I give up on the front u-joint

[Guest jimjib]

I just spent 2 hours trying to get grease into the front u-joint. I pulled the wheel and dropped the drive line a little..as suggested.... but it still was impossible to be sure I got grease to go where it was supposed to.

That's the last time I bother with that job. Maybe a dwarf with a dwarf grease gun would have a better chance.

[RichMaund]

Here's what I do:

Put the bike on the work stand. I use the factory one. Remove the rear wheel. Pull the bolt above the rear drive and pull out the rear drive and shaft. Next, remove the locknuts on the stub axles for the swingarm pivot. Remove the stub axles. Remove the lower bolt retaining the shock to the swingarm. Now you can pull the swing arm assembly out of the bike. Weighs only half what the Tonti swingarm weighs.

 

Easy enough now to pivot the forward half of the driveshaft upward and put a standard grease gun fitting right into the zerk. Use regular #2 Lithium grease. Give it a couple pumps and look to see the grease is coming back out of all 4 seals on the universal. (Not a damn thing you can do it it doesn't flow from all four as you have a clogged internal channel. You can try a couple more pumps to clear it. Failing that, you at least know to expect that particular joint to wear first and you'll keep an eye on it.)

 

Reassembly is in reverse order. I use antiseize on the stub axles and lock nuts. Also, you must "center" the swingarm during reassembly. You can count exposed threads on the stub axles to even them up or use a depth gage of some sort. The stub axles need only be snug. Do not tighten them up hard! I use blue Loctite reassembling everything but the stub axles and their lock nuts. That, since nyloc nuts get worn with use. Same with lockwashers. The blue Loctite holds well but you can still get it apart next time! Don't forget to grease the splines and rear uni too. NOTE! With the swing arm out, it is an excellent time to bleed & flush the clutch slave cylinder! I have done it with the swingarm in place, but it is very tight. But easy to do with the swingarm removed.

 

Best not to ignore this maintenance as the uni's are very expensive. This was the first Guzzi made with zerk fittings on the unis. Take advantage of that and use them.

 

Doing this takes about an hour. I have done it twice on my bike now. On a older style Tonti frame bike taking all this apart to grease the driveshaft splines was a complete PITA and usually took me 4 hours to complete! The V11S series bikes are much easier to work on.

[Guest jimjib]

...or.......wuss out and let the dealer do it, thanks for the info though.

[callison]

Zerks showed up on the Sport 1100's/Daytona RS models in 1997 for sure, and maybe on the earlier carb sports as well. On those though, front zerk access isn't particularly difficult. What we need here is a specialized grease gun fitting.

[CoreyL]

I have a V11 Sport and ran into similar headaches trying to get to that front fitting.

 

A tip that I got from Mike Haven at MPH Cycles in Houston made all the difference. I went to my local Sears and bought an attachment for my grease gun that let me swivel the tip of the applicator 180 degrees. The attachment allowed me to come at the zerk fitting from above with the end of the grease gun at about 135 degree angle.

 

All this after I had removed the rear wheel, left side panel and lower rear shock mounting bolt (which allows the swing arm to droop a bit more). I didn't find it necessary to remove the swing arm. I did also have the right exhaust can off the bike which made it easier to get my fat head in there and see what I was doing.

 

Good Luck!

[Guest jimjib]

I think the tip was my biggest problem...to long I think. I will check sears for the tip you speak of.

[Guest tmartin]

Check out http://www.guzzitech.com/ and look under "Maintenance." There is a procedure for what you're trying to do.

[emry]

Well I just greassed my front u-joint without taking any bolts off of my Scura. I got one of those 180 swivel tips like CoreyL suggested from ACE. 12.95 but oooh well. the swivel is attached to about a 5 inch rigid tube. I got a female-female air line fitting, can't remember what size, but it fit on the end of the rigid tube which I attached to the end of a standard whip hose. Rotate the drive shaft till you can feel the zerk facing up with your finger (feeling from the engine side and down around the u-joint cover) and inset the grease tip through the right side of the swingarm above the exhaust, through the swingarm cut-out for the drive shaft. Guide the grease tip to the zerk and press. Voila! I didn't even have the bike up on a stand. CoreyL was right about the angle of the tip somewhere around 130 degrees.

[Guest Guest]

Why not cut out an indent in the housing? I was thinking with dremel tool or some such. Then you wouldn't have to drop anything...

Just a thought.

Jason

[Guest jimjib]

No removal of bolts...I like that idea...ace hardware here I come. I like the idea of modifying the housing too.

[jrt]

Hmm, forgot to log in for that last post...and I wanna be forum flooder

The metal should be real soft aluminum. I've had good luck with similar projects just using the dremel 'drum sander' attachment even though it's meant for wood.

I like modifying these bikes too. Gives it nice homey feel.

Let me know if you do it, and how it turns out.

 

Cheers,

Jason

[al_roethlisberger]

How often should it, or both, U-joints be greased BTW?

 

al

[dlaing]

Al, the book says every 12000miles or once per year whichever comes first. But if you can get JRTs idea to work, I would do it every oil or tire change.

JRT, great idea. Speaking of great ideas, assuming you are Jason Telford, check out my fairing

http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbumPhoto.as...5539&image_id=7

that was inspired by your fairing at:

http://plasterbath.chem.uiowa.edu/fairing.html

[jrt]

yep, that's me. I'll try it myself, but probably not before spring.

 

Nice looking fairing! I think the lines compliment each other with those things. Looks good in silver.

 

Funny picture album as well. I laughed hard at the 'tetanus' bike! I'm still grinning over it.

 

Cheers,

Jason

[Gio]

This one caused me some grief also. Using a combination of the above suggestions I was able to access the forward u-joint by pulling the bevel housing (at which point I noted the alignment marks were not...?) and suspending the shaft as far upwards as it would go using a bungee. I used a mini grease gun with a 5" tube into which I put about a 30 degree bend at the end with the fitting - there was just enough room to access through the driveshaft passage in the swing arm (with the grease point in the lower position) and no need to disconnect the shock.

 

Gio