Thanks to Journeyman for bringing this subject to light. When I stumbled across this, I had no idea spline lubrication is an issue. I have a 2004
BMW (bought new) with 76,000 miles on it now and have not even thought about the shaft spines having to be re-lubed. I better take a look at that this winter.
I bought my used 2022 GT a year ago that now has 27K miles. After reading this thread, I couldn't ignore the advice and just finished re-lubing
my splines. Good thing..... the transmission end of the drive shaft was rusted (see attached pic). Zero grease. The other end, at the final drive (bevel box) was
near dry but not rusted (see pic). I carefully inspected the spline condition on both ends and they look fine? No pitting or uneven wear.
Before tackling this job, I called my local Triumph dealer and asked about the cost of them doing the shaft re-lube. $350
Didn't look that tough so I did it myself.
After seeing the stud drama and reading warnings in the manual about the final drive studs, I didn't know what to expect on mine. I knew I didn't want to do
what Journeyman went thru with the double nut thing, etc.
I researched what temp it would take to soften the thread lock enough to NOT have the stud back out of the bevel box. Got out my handy heat gun and
tried to heat a nut to 450deg to soften Blue thread lock. After 10 minutes, I could only get it up to 150deg. A lot of heat sink there. Silly me.
Screw it, I'm going to just remove the fastener come what may. All 4 nuts never budged and studs backed right out. Once out (see pic), it appeared they had
very little to no thread lock on the final drive end of the stud. What you see in the picture is how they came out. I kept track of what stud came out of what
hole so I could put it back in the same hole. After carefully examining them, I decided it's silly to buy new ones. I didn't bother removing the nuts as they
were "welded" to the stud. Appears they put lots of thread lock on the nut end, but hardly anything on the final drive end. When I reassembled, I used the blue
thread lock and torqued to recommended 75 ft lbs.
I checked the condition of the U-Joints and found the transmission joint was tight and smooth when moving in both axis's. However, the final drive end had a detent
on one axis. The other axis was fine. Hmm.....I think I have a bad U-Joint. Called my local dealer and asked about a rebuild kit for the joint. Not available.
OK....how much for a complete drive shaft......$607. Problem is, I've never ridden another Rocket, therefore only have a sample-of-one to know if mine "feels"
different than others. Anyway, decided to keep using it because the questionable joint felt tight. Maybe I'll throw down the $600 this winter?
Based on my experience, I want to recommend the re-lube be done every 15,000 miles. This is believing the factory didn't put enough grease on them in the
first place and still got 27,000 miles out of it. When reassembling, I used a good amount of grease.
Putting it back together.....
Understand the bevel box weighs 43 lbs. No way this old man could maneuver the final drive to mate the spline AND screw in the studs. From the rear, I was able to push and
maneuver the final drive flush with swing arm while my buddy installed the studs. Worked with little grunting. This is definitely a two person job for an old man
like me.
I made a YouTube video of this adventure. Take a look --->
Larry
www.sealey.co.uk
