greasing the universal joint

[tmcafe]

You dont need to remove the rear wheel to grease the front u joint. Turn the grease fitting on the u joint to the top position. Get a hinged grease gun fitting. Put it at about 45 degrees and come into the u joint from the rear of the bike along the top of the driveshaft. It will mate up and snap right on. The whole thing takes maybe a minute. Earlier posts go over this.

But don't you have to drop the swingarm, which is in the way?

[Guzzirider]

We last greased the UJ on Helen's bike about 8000 miles ago, and she is about to do a 3000 mile tour, which will still be within the recommended service interval but I am pondering whether to do it now.

 

Is there any evidence out there to say this is worth doing ahead of Guzzi's recommended service intervals?

 

Guy

[raz]

I definitely would. The problem with proactive maintenence is you will never know if it payed off. I'm sure we could find 'evidence' that some bikes hasn't had one single greasing in several ten-thousands of miles but that doesn't mean any other bike will survive that.

 

Weigh the risk of an unwanted, dangerous, expensive and several days long stop, 1500 miles from home, against the labour involved. It's a no-brainer!

[docc]

I can't believe how difficult this has been to grease the front U-joint!

 

I don't think I've ever actually got the coupler to join with the zerk (55,000 miles).

 

I know it finally did this time (pulled the shock bolt to lower the swingarm) since it was so hard to get the bugger off. After knocking a knarly chunk of skin off me finger (ya know yer bleedin' when you can see it through the nitrile gloves), I believe the front U-joint has a good dose of that Redline greeze.

 

Off to the South'n Spine Raid in the morning. I wish you could all be there.

 

Ride well, and, again, thanks for all the help, docc

[moscowphil]

What you need is a coupler with a bend of about 55 degrees. Then greasing the uj is easy-peasy, and you don't have to dismantle anything. If you can't buy a 55% degree coupler (I couldn't), you can make one - Here's a pic of mine, which started out life as a straight coupler. I bent it by: (1) taking it to bits, (2) put some thick wire inside the tube to stop the tube kinking too much as it bends (it acts like a plumbers bending spring) (3) put a nut on the the thread at each end of the tube, to protect the threads from getting knackered while it's being bent (4) Then got the tube bit red hot (in a wood-burning stove - seemed appropriate for a Guzzi!) (5) bent it while red hot by holding each end with a bit of old steel tubing and bending as close to one end a possible. (6) clean the tube and reassemble it. (7) I then attached the reassembled coupler to a flexible connector (couple of quid from machinemart), so that the grease gun body doesn't foul the swing arm. Took a couple of hours in all, and means I can now grease the uj in a couple of minutes. There's also something very satisfying about making your own tools, especially if you are a cheapskate like me!.

[Steve G.]

What you need is a coupler with a bend of about 55 degrees. Then greasing the uj is easy-peasy, and you don't have to dismantle anything. If you can't buy a 55% degree coupler (I couldn't), you can make one - Here's a pic of mine, which started out life as a straight coupler. I bent it by: (1) taking it to bits, (2) put some thick wire inside the tube to stop the tube kinking too much as it bends (it acts like a plumbers bending spring) (3) put a nut on the the thread at each end of the tube, to protect the threads from getting knackered while it's being bent (4) Then got the tube bit red hot (in a wood-burning stove - seemed appropriate for a Guzzi!) (5) bent it while red hot by holding each end with a bit of old steel tubing and bending as close to one end a possible. (6) clean the tube and reassemble it. (7) I then attached the reassembled coupler to a flexible connector (couple of quid from machinemart), so that the grease gun body doesn't foul the swing arm. Took a couple of hours in all, and means I can now grease the uj in a couple of minutes. There's also something very satisfying about making your own tools, especially if you are a cheapskate like me!.

 

 

Yorkshiremen tend to be thrifty, I've got Yorkshire blood.

Steve

[badmotogoozer]

You can always spot a Yorkshire man, he's got really short arms and really deep pockets.

[dlaing]

I definitely would. The problem with proactive maintenence is you will never know if it payed off. I'm sure we could find 'evidence' that some bikes hasn't had one single greasing in several ten-thousands of miles but that doesn't mean any other bike will survive that.

 

Weigh the risk of an unwanted, dangerous, expensive and several days long stop, 1500 miles from home, against the labour involved. It's a no-brainer!

One thing I have noticed greasing it every 4000-5000 miles is that you have to squeeze a fair amount of grease in before any comes out, so it does seem to lose grease. Also the grease coming out is dirty.

I consider that evidence that the more you grease the expensive shaft, the longer it will last.

Just wish I could find the right fitting.

MoscowPhil's 55 degree fitting might work for me, but I am pretty sure it would not work on my bike without a ground down fitting.

I have been using a flexible hose with a ground down fitting, and it is a major pain to get to work right.

I hope his 55 degree pipe bend may help.

Or maybe one of Leafman's hinged fittings

43,000 miles (about 8 or 9 shaft lubes) and still struggling with banged up knuckles.

[Tom M]

Dave,

Check my post at the bottom of page 2 in this thread. This fitting works without grinding it and it's available at Ace hardware stores or from McMaster-Carr. I tried a few different fittings, this worked the best.

[dlaing]

I tried a few different grease gun tips and hoses and finally found a combination that reaches the front u-joint zerk without needing to remove the swingarm or disconnect the shock, although I did remove the rear wheel and bevel box. Someone else here recommended this fitting in another thread but since I can't find that thread now I'll add it here.

 

It's available at ACE hardware stores.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.j...hId=22788313823

It is difficult to see from the photo, but should be worth a try.

Is that what Leafman meant by a hinged fitting?

[Tom M]

Is that what Leafman meant by a hinged fitting?

 

My guess is yes.

 

I will say that I got other fittings onto the zerk but they wouldn't inject the grease, it just blew put around the zerk. This one worked great, all the grease went into the joint.

[Chuck]

On 5/30/2008 at 4:31 PM, moscowphil said:

What you need is a coupler with a bend of about 55 degrees. Then greasing the uj is easy-peasy, and you don't have to dismantle anything. If you can't buy a 55% degree coupler (I couldn't), you can make one - Here's a pic of mine, which started out life as a straight coupler. I bent it by: (1) taking it to bits, (2) put some thick wire inside the tube to stop the tube kinking too much as it bends (it acts like a plumbers bending spring) (3) put a nut on the the thread at each end of the tube, to protect the threads from getting knackered while it's being bent (4) Then got the tube bit red hot (in a wood-burning stove - seemed appropriate for a Guzzi!) (5) bent it while red hot by holding each end with a bit of old steel tubing and bending as close to one end a possible. (6) clean the tube and reassemble it. (7) I then attached the reassembled coupler to a flexible connector (couple of quid from machinemart), so that the grease gun body doesn't foul the swing arm. Took a couple of hours in all, and means I can now grease the uj in a couple of minutes. There's also something very satisfying about making your own tools, especially if you are a cheapskate like me!.

I did essentially this except used an oxy acetylene torch, and it took 5 minutes. It works fine on the Mighty Scura and the Rosso Corsa when I had it.. but.. wouldn't work on the Kid's greenie.

[JBBenson]

Depending on the model of V11, most of us have made a custom bent nozzle (usually with some material on the tip ground off to make it narrower/smaller) that will do the trick, with the swingarm and wheel in place. I think I removed the rear shock to drop the rear wheel as far as possible, but I'm not sure. Maybe just used my shop stand.

Be careful that the zerk fitting isn't set too tight, as it could break off the zerk nipple when removing, as pulling it straight off might be difficult). That would be a bad day in the garage. Better to keep it loose and hold it in place when pumping the grease trigger.