do that but even then I don’t look to oil the UJ. I just check how it feels then bung it back in.
Happy for someone else to shoot me down here …
Sort of linked to the original question…
I use a hot dowel to make a 3mm hole in the UJ gaiter and squirt aerosol grease onto the UJ every six months.
The hole is sealed with a small dowel.
Not sure of the benefits but certainly no harm done as yet.
On the original post…
I always give new UJs a good soak in gear oil before fitting. Again no evidence of benefit or harm.
All the best
Steve
I was told that each needle roller bearing (8 off) is sealed with its own gaiter type seal, so immersing in oil would have no effect. The splines would benefit from some grease tho.
The factory race mechanics would always dip the joint in EP90 before reassembly…
Had the bike for two years, never greased the splines! Never done it on my 11 year bmw 1150gs with 84,000 showing.
I seem to remember someone drilling and tapping for grease nipples, not sure if it was the swinging arm for the shaft support bearing or the UJ itself, maybe someone with a better memory will enlighten us?
if you drill the UJ for a grease nipple you may find unpleasant vibrations from it being out of balance
when I stripped mine I lubricated the splines with the proper grease, same as used on BMW splines
but I did add a small amount of oil inside the gaiter to stop corrosion if water got in
it seems to have worked
Yes Chris I remember something like, was just in the tunnel so would just try fill the space inside with grease which not necessarily get anywhere near the actual UJ bearings. I think…