Greasing the drive shaft

[thebronze]

I know this has been beat to the death but I just broke a 180 flex coupler grease tip trying to grease the rear nipple. I tried grinding it down where it would fit into the u joint but I guess I went to far. Would I have better luck with the needle fitting for the rear joint? The spline nipple is sheared clean off and I cant seem to get the leftovers out. I'm wondering if it would be easier just to pull the rear wheel and take the drive shaft out.

Thanks,

Toby

[mznyc]

Yup,not a big deal and you will be able to give wheel bearings a look and grease as there have been many failures thought to be from a lack of grease from factory.Shouldn't take more than an hour or two if you've never done it and you take your time.

[guzzimeister]

Yup,not a big deal and you will be able to give wheel bearings a look and grease as there have been many failures thought to be from a lack of grease from factory.Shouldn't take more than an hour or two if you've never done it and you take your time.

 

Hi

 

100% agree with this. It takes about 30 minutes with practice to get the wheel and the swinging arm off. You can then check the swingarm bearings; if these are notchy they can be saved by lifting the dirtshields off the beari ngs and repacking with grease. Much better than putting new bearings in.

 

Wheel bearings are next; Guzzi are notorious for fitting u/s bearing spacers, and bearing failures are not uncommon. If yours have gone, before banging the new bearings in, check the spcer length, and if u/s, buy some bearing spacer shims from a good bearing stockist and pack to the correct size between the bearings. Plenty of threads on this forum about spacer measurement.

 

Then check the state of the rear caliper pads, these are only 2mm thick when new and wear rapidly in my experience.

e e

If the spline grease nipple is broken off on your bike, simply pull the shaft halves apart and LIGHTLY grease the splines by hand. You will have to manipulate the halves back together again to release any trapped air which will act as a gas spring for a while.....

 

Greasing the UJ nipples is best done with a needle. With the swwingarm off the gearbox end UJ nipple can be done in situ, while with the bevel box off the bike, access is even easier. Grease until old grease comes out of the joints.

 

Finally put some grease on the bevel box output shaft splines before putting the wheel back on, and make sure you look at the little unshielded roller bearing that acts as a pivot for the bevel box. This should be cleaned and greased every toime you take the wheel off, as it siezes very quickly. Then grease the wheel spindle to make sure it doesn't seize in the wheel in future and you're done.

 

Sounds a lot but in practice very quick to do, and saves days of heartbreak......

 

Cheers

 

Jon

[abouc]

... make sure you look at the little unshielded roller bearing that acts as a pivot for the bevel box. This should be cleaned and greased every toime you take the wheel off, as it siezes very quickly. Then grease the wheel spindle to make sure it doesn't seize in the wheel in future and you're done.

 

I learned this the hard way. The needle bearing had gotten so dry that it rusted and nearly seized up, burning up the inner race in the process. It cost me around $80 in parts and a few weeks of waiting. All because it wasn't greased with each tire change.

[mznyc]

Anyone have a picture of the needle bearing? I may have greased it already but not sure

Thanks

Michael

 

PS Toby if you do take the rear end out be sure to support the bevel box and shaft as thats waay to much weight to dangle there

And before you touch the swing arm the two threaded shafts that go through the frame and swing arm should be measured .You back those out to release the swing arm but want to restore to those measurements when re-installing as in photo In post#33

http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17074&st=0

[bikelee]

This is a great article, but how do you get the drive shaft off of the tranny output shaft?  I'm kinda new with these Guzzis. i assume you loosen the 2 bolts at the end of the drive shaft to get the shaft off all in one unit ? Thanks for any help. I do not want to screw anything up.   

[docc]

Once you remove the rear caliper (don't hang it by the hose) and the rear wheel (mind the spacer between the wheel and the rear drive), continue to pull the axle bolt left while supporting the rear drive. It's heavy and awkward when it comes free, but then simply pull it rearward and the shaft will separate. Too much grease on those splines and it will trap air and not go back together! Pay attention to the alignment marks. If you don't see any, add them to put the shaft back in the same alignment.

 

Good post by Guzzimeister on other things to check. Look also at Maintenance Checklist with the wheels off in  FAQ.

 

PS: Michael, here's a link to a post with a schematic showing the needle cage outboard right side of the rear drive (#30).

Still looking for a picture . . .

