Ramblings

[Guest jerroldt]

Another day in paradise here in the Mountain State with Southern California-like weather. We took the Le Mans on a 70 mile high speed run and upon returning found that I had either grease or oil lightly misted on the rear rim. I know that this has been covered before on the fourm but I am hoping that it is spline grease. I suppose if it is a bad seal I will find out soon enough. Enclosed is a pic of my fovorite bike.

[jrt]

Nice bike.

You're probably looking at spline grease, but wipe some off just to check. Oil is oily, grease is greasy (I'm a master of the obvious). Or wipe off the rim to clean and check occasionally for more stuff being flown up on it. But 'high speed' makes me suspect grease.

 

J

[Guest John Y]

If it's spline grease, be thankful that it was greased in the first place! I'm fortunate to be mates with Peter Roper and when he inquired to my Guzzi dealer on my behalf about whether the rear wheel splines had been greased as part of the pre-delivery process, they looked at him as though he'd just offered to BBQ a small baby before telling him that it wasn't necessary (which is complete bull****) and that he should more or less 'go forth and multiply'...

Needless to say, when Peter and I removed the wheel the splines were as dry as the proverbial nun..! This is the same dealer who charged me AUS$350 for the first service, which DIDN"T include re-torquing the heads or dropping the sump to clean the filter screen, but DID include an hour's labour to 'check lights and controls'!

[docc]

Sometimes the cushdrive gets so full of grease from the splines it just won't quit flinging on the wheel. Time to take it off and clean it well followed by a thin coat of grease all around it.

[Guest jerroldt]

In my case it appears to be spline grease! My theory is that they grease the splines to help with the wearing in process and enough of it sticks until you change a tire and re-grease the splines. I don't recall ever having to worry about this on my T3 which I put thousands of miles on. What type of grease do you use on the splines? It would have to be kind of sticky to hold up to heat and speed. Also, I drilled and vented the top bevel box plug on the T3 with no ill effects. I can't remember now why I did it but I had no failures.

[jrt]

Use a moly containing sticky, high temp gear grease- just a little of it. It improves the wear characteristics of the splines. Dry splines rust quickly and wear a lot faster.

Venting the rear drive on the old tonti frames was usually done because pressure build-up would force oil out of the box and into the driveshaft housing- the vent is a way to prevent that. I've never had the need to do that, but I use pretty tall shocks (shorter shocks seemed to aggravate the problem).

J