2003 R1150RT To lube the spine or not to lube the spline

[bikerfish1100]

The guy in Canada was GSAddict but it was a high quality hardened and longer input shaft he was offering, not a clutch disc like Bruno. Reason for high cost was the machining was very precise, the steel specially hardened and the very low volume. I think he was trying to get a group of orders together to reduce cost but folks balked at the price probably not realizing what was involved. There was almost zero profit in it. I've seen the second prototype and it is a thing of beauty and much better than an original shaft that extends properly through all the length of the clutch splines.

It's been in his bike for quite some time now but the test is a very long term project.

from talking to him, i had no doubt as to the practicality of the shaft, it sounded well thought out. the numbers were just not conducive to high volume production. and, for most ofus, i think the demise of a shaft ws considered to be a "maybe" rather than a definite, and likely length of ownership and miles accumulated were not likely to lead to purchasing something at 3x the cost of OEM.
so, not having one of his shafts... we lube.

[happy wanderer]

Yep, lube is good! We were tearing down a bike when he showed it to me. I had noticed the clutch plate splines on the 1150 parts bike were in good shape but the wear pattern showed the lack of any contact near the forward end. This seems to be an oversight to me. Why would you not use all the contact area available in such a high force/stress application? So the improved shaft seemed a great upgrade idea to me but I agree (and so does he) that it is very expensive.

Point is BMW should have made them longer in the first place. Kinda goofy that they didn't.

[NRPETERSEN]

...noticed the clutch plate splines on the 1150 parts bike were in good shape but the wear pattern showed the lack of any contact near the forward end.

I think if you looked at the clutch disk hub, you'd see the wear at the front that wasn't happening on the shaft due to differential hardness.

There is no reason for BMW to have only an 80% engagement, unless is was to use an existing part design & inventory, or somebody just screwed up (that happens too). However, my guess is that the extra 20% of engagement would have less influence on life that most would think. The real problem is alignment & resulting fretting wear. IOW I'd infinitely rather see a better alignment than another 20% engagement.

[Roger 04 RT]

I've examined my splines through the starter opening and believe, at just under 30K miles, that I have little to no wear on my splines.

This morning I came across a product that some of you may know, TS-801 Dry Film Moly. It seems like the lubricant would not be inappropriate for splines and it is claimed that the carrier evaporates.

Has anyone considered applying this through the starter opening? If something like this was applied sparingly the lubrication of the splines could be performed annually.

RB

[jfremder]

I've examined my splines through the starter opening and believe, at just under 30K miles, that I have little to no wear on my splines.

This morning I came across a product that some of you may know, TS-801 Dry Film Moly. It seems like the lubricant would not be inappropriate for splines and it is claimed that the carrier evaporates.

Has anyone considered applying this through the starter opening? If something like this was applied sparingly the lubrication of the splines could be performed annually.

RB

It has been done, injected with a large bore needle http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r...be-1-hour.html