rear axle lubes and hydraulic lifts

[Guest ckamin]

Ok, here is some follow up to some questions I posed in the last week and a half:

 

1) I pulled the rear axle (spindle?) and wheel on my '03 naked and the axle seemed to have a faint semblance of some kind of graphite lube on it and the splines on both the differential and wheel were totally dry. Well, thats all lubed up now and I have peace of mind. My bike only has about 2000 miles on it; if you haven't checked yours, I'd definitely do it.

 

2) I have a Craftsman hydraulic bike lift and it works great on my Harley. With the Dunwell jack adapter for a V11 ($60), it now works great on the Guzzi. For additionl clearance to set up the bike on the jack, I rolled both wheels onto 1" tall concrete pavers, but some 2x4s would work also, I suppose. Additionally, I spent a few buck on grade 8, 7/16" bolts/washers/nuts for the entire jack assembly. Again, peace of mind!

 

Okay, not to let anyone off easy without a question or two....

 

1) How often does anyone hit the zerk fittings on the u-joints/driveshaft with a grease gun, and with how much/what kind of grease? There is the regular lithium and white lithium, but would either cause any issues with what is in there from the factory (if the factory even lubed them in the first place?)?

 

2) The porkchops on my silver/grey bike are wine or blood red. Any suggestions for touch-up paint? The small blemishes are on the bottom, but I know they are there and would like to touch them up if possible.

 

Thank you, everyone!!!

-Carl

 

p.s. I've always like Confederate motorcycles and I know that they were based in New Orleans. I wonder if they will survive the horrible disaster the South has encountered. God bless everyone down there.

[Guest ratchethack]

Carl, I appreciated your follow-up on the spindle service and lift. If you're like me, you know you can't get that kind of peace of mind from any dealer...

 

RE: Frequency of U-joint/driveshaft lube - The factory shop manual says every 12K mi or 2 yrs., and I'm not sure I go along with all of the following unless you ride in either the rainforest, the Sahara, or the arctic, but it calls for complete replacement of the U-joints themselves every 20,000 km., (!) and every 15,000 km for "high speed driving" (!)

 

Richardson (Guzziology v.5.3) recommends complete disassembly, cleaning and lube of the U-joints every 2 yrs. (!) Sorry - This is just me - I'll lube 'em to schedule alright, but I'm not advance-replacing mine without physically detecting some slop in 'em, and I'm not taking 'em apart to clean every 2 years! So right now, Richardson has me 2 disassembly/cleanings behind, and the manual has me at least 1, and possibly 2 complete replacements behind! Since my originals are still tight as a drum at 25K mi., I reckon I'll stay on schedule with lube until I need to rebuild one, then do 'em both at the same time.

 

As far as the kind of grease to use, my shop manual doesn't specify. The flavor of lube probably isn't as critical as engine oil or trans & bevel-box lube, for example. I think it's getting something new of general purpose grade in there and pushing out the old broken-down & dirty crap that's most important. Richardson doesn't mention any specific type for U-joints, but for the driveshaft splines he says, "any type of grease", next he mentions controversy over moly-based greases, and finally says he guesses he prefers the latter lately. It'd be entirely improper for me to speak for Mr. Roper, but if I'm not being too presumtuous, it's not hard to imagine he'd call for something like, "any pedestrian-grade rhinosceros smegma". If my presumption's wrong and it bothers him enough, maybe he'll see this and set us all straight.

 

I'd use whatever general purpose grease you've got on hand, and don't worry about compatibility with whatever's in there now. Give the zerks a careful, slow shot with the gun until you can see the old stuff starting to come out from each bearing cup. Make sure to wipe it out of there to the best of your ability or your bike will be sporting the results of a small grease shower on your next ride. Some guys put masking tape over the "safety cages" around the U-joints to catch it and just zip off the whole mess after the next ride.

 

EDIT: Small nit to pick - Guzzi's don't have differentials. It's an important distinction. By defninition, differentials split power between 2 drive wheels, or in the case of some 4 wheel drives, between front and rear axles, each typically with their own diff.

[richard100t]

My pork chops could use a touch up too. <_ i was going to have a paint shop do it use that doesnt rub off on the side of my boots src="%7B___base_url___%7D/uploads/emoticons/default_mad.gif" alt=":angry:"> Has anyone else had this problem? I'd send them out for powdercoating this winter but I hear theyre a major pain to reassemble correctly.

[bigbikerrick]

My pork chops could use a touch up too.  <_ i was going to have a paint shop do it use that doesnt rub off on the side of my boots src="%7B___base_url___%7D/uploads/emoticons/default_mad.gif" alt=":angry:">  Has anyone else had this problem? I'd send them out for powdercoating this winter but I hear theyre a major pain to reassemble correctly. 

59368[/snapback]

The red pork chops on my 2002 naked seem to be anodized red,not painted. I may be wrong, but is sure looks that way to me.....

[Guest ckamin]

Yeah, my porkchops look anondized also. I was wondering if anyone has found a close paint match for the color to prevent flaking. Althought the chips are pretty much out of sight to the casual observer, I don't want the flaking to grow and would at like to cover up the small nicks if possible.

 

Also, to Rachethack and his explanation on differentials: Would you like to tackle the debate of motors vs engines- which is the correct term for gasoline powered engines (or is it motors)?

