how to, finally, grease the uni joints.

[morini]

I have never found a thread in this forum telling me how to grease the front uni without taking out the swing arm. This has been giving me the shits for years. Today I finally figured out how to grease the front uni joint on my Ballabio and then managed to let it fall over and crease one of the Titanium pipes.

1. Go buy a 12" long McNaught (KZLNS) or similar needlepoint coupler grease attachment. About $50 in Australia. This will also grease the rear uni with no problems.

2. take off the rear wheel and the bevel box.

3. Get under the rear of the bike and rotate the shaft so the nipple is facing down (not up as I keep reading)

4. Hold up the tail shaft

5. Grease away. It goes in no problems.

 

I don't read every thread on this site so I may be stating the obvious already. I'm off to "crack a stubby" or two, as they say in the filums, after finally realising how to deal with one of the most ridiculous maintenance engineering designs I have ever come across in my life. This was fast becoming the 'achillies heal' of an other wise perfect alternative to owning another maintenance disaster, a Ducati.

I like to service from the comfort of a deck chair.

Regards

Chris Morini

[VR6Dave]

I agree, its not designed to be maintenance friendly. I take the rear wheel off as well as the bevel box and then let the cursing begin. I don't fit too well in the space teh wheel occupies in the first place nor does my hand fit easily into the tunnel to snap on the hose. I place the zerc facing up, I'll have to try facing down next time.

 

Otherwise the rest of the maintenance on the bike is simple and straightforward. I can do the valves in 15 minutes per side and that includes spinning the motor a couple times and rechecking the clearance. Gotta love that. You don't have to pull the tank either. Just sit on a comfy shop stool and wheel from one side to the other. Its the little things that make a bike endearing and have character.

 

Dave

[morini]

I was suffering a perceptible level of anxiety about this task because it seemed ridiculous and impossible that it couldn't be done without an inordinate amount of dismantling. After using this method to grease the front uni I now have to admit I'm a little embarrassed how easy it was to do. The Luigi's haven't let me down after all. You do have to get down under the rear mudguard to do it. I'm 6'3" so the term "grease monkey" now has a new meaning.

If you obtain one of these types of grease fittings you will not have any problems. McNaught Industries specialise in all sorts of greasing equipment, particularly aviation and have an American distributor. A quick Google search will bring them up but I'm sure there are a dozen manufacturers of this type of equipment in the US. purely due to the size of your economy.

Now all I need to do is sort out my Australian Government designed ECU and I may have the perfect bike.

 

Morini

[Molly]

Thanks for the tip. You just saved me a great deal of time.

 

Can I ask why the handbook says we shouldn't use a grease with MOS2 (?) additives? I found it hard to find a CV grease that didn't have it and I'm not sure the one I've on my bench is really any good.

 

Oh, how do you avoid bursting grease through seals? I'm guessing there's a danger of that???

 

Thanks.

[Skeeve]

Oh, how do you avoid bursting grease through seals? I'm guessing there's a danger of that???

 

No danger. That's how you tell you've put in enough grease! Keep pumping grease in until the old shiny worn-out goop is replaced w/ the new, slightly mat appearance of the new grease. Wipe off the excess, you're done. The seals are only there to keep crud out of the joint, & don't function right if there isn't enough grease behind them to eliminate any space for crud to migrate into. At least, that's my experience: someone is about to post a correction if I'm wrong!

[mfeeney]

Chris; What is the brand of the grease coupler in the rest of the known world? Certainly North America must have a version. I too cannot get to the uni-joint to grease it.

mfeeney

 

 

I have never found a thread in this forum telling me how to grease the front uni without taking out the swing arm. This has been giving me the shits for years. Today I finally figured out how to grease the front uni joint on my Ballabio and then managed to let it fall over and crease one of the Titanium pipes.

1. Go buy a 12" long McNaught (KZLNS) or similar needlepoint coupler grease attachment. About $50 in Australia. This will also grease the rear uni with no problems.

2. take off the rear wheel and the bevel box.

3. Get under the rear of the bike and rotate the shaft so the nipple is facing down (not up as I keep reading)

4. Hold up the tail shaft

5. Grease away. It goes in no problems.

 

I don't read every thread on this site so I may be stating the obvious already. I'm off to "crack a stubby" or two, as they say in the filums, after finally realising how to deal with one of the most ridiculous maintenance engineering designs I have ever come across in my life. This was fast becoming the 'achillies heal' of an other wise perfect alternative to owning another maintenance disaster, a Ducati.

I like to service from the comfort of a deck chair.

Regards

Chris Morini

[Greg Field]

Just a FWIW:

 

I've been working with a driveline shop in attempts to rebuild V11 driveshafts so that customers don't get nicked $600 and more when a u-joint cross gets sticky.

 

The folks at the driveline shop strongly recommended removal of the entire shaft for greasing. They said the right way to do things cannot be done as its installed on the bike. First, purge each joint of old grease by pumping them full of grease until it fresh grease is squeezing out of each of the four caps on each joint. Then, exercise each joint through its full range of articulation and rotation several times, and purge it with grease again. Repeat at least once more, and then reinstall the shaft.

