K75s Drive shaft

[tarpleyfe]

First a brief intro since this is my first post. My name is Frank Tarpley and I live in Decatur, AL. I recently got back into the classic K-bike world when I bought a 1992 K75s. I had owned k-bikes in the early '90s (K75s and K75rt).

I bought my new to me K75s from the original owner. The bike has 120K miles and came with extensive maintenance records. Since the bike was only ridden 2K miles in the last two years I decided to do a compete service including all fluids and filters. I saved the spline lube until last. I figured the clutch splines were OK since the bike shifted smoothly and the clutch was replaced at 104K miles. What I found when I took the rear dif off the swing arm was interesting. The rear splines were not dry but were worn fairly significantly. The drive shaft splines were not worn as much as the dif splines but according to the records the drive shaft was replaced.

Now to my question, I could not remove the drive shaft from the swing arm. I could pull it almost out but the universal joint would hang up at the end of the swing arm. Is this because the shaft was replaced? Are the newer shafts different than the earlier shafts? Is there a way I can get the shaft out of the swing arm without removing the swing arm?

Thanks for any help.

[deilenberger]

Frank,

Basically - no. The U joint on later model shafts is slightly too large to pass through one restricted spot in the swing arm. What most people do is grind off some of the aluminum inside the swing arm so it clears the tight spot, but that requires R&R of the swing arm to do. Which is what you were trying to avoid. Since the shaft is already in there - there is no way to get it out except taking off the swing arm.