 

Thanks for the replies!

[Admin Jaap]

There are no anodized porkchops. All are painted. The "anodized red" you refer to is just fancy paint.

 

"AnodizeFX" from OEM Paints maybe has the right color?

[bigbikerrick]

There are no anodized porkchops. All are painted. The "anodized red" you refer to is just fancy paint.

 

"AnodizeFX" from OEM Paints maybe has the right color?

59380[/snapback]

wow, thats some pretty fancy paint Jaap It sure looked like anodizing to me

[Skeeve]

...

As far as the kind of grease to use, my shop manual doesn't specify.  I reckon this isn't too important, it's nowhere near as critical as engine oil or trans & bevel-box lube, it's getting something new of any general purpose grade in there and pushing out the old broken-down & dirty crap that's important.  Richardson doesn't mention any specific type for U-joints, but for the driveshaft splines he says, "any type of grease", next he mentions controversy over moly-based greases, and finally says he guesses he prefers the latter lately.  It'd be entirely improper for me to speak for Mr. Roper, but it's pretty easy to imagine he'd call for something like, "any pedestrian-grade rhinosceros smegma".   If my presumption's wrong and it bothers him enough, maybe he'll see this and set us all straight.

 

I'd use whatever general purpose grease you've got on hand, white lithium or no, and don't worry about compatibility with whatever's in there now.  Give the zerks a careful, slow shot with the gun until you can see the old stuff starting to come out from each bearing cup.  Make sure to wipe it out of there to the best of your ability or your bike will be sporting the results of a small grease shower on your next ride.  Some guys put masking tape over the "safety cages" around the U-joints to catch it and just zip off the whole mess after the next ride. 

...

59363[/snapback]

 

Every car manual I've seen in the last 20 years (since they invented the stuff) specifies "molybium high pressure grease" for the driveshaft u-joints. There's a reason for this: the peak loads may squeeze all but the thinnest trace of the grease out from between the bearing surfaces, but the molybenum disulfide that remains (the stuff that makes the grease unbelievably black & capable of staining *anything* grey, even teflon ) provides the high-pressure slipperiness to keep the parts from scoring.

 

To put it one way: the stuff is so good at high pressure lubrication, precision shooters have taken to embedding the stuff onto the bullets they reload in order to keep from wearing out their ex$pen$ive high-end rifle barrels. In case you don't know, bullets are an interference fit in the barrels they're shot out of, so that kinda defines the "high pressure" end of things...

 

Alternatively, another good choice might be the barium waterproof grease used for lubing axles on boat-trailers & the like that are subject to frequent dunkings. Especially for those riders in the UK or Normandy, where riding in the rain is accepted as just part of the fun [] - your bikes stand a good chance of having the critical lube washed away in addition to used up or flung off, so that's got some good potential over the white lithium bicycle grease people seem to keep recommending.

 

Wrt to keeping the bike clean after lubing the zerks, I remember reading a suggestion around here somewhere to take a piece of the cereal box cardboard, coil it up & put it inside? the safety cages around the joints, ride around the block (fast!), & then pull the cardboard with all the flung off grease out of the cage. Sounds spiffy to me; I've got to give it a try tho' before I can truly offer an opinion...

 

Ride on!

[O2 V11]

Types of grease to be used

To lubricate the cardan transmissions, use only saponifying greasers with a lithium of grade 2 consistency, 265/295 penetration and a dropping point of about 180 deg C. The lubricants must not contain additives with MOStwo.

This is from the owners manual.

Rob

[Guest ratchethack]

Types of grease to be used

To lubricate the cardan transmissions, use only saponifying greasers with a lithium of grade 2 consistency, 265/295 penetration and a dropping point of about 180 deg C. The lubricants must not contain additives with MOStwo.

This is from the owners manual.

Rob

59421[/snapback]

Rob, I'm not doubting you, but where did you find this in the owner's manual?

 

TIA!

[txrider]

Rob, I'm not doubting you, but where did you find this in the owner's manual?

 

TIA!

59439[/snapback]

 

My owner's manual (2004LM) page 168 under the heading "Greasing the driving shaft" says the same thing, "The lubricants must not contain additives with MOS2".

[Guest Nogbad]

My owner's manual (2004LM) page 168 under the heading "Greasing the driving shaft" says the same thing, "The lubricants must not contain additives with MOS2".

59459[/snapback]

 

Mine too

[Guest ratchethack]

Hmmmmmm........ Evidently I've got an older manual. Mine's published by MG S.p.A., dated 03/01. It doesn't go up to 168 pages. It has sections A-P, each with it's own paging & highest page number is 63.

 

Isn't MOS2 the same as molybdenum disulfide, aka "moly"?? if so, we evidently got us another discrepancy between Richardson and Guzzi. Will wonders never cease?

 

Now how about havin' us a grease thread?! ...or are we already having one?

[Guest ckamin]

Hey, I started this post, now lets see some more info on the paint question!!! Remember, the red anondized? I went to the OEM website for anodizeFX but the site wasn't very specific.

 

With regards to the grease, I haven't checked my manual yet but I believe I have the same one, with the lettered index and the shorter chapters. I'll drop by my local dealer tomorrow (Tuesday) and see what they use.

 

-Carl