Servicing the drive-shaft on an '06, 1600

[rlfaubion]

Since I have my back wheel off for a new rear tire, brakes and lube the swing-arm, I thought I'd take a shot at servicing the drive-shaft. I was in the dealer's shop yesterday and asked what they charge out of curiosity. I was told it is not necessary to grease the splines. Their shop manual does not list this as a service requirement. I then looked in my manual that came with the bike and there's no mention of this in there either. I think I'm not going to do it now.

BTW - at 24K miles I'm pleased to see the rear splines look good

For the 1500 the book says to do this, and it has since the Vulcan 88 days of ten years ago.

And guess what? The "88", the 1500, and 1600 all have a virtually identical driveshaft. (The splines are the same as far as I can tell. The 1600 shaft might be a little longer though.) I have a Vulcan 88 driveshaft from a 1989 that I bought as a spare, and it fits fine in my 2004. In fact I rode all over California with that driveshaft in.

I'll bet $100, if you ride down to my house, we can put that 1989 driveshaft into your 2006 & it'll fit. But suddenly they don't need grease? And it took them 10 years to figure this out? Something is fishy.

The factory probably figured out that ungreased splines will last longer than your warranty. Then when they gall, the dealers can hand you a bill for $3000 to fix everything that got screwed up.

I don't know for sure.

I do know this: I greased one for my friend Gar over in Santa Cruz. He has a 1500 Classic, and it hadn't been greased properly in its previous service. We literally had to pound that driveshaft apart with a hammer and punch because the splines were galled together from being run dry. I scrubbed them with solvent & burnished them with a high-speed wire brush for an hour and dressed them with a file by hand, and finally they went back together pretty nice. You do not want to have to go through that.

In fact, Kawasaki put regular chassis grease on mine. I was using Mobil-1 synthetic grease on mine, but I don't think it's really good enough. I'm now using some high-dollar 30% molybdnum Mazda CV joint grease, and we'll see how that works. It's similar to what Honda's putting on the Gold wings, and it costs about 20 times as much as regular grease. I'm using it on the rear wheel splines as well.

[VulcanE]

I just looked in my service manual, and although it doesn't say to grease the splines on the end that connects to the tranny (mine was greased when I took it apart, so I cleaned and regreased it), It does state that you do need to disassemble the shaft sliding joint, clean & inspect, grease the splines, and reassemble, and then pack the sliding joint with 20 ml of high temp grease.
My sliding joint had no grease at all, after greasing it up as stated, the bike was A LOT smoother on accelerations, a lot less vibration

[redjay]

Hi, Has anyone ever noticed that sometimes while riding it occasionally feels like someone takes a hammer to the bottom of the crankcase and you get this clunk that you can feel throughout the bike. I am wondering if it is driveline related ? It doesnt happen often and doesnt seem to be tied in to any particular event. Its not from the forks but seems to be from the center of the bike.

[ponch]

I found the grease on the splines on the engine side was almost completely gone and what was inside the swing arm tube looked like dried vaseline or cosmoline. No very impressive. The gear box side has some moly like stuff that was liquified. I( too used mobil 1 on both ends, hopefully it last until I change the tires again.

[nomad]

damn, after reading this it makes me want to run out and disassemble my backend...
i will be replacing the tires soon, i will have to do this. i found a clymer on fleabay that stated it covers the 2003 1500FI nomad. hopefully the procedure will be in there.

[rlfaubion]

After reading your posts, I've decided to go for it too. I have the back wheel off changing tires anyway. Last night I pulled the final gear drive. Today I'm dropping the swing arm and will install a grease fitting in it for next time. I hope I can get it completed over the weekend. The weather here is perfect for riding.

Well, Lone Juan has confirmed that the 1600 driveshaft is about 1 1/8" longer than the older models. I'm glad he didn't take me up on that $100 bet, huh? He woulda won hands down.

[rlfaubion]

Since CQ convinced me to go ahead and perform the service over the weekend, I pulled the rear end off and greased all the spines. I also dropped the swing-arm and greased it up. Added a grease fitting to the swing arm. Put on a new rear tire and brakes. Wired up my $17 bullet lights from Walmart.

At 24K miles everything looked good. Riding it today.

After all that work, you deserve a ride. ;)

[rlfaubion]

Yes I do! I had to drive my Jeep all last week, waiting for parts. It's the second time I filled the tank in 1.5 years :)

I think I got you beat. I've got an IHC Scout in my backyard that hasn't had the tanks filled in 20 years. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been started in 20 years either. ;)

[rlfaubion]

yep, that would be this one. Although I've put less than 5K on it in 2.5 years..... Damn it felt good to in the saddle again today!