maintenance of drive shaft

[maurice crocket]

am i wondering what maintenance i need to do on the shaft ? & how to do it , are there any webs sites with diagrams ?

[GUS]

Maurice,a good greasing on splines wouldnt go amiss,also check/adjust or replace pivot bearings.Check universal joint for wear by checking radial and axial play.Laymens terms pull and twist on uj whilst holding shaft still.Check condition of rubber gators.I think thats about it.
gus
ps if you do a search on pivot beraings all will be explained.Have you access to a work shop manual?If not rob w site has one you can download or look at.

[GotRoad?]

there is an decent article on drive shart replacement in the Feb'04 BMWON.

[MarkC]

From what I understand:
The splines on the Paralever drive shafts don't need scheduled re-lubing (maintenance you are asking about) like the drive shafts in the non-Paralever bikes. Reason is that on the non-Paralever, the drive shaft slides back and forth on the splines as the suspension moves up and down (no rear U-joint) while the Paralever drive shaft does not. The non-Paralever K bikes are notorious for worn drive shaft splines, and this stigmatic reputation has been undeservingly transfered to Paralever equipped BMWs.

Not about drive shaft, but as mentioned above, checking of the pivot bearing on the drive shaft housing (swing arm) to rear-diff should be done, as some here have had those bearings go bad. But this is an inspection rather than regular maintenance. From my, and some others here experience, the splines on the clutch, and the input side of the input shaft are known for premature wear on the S.
MarkC

[GUS]

As mark c has said,there is no sheduled maintenance of drive shaft.But dependant on mileage and wear then the maintenance i listed above would be benifical.If you had seen the amount of grease on pivot bearings which had left the factory with,then it would be wise to lube splines.
gus

[roger albert]

Ditto Gus input. MarkC seems theoretically right, but if one set of splines which doesn't slide might be considered to need additional lube, why not the other. Overall, I agree with Mark's story, mind you, but the factories (all three of the axis powers) seem to really skimp on grease at assy time. Makes no sense to me. For those of you living in the present, I"m NOT talking about bikes from iraq/iran/n.korea.

[maurice crocket]

thanks for the replys - i have bought a workshop manual on CD so i can now refer to that.