• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Do I lube my spline?

hsbroker

New member
Hello all:

My Clymer's manual states that the "later" airheads have a nickel plated clutch spline and these do not have to be lubed until 30,000. They don't say which years are considered "later".

My bike is a 1987 R-80 with just 9,500 miles. Is my '87 considered to be one with the nickel plaped splines?


Many thanks, Jack in Hot Springs, AR
 
mileage or age

That makes the lube on your splines only 24 years old right?

I wouldn't run 24 year motor oil or 24 year old tires. The job isn't that difficult. Even I could do it and you feel so much better
knowing you are treating your bike with tlc.
 
Thanks--I wouldn't run 24 year old motor oil or tires either but that's not what I'm asking about. The light bulbs work fine after 24 years but I wouldn't change them out if they are satisfactory. Clymer talked about nickel plating as if it offered protection without talking about the age of the plating.

I will can get the splines lubed right away, but I don't want to if it's not indicated and if that would be like changing all my light bulbs--just because of age.

I appreciate your response --- maybe it's more than an opinion but as a newbie I just don't know---except for what clymer seems to say about the nickel plating.

This great site has got me where I am with this bike so far and I appreciated your input---I just want to do what's correct and right for my safety and the health of this bike. Not overkill, which is what I'm trying to learn.
 
Last edited:
Oldbe here

I have never heard of splines that don't need lube, however that doesn't mean there aren't any. Please don't be offended if I make another attempt at humor.

When the latest and greatest final drives came out in 2005 i think, they were filled with lifetime oil. Not even a drain plug to drain the oil, until they began to fail and sometimes actually catch on fire.
Needless to say my 09 came with a plug and recommended oil changes.

I lubed my 74 R90 with Honda Moly. Wasn't having any shifting problems but the splines showed no sign of lubricant on them and according to the records supplied with the bike it had a clutch replacement done less than 15k before.

Hopefully a real wrench will weigh in.
 
With the low milage, and if its shifting ok, It should be fine. This winter would be a great time to do it, to give you that piece of mind. Living here in the South we tend to do very little in the summer...
 
Lube it or risk losing it. You won't have to worry about it for 5-10 more years or 15K miles... I bought an 1982 airhead that had sat in storage for 15 years, got it running in August and decided to ride it until I had to put it up for the winter in November to do the clutch spline lube. IT only had 14K original miles. The clutch splines failed on me after about 1K miles at the end of September and left me pushing the bike 3 miles back home. Learn from the mistakes of others, or run the risk of repeating stupidity!
 
Snowbum's article states; "After the mid-1980's BMW supposedly nickel-plated the transmission input shaft spines (clutch splines) and re-greasing can supposedly go to 30,000 miles."

He goes on to talk about if you ride short trips or in high humidity areas to check the splines at 12,000 miles.

If I'm going to check the splines I may as well do the lube at the same time I check 'em.

I wanted to not go through the spine lube but weighing everything said here I'll go ahead and do it day after tomorrow. I bought the Honda Moly 60 yesterday.

Thanks to all for the input ----that helped me decide.
 
Update---I want ahead and had the splines lubed yesterday. The tech that did it said that "it didn't look bad" and no damage was seen such a fretting or rust.

"Didn't look bad" is a pretty goodreport after 24 years so maybe the nickel plating this year was fiortunate to have helped.

I appreciate the input that was provided and am very happy I found this site with such helpful folks. Thanks!
 
splines finally done

Well after reading this thread,I figured it was time to finally check my spline in my 1988 R100RS with 46,000 miles.I have been reading everything I could find on how to articles and all I needed to do was purchase a couple of tools and get a tube of Moly 60 lube.So off to Sears I went,got the tools and stopped by the Honda bike shop and got the lube which was on sale for a 8 oz tube for $14.00.That will give me enough lube to last the bikes lifetime.The disassembly went pretty good with the exception of all the bolts were a bear to break loose.I broke two 6mm hex 3/8" sockets on these stubborn bolts.It was a good thing I purchased them from Sears who replaced them without question.I was able to get the trans rearward enough so the trans spline was fully in view.It was shiney,so I presume it is nickel plated.It showed no signs of wear or nicks.I cleaned it with acetone and brushed on a coating of Moly 60.I also pulled the throwout bearing piston out and examined it and checked it for freedom of movement in the bore and also gave it a coat of Moly 60.Reassembly went easy enough with application of anti seize paste on all bolt threads.The centering of the swing arm was the most time consuming part of the reassembly,but I got it centered using several feeler gauges together to check clearance from side to side.In all it was a 4 hr. job,not counting two trips to Sears.I'm glad thats done.
 
Actually, the throwout bearing should be lubed with gear oil. But, the moly 60 likely won't hurt things unless you really slathered it on. The needle bearing type bearings used earlier might gunge up with it, but if yours is the later type ball bearing (I think it should be) then it shouldn't be a problem. Some gearbox oil will works its way back there and start to wash it out over time.
 
I did notice that there was gear oil on the piston and also some in the boot cover.This is good info for everyone doing this service.Next time the piston will get cleaned and coated with gear oil.
 
Moly 60

Not to start a "grease thread" here, but MY OPINION (based on Valkerie riders experience with spline failures) is that . . .

you should mix the Moly 60 with something really, really sticky like Bel-Ray Waterproof grease, Guard-Dog or equivalent. If you do a search on Moly 60 you will find information that says that it is perfectly suited for REGULAR FD spline/ring gear lube, such as the FD on old Goldwings (my direct experience). These are greased (or should be) at every rear tire change -- which (I guarantee) would not be over 10k miles. If you want the lube to last longer than that, then MIX the Moly 60 with something that is going to be there for you for more than 10k. You don't know pain until you've looked at some ruined spline thingies, as I've done, and -yes- they came from "pushing" Moly 60 on Goldwing splines past 10k.

There's some guy named Glaves who occasionally posts on these forii who agrees with this. . .so don't take my word for it.

Also, you should use a flux brush to BRUSH it on, versus gobbing it everywhere, which serves NO PURPOSE other than to sling it everywhere and make a mess. Once you sling off the excess, it won't magically creep itself back into the splines. Read the directions on the Moly 60 tube and see what it says. . .

Hey, I know that there are plenty of very smart guys out there who use only Moly 60, and they will disagree. . .it's a free country, so no flames, please.

Regards,

Walking Eagle
 
GTK---good for you---and you saved yourself $175. to pay for someone else to do it.

Wish I weren't such a klutz. I do my own valves but this seemed too daunting for me. Plus I couldn't locate a simple to understand step-by step procedure.
 
yes it is more difficult then doing valves, but its not so bad. There are good directions out there
 
Good point Eagle.The way I looked at it was if you mix a 60% moly grease with another thicker,stickier type grease 50/50, you would end up with 30% less moly on the splines which when the clutch is pulled you would loose most of this mixture.Moly 60 is made to be absorbed into the porosity of the metal so I figuered I would want the most moly available to accomplish this.Since I had no rusting or fretting on my splines ,I didn't think a corrosive protection grease was warranted.I guess that when a individuals bike is disassembled for this service,the condition of the spline would really dictate what grease or combination of greases to use.
 
Back
Top