[raz]

Thanks Greg, nice to get that advice with a reputable reference. There are so many opinions on this of unknown quality.

 

Can I ask why the handbook says we shouldn't use a grease with MOS2 (?) additives? I found it hard to find a CV grease that didn't have it and I'm not sure the one I've on my bench is really any good.

 

We discussed this somewhere and in short many of us seem to use grease with MOS2. Someone said the reason they say that may be because MOS2 attracts moisture. My (older) WHB does not advice against MOS2 so I already bought a tube with MOS2 grease before I heard this but I'm planning to use it up.

[macguzzi]

As i suspected all along it's easier to remove the shaft than piss around for hours trying to get some grease in the nipples

[Skeeve]

We discussed this somewhere and in short many of us seem to use grease with MOS2. Someone said the reason they say that may be because MOS2 attracts moisture. My (older) WHB does not advice against MOS2 so I already bought a tube with MOS2 grease before I heard this but I'm planning to use it up.

 

Based upon that observation, and the fact that the u-joints in the v11 driveline are more exposed than most shaft-driven bikes [but ironically, not exposed enough to make greasing them easy! ], should we be using barium grease [aka "waterproof" or "boat-trailer" grease] to lube the u-joints? The more we discuss this topic the more it appears to me that the key to u-joint longevity in Guzzis is keeping the elements out of them and a good supply of fresh grease, any grease, inside them...

 

Beyond my awareness of the use of barium grease [bah that stuff reeks! ] for applications exposed to water, I'm not expert on its suitability for high pressure operations such as would be expected in uses like, say, Guzzi drivelines. Would someone with more knowledge about these matters [Pete? Ratch'? Greg? A random lubrication engineer?] care to chime in?

[Guest ratchethack]

Would someone with more knowledge about these matters [Pete? Ratch'? Greg? A random lubrication engineer?] care to chime in?

Y'got me by the tweeter, Skeeve. I use a couple different kinds o' greases on moto's, mostly BTWBG (boat trailer wheel bearing grease) on just about everything, because it works so well just about everywhere, and as far as keeping water out, why -- it's the dog's danglies. But my practice has always been lithium NLGI #2 in the grease gun on all moto zerk fittings, including Guzzi U-joint crosses.

 

I confess to not paying much more attention than that, under the assumption (can somebody convince us both otherwise??) that generally, wot flavor rhino smegma goes in there ain't all that important -- as long as you keep it up somewhere close to the maintenance schedule. After all, there are most certainly far more important varieties of lubrication to pay close attention to, and far more seriously important service intervals to maintain. . .

[rossoandy]

Just a FWIW:

 

I've been working with a driveline shop in attempts to rebuild V11 driveshafts so that customers don't get nicked $600 and more when a u-joint cross gets sticky.

 

Easy to replace the cross joints, I removed the shaft and dismantled like any normal propshaft. I matched the cross joints near perfectly. I did have to carefully grind a few thou off the edge of the end caps though as they felt a little too tight for my liking otherwise.(the circlip was too tight to go in its groove placing end pressure on the cup). I am an engineer by trade and fully understand this is not ideal but having no immediate access to a lathe it had to suffice.

That was around 5k miles ago and all is well so I guess I got it right.No apparent wear and no vibration...

Cost me a few hours of my time and around £11 per joint parts.

[savagehenry]

Went after the front U joint tonight. The good news is I see/found "good" grease at ALL points, (SIDENOTE: apparently, FBF uses "Moly-lube" for the whole shaft). Bad news, am I wrong or does the front section of the drive shaft NOT fit through the tunnel in the swing arm when attempting to pull it backwards. Then I removed the cage too, and FU K, still no good either! I figured it would end up being easier to pull the whole shaft, but not on mine, so far..... and if this is so, then you must pull the swing arm to remove the entire driveshaft?!?!? Appreciate your time and thoughts, S.H.

[Greg Field]

Yes, we've found some joints that's work if we grind on them. I'm still searching for ones we don't have to grind on. The ones Guzzi uses require shims.

[savagehenry]

Chris; What is the brand of the grease coupler in the rest of the known world? Certainly North America must have a version. I too cannot get to the uni-joint to grease it.

mfeeney

I bought a needle nozzle that worked very well, and easy, using the method stated as the start of this thread, and was very inexpensive to boot. Lincoln Industries, Needle Nozzle, Model 5803. You can visit their website, I got it at my local Farm & Fleet for $8.00. I'm sure if you can't find this one or a similar one, you could always buy one on line from McMaster-Carr, an industrial supply company that has anything you could think of. Bought the sheet of ABS plastic that I made my rain shields from when I removed my rear tire hugger, and all the stainless steel I used to make a crankcase breather valve.

 

 

Yes, we've found some joints that's work if we grind on them. I'm still searching for ones we don't have to grind on. The ones Guzzi uses require shims.

Thanks for the confirmation, will do it the "right way" when I do a major servicing at the end of this season. Greg, it is really something to have folks of your caliber/reputation just popping in to help us jokers. A true testment to both this site, and the Guzzi community in general. Thanks to all (ESPECIALLY Jaap),S.H.