 

Ah, here: second picture down on this post in V11bevelbox, (Again!) by Pete Roper and his buddy Colin.

[mznyc]

Lee without looking at the manual and going from memory,FWIW,I believe you could  remove the driveshaft intact.Free the rear bevel box from the input(back) end of the shaft.On the front end there's a collar that protects the output of the tranny,I believe you have to remove that.Loosen the pinch bolts on both ends and she should be free.The grease nipples direct grease the the front,rear and center of the shaft,so if your gonna remove the shaft I would just slide the front of the shaft from the rear and grease those splines.There should be a paint mark that lines up the front to the rear of the shaft.Good time to paint your own if it's not clear.

Word of caution,when reinstalling the shaft the pinch bolts line up to an indent on the input and output shafts.If you feel any resistance,STOP! They are not aligned properly.I had to wiggle mine a mil or 2 to get it to seat properly.

[mznyc]

Lee another thread,I wrote up a list of removing the rear end that worked for me.Post #7

http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17433&hl=mznyc&do=findComment&comment=185913

Thanks Docc !!

[Kiwi_Roy]

This is a great article, but how do you get the drive shaft off of the tranny output shaft?  I'm kinda new with these Guzzis. i assume you loosen the 2 bolts at the end of the drive shaft to get the shaft off all in one unit ? Thanks for any help. I do not want to screw anything up.   

I believe you have to remove the bolts from the coupling, it's not enough to just loosen them, the gearbox shaft has an indent. Be very careful to line up the indent when you re-assemble it otherwise the threads will get chewed off the bolts. At least that's the way it is on my V11 Sport.

[nigelsainsbury]

Just managed to lube the drive shaft. The advice here was great and helped heaps. Thank you. After reading everyones experience I decided to go the full hog and remove the wheel, transmission, one end of the rear shock and drop the swing arm just to get to the front grease nipple. I am glad I did because most of the bearings, joints and blots associated with the shock,swing arm and drive were pretty dry. I inspected everything, regreased and reassembled it all in about two hours. The LHS rear wheel  bearing was clunky so I made sure it was well greased and will replace that when the tyre gets replaced in a few thousand miles. In fact, doing all this when the wheel is off for a tyre change seems to make a lot of sense and as the tyre lasts around 5K (about two to three years for me) the maintenace of everything in that area can be brought in line with that activity. I also change the fluid in the clutch at the same time. That was dead easy with all the other shit out the way. The best tool I had for the whole job was a hydraulic lift/stand. That made life so much easier and I didnt need to modify any other tools.        

[docc]

Welldone, nigel!

When you change that wheel bearing, inspect the internal bearing spacer for the correct 113mm length. Many have reported undersize spacers. My 112mm spacer gave me progressively greater grief over time . . .

In regard to taking care of the V11 while its wheels are off, service that right side, outboard needle cage in the beveldrive!! . . .

 

[andy york]

If you have not put everything back together you can take that front u-joint cover off

and cut a bigger hole in order to get a grease gun on the zerk. If you feel like it. 

I did not relish the idea of that disassembly every time I put a tire on. (which used to be 3-4 times a year)

Should be a thread on it somewhere in here.

Andy

[docc]

12 minutes ago, andy york said:

If you have not put everything back together you can take that front u-joint cover off

and cut a bigger hole in order to get a grease gun on the zero. If you feel like it. 

I did not relish the idea of that disassembly every time I put a tire on. (which used to be 3-4 times a year)

Should be a thread on it somewhere in here.

Andy

Thanks for posting that, Andy! I tried to figure out where to cut my collar, but on the early, ShortFrame Sport, it looks to be the swingarm tunnel, itself, that blocks the angle of the grease gun.

Pretty sure I better not cut a hole in that.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what is different between the ShortFrame and LongFrame that  makes the early Sports so $#%#%^%& difficult to "that bloody farking front UNI joint?"

[KINDOY2]

38 minutes ago, andy york said:

If you have not put everything back together you can take that front u-joint cover off

and cut a bigger hole in order to get a grease gun on the zerk. If you feel like it. 

I did not relish the idea of that disassembly every time I put a tire on. (which used to be 3-4 times a year)

Should be a thread on it somewhere in here.

Andy

Thanks for the tip..pulling my trans on the Scura next week so I will definitely do that!! Great idea!