trans spline ?

[BigAlibew24]

i've gotton conflicting story on when and how often you need to grease the trans spline. Is there any real experience knowledge out there.

[DarkCloud]

The grease on oilheads, 1994 to present will last for the life of the bike according to BMW. This was a big selling point over the airheads that required the shaft to be lubed. Technology changes, but owners don't. I am still running Castrol 20-50 automotive in my K100 with 95K that doesn't use oil. The oil meets all the specs required for the bike when it was built.

JON
Ride and be Happy

[BigAlibew24]

:wave thanks for the info. i use the same oil but switck to 10w 40 for the winter.

[BubbaZanetti]

there is no maintence schedule for greasing the transmission splines.

i would NOT however, think that these things are meant to last forever with the grease from the factory, providing they actually put grease on at the factory.

many people make it a part of routine maintence to grease these splines every 30-40K miles.

i had my S apart this summer for a rear main seal replacement. i found the splines has a tiny ammount of white (lithium???) grease on them, but the type and ammount of grease was not correct. the splines were in good shape overall (29K on the bike) and i made sure to apply a thin coat of bel ray moly assembly grease (couldn't find the recommended honda stuff anywhere).

your splines will not last without at least semi regular attention

my friend's dad's R1100S chewed up its input shaft splines at 20,000 miles.

cause: no grease, apparently the guy at the factory was having an off day when that particular bike rolled by.

[Kenn45]

My '96 R1100R with 80K started to stick on downshifts when I had been running for some distance in one of the lower gears. I had Dave Clark and Tom Donovan of Forever Endeavor Cycles in St. Louis check it out. The drive line splines were all dry. After the lube, all is well.

I don't know how often they need to be lubed, but 10 years and 80K is too long.

[blackNwhite]

Is there a thread detailing the process of accessing the splines to lube them up? Thx Tom

[AntonLargiader]

The grease on oilheads, 1994 to present will last for the life of the bike according to BMW.
I don't think BMW has ever said that.

The lubrication is basically intended to last the life of the clutch disk but I don't think they should go past about 100k miles without attention. That said, they mostly fail early or they don't fail at all, so 100k miles isn't that useful.

[cjack]

I don't think BMW has ever said that.

The lubrication is basically intended to last the life of the clutch disk but I don't think they should go past about 100k miles without attention. That said, they mostly fail early or they don't fail at all, so 100k miles isn't that useful.

I've noticed that. I elected to not lube it at all (K100RSes). Saved my money for a new spline, but it never happened.

[SIBUD]

i've gotton conflicting story on when and how often you need to grease the trans spline. Is there any real experience knowledge out there.

I would suggest you spend some time on the BMW Sport Touring site to get another view.

Here is just one of many posts regarding this issue:

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/631901/page/0/fpart/all/vc/1

[Boxerkuh]

I generally think that logic needs to be applied here.... :hungover
I believe the general intent was to have the spline as "maintenance" free or at least reduced maintenance when compared to the Airheads. However, nothing lasts forever, including grease. It largely depends on how you ride, how much, how frequent and time and humity will take it's toll on parts. More than likely 60K or every 4 to 5 years is a good rule of thumb. Think about tires... just because they have 2K on them, does not mean that they are good after 3 or 4 years... this was a much bigger problem decades ago, but it still is an issue...
If I may indulge for a second.... why don't BMW break down so frequent? More than likely due to serious, frequent maintenance, which is suppose to catch problems prior to occurring. Compare the Oilhead regular maintenance schedule to the Honda Gold Wing or the Yamaha... there is a difference :dance
My food for thought on the subject... :drink :eat