Transmission Input Spline Wear Pattern

roger 04 rt said:

Is have your mechanic look in the starter port and tell you how much play there is at the clutch disc perimeter. Then if the play between the clutch hub and input shaft was small I'd let it go ... At least that's how I'm procrastinating my own situation ...

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Warning: This post may contain subliminal imagery that may give some readers pause... Or worse.

GSAddict performed a hypodermic spline lube on my '00 RT last week. I'd been wanting to split the bike for a while now as I approach 40K miles but GSA convinced me to pull the starter and take a look before doing anything that drastic just yet. After checking the amount of play I was very happy to find that it really had not really increased since I looked at it over 20K ago. Still around 1mm at the outer edge.

Click on image to play video.

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Here is what it was 20K or so ago:

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We proceeded with the hypo spline lube and learned a few things I did not know. The 1100 has more splines and they are finer (tighter clearance at the top) than the 1150. The lube tool was designed for the 1150 so some modifications were quickly made to Mr. ProctoLube[SUP]tm[/SUP] however full insertion was still not possible.



The happy ending however was that it was possible to effectively lube the splines this way. After some clever mods and some tip honing there was just enough back pressure such htat once a certain amount of lube had entered the cavity some slight overflow was visible at the tip. This became the tell tale sign of "just enough". Once complete the play in the splines was near zero telling us the lube had filled the void. The ride home was smooth and call me crazy but it seemed quieter too.

After this was done we pulled the final drive and replaced the pinion seal which has been leaking more and more for two years now. Disassembly was a bit of a nightmare due to over use of torque and red loctite by the factory assembler. And I'm talking _severe_ overuse. Another happy ending ensued thankfully.

I have had suspicions about my drive shaft since I bought this bike that were proved out during this procedure. I always felt a very slight hum or vibration in the pegs that I suspected were not from the motor. We found the drive shaft was at least 30 degrees or more out of phase. Again, this bike has never been apart so this was a factory mistake. This was resolved and put back together properly. That hum in the pegs? Yeah... it's gone.

Big shout out to GSAddict for his expertise and stubborn persistence. I'm very glad he convinced me not to go nuts and tear the bike apart so soon. This lube should get me another year of riding at least before I have to finally bite that "bike in half" bullet. And oh how I dread that day...

Where would one find a syringe like that, iam currious. i jes gotta try it,

ratze said:

Where would one find a syringe like that, iam currious. i jes gotta try it,

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Custom made from a 1cc syringe

nrpetersen said:

GSAddict - You already have 100,000 KM on you lengthened spline?

FWIW - Otherwise my reaction before reading of your experiences would have been to replace the part.

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I've been thinking about GSAddict's work on the lengthened spline and relating it to my earlier question, "What can be done to mitigate the effects of misalignment?"

His lengthened spline addresses several points:

--It delivers a full engagement of the clutch hub. This adds 20-25% to the wear surfaces.

--It brings the end of the input shaft though the plane of the clutch disc. This keeps the clutch hub from twisting in the presence of an offset centerline.

--The hardness of the shaft was increased, changing the wear characteristics.

--The tolerances were held tightly, reducing motion, and potentially allowing for more teeth to be in contact at the same time.

To my knowledge, GSAddict did not make any centerline adjustments.