Straight Honda Moly 60???

[BuddingGeezer]

In April I lubed the final drive splines on my K100 with Honda Moly 60. Today I lubed the clutch and final drive splines. In 6 months and 8500 miles the final drive splines paste had dried out completely.

Maybe the moly was doing it's job, but there was no petroleum lubricating whatso ever.

I have lubed the clutch with Honda Moly 60 and moly fortified EP grease mix. I haven't buttoned the final drive up yet.

I have lubed the final drive splines on a Kaw Vulcan 750 with moly fortified EP grease that was still on the splines after a year.

I don't believe the drive splines on a Honda are essentialy different than a BMW's. Is this stuff doing it's job?

Ralph Sims

[st3ryder]

In April I lubed the final drive splines on my K100 with Honda Moly 60. Today I lubed the clutch and final drive splines. In 6 months and 8500 miles the final drive splines paste had dried out completely.

Maybe the moly was doing it's job, but there was no petroleum lubricating whatso ever.

I have lubed the clutch with Honda Moly 60 and moly fortified EP grease mix. I haven't buttoned the final drive up yet.

I have lubed the final drive splines on a Kaw Vulcan 750 with moly fortified EP grease that was still on the splines after a year.

I don't believe the drive splines on a Honda are essentialy different than a BMW's. Is this stuff doing it's job?

Ralph Sims


I use Honda Molylube 60 exclusively on my splines after trying some other brands including BMW's red spooge. The others seem to melt away under the heat, but as you've found the HM60 is more tenacious, and it's the moly in the paste that protects against wear, not the carrier. When I relube, I always wipe down the splines completely so there's no caking, and to make sure there's no rust on the splines. Caking of new grease over old may cause shifting issues on the clutch splines. I wouldn't use anything else on the clutch splines as when it heats up, less tenacious grease drip on the clutch friction plates, and that's not good. The moly stays put. To answer your question: for some reason, Japanese shaft drive bikes, or even Italian afaik, have nowhere near numbers of stripped drives like BMW shafties. YMMV.

[PGlaves]

I have lubed a lot of splines - and even failed to lube them soon enough a time or two. I find the Honda Moly 60 to be a good moly paste but it is not an EP rated grease, and it does not have particularly good anti-corrosion characteristics. It is a 60% moly paste in essentially a mineral oil carrier. But the moly is desirable and beneficial in splines.

For several years I have mixed Honda Moly 60 with an EP rated grease, 50-50, which is then a good sticky grease with about 30% solid moly content by volume. I have mixed it with Sta-Lube brand moly grease, and have mixed it with the green, gooey, sticky Wurth 3000 grease. Both mixtures have performed well, stayed moist, and stayed in place in clutch splines and driveshaft splines. And certainly 30% moly by volume is sufficient moly content to provide the boundary layer protection we want the moly to provide.

My rule of thumb for frequency is 40,000 miles and in my experience that is about right. The lubricant is still in place and not dried out. However, by this interval it does have some metal contaminants in it from normal wear so cleaning it out and relubing is beneficial. After the parts have become worn and roughened then it is prudent to lubricate more often.

The photograph below is the transmission input shaft spline of my K75 at 250,000 or 290,000 miles - I forget which but that is still a very healthy spline, even at this mileage.

[kasteiner]

I have lubed a lot of splines - and even failed to lube them soon enough a time or two. I find the Honda Moly 60 to be a good moly paste but it is not an EP rated grease, and it does not have particularly good anti-corrosion characteristics. It is a 60% moly paste in essentially a mineral oil carrier. But the moly is desirable and beneficial in splines.

For several years I have mixed Honda Moly 60 with an EP rated grease, 50-50, which is then a good sticky grease with about 30% solid moly content by volume. I have mixed it with Sta-Lube brand moly grease, and have mixed it with the green, gooey, sticky Wurth 3000 grease. Both mixtures have performed well, stayed moist, and stayed in place in clutch splines and driveshaft splines. And certainly 30% moly by volume is sufficient moly content to provide the boundary layer protection we want the moly to provide.

...

Today, I did my first spline inspection and lube. It went ok so far but I'm wondering about my mixture of lube.

I mixed Honda Moly 60 and some EP rated grease as described. But I wanted to check with the experienced wrenches and make sure I didn't do something I'll regret.

The EP grease I used is Kendall Super Blu High Temp EP L-427 Grease. It is described as a Lithium Complex NLGI #2 Grease.
The note that caught my attention and caused me to ask the question is: NOTE: DO NOT mix grease (of different types due to incompatibility problems).

Are these Honda and Kendall greases compatible?

BTW: I ride a 1991 K100LT with 31,000 miles (4,000 are mine).

ksteiner

[PGlaves]

As far as I am concerned you are safe. I have mixed HM60 with more than one lithium complex grease and have seen no ill effects.

HM60 isn't really a grease - it is a moly paste composed of solid ground moly in a petroleum oil carrier. It seems to mix fine with lithium grease.

I base this opinion on looking at splines 40,000 miles after I put the mixture on them, as well as looking at the container of the mixture 2 years after mixing it up.