Drive Shaft Replacement at 115k miles

[tdragger]

I had the driveshaft replaced on my 2015 in preparation for this year's Iron Butt Rally.  Whew, I'm glad that I did.  The rear u-joint and the splines looked great and functioned as expected.  The front u-joint, not so much.  It was practically frozen and required a lot of effort to get the joint to move.  I expect that it would have failed completely in the next few thousand miles.

I'm very happy that I got over 100k miles out of the drive shaft.  It says a lot about the reliability of this bike.  I post this as a reminder to all that the shaft is not an infinite item and should be examined if you are hitting some higher mileage numbers.  Yeah, it is a $400 part but a proactive replacement can save a whole lot more.

[tdragger]

Here is a short video of the driveshaft condition.

[digital]

Thanks for that information. You're right, it's one more maintenance plan to take into account when making revisions, since the plastic bowl of the transmission shaft (cardan) has some grooves where stones and dirt from the roads get into it. Clean its interior and insert grease in the cardan crosshead. From experience, a few months ago the transmission shaft (cardan) broke when I was driving at 135 kilometers per hour.

[STJIM]

Originally Posted by tdragger

I had the driveshaft replaced on my 2015 in preparation for this year's Iron Butt Rally.  Whew, I'm glad that I did.  The rear u-joint and the splines looked great and functioned as expected.  The front u-joint, not so much.  It was practically frozen and required a lot of effort to get the joint to move.  I expect that it would have failed completely in the next few thousand miles.

I'm very happy that I got over 100k miles out of the drive shaft.  It says a lot about the reliability of this bike.  I post this as a reminder to all that the shaft is not an infinite item and should be examined if you are hitting some higher mileage numbers.  Yeah, it is a $400 part but a proactive replacement can save a whole lot more.

Be thankful you don't own a BMW.  My riding buddy had to replace 2 driveshafts on his new R1200RT ( at 5K miles and at 115K miles).  He "spun" the first one and the second time it was a complete u-joint failure while he was doing about 65 mph and when he slowed down to about 25 mph,  the rear wheel locked up.  The first was covered under warranty.  The second one was over $1200 for the part alone.

BTW,  I bought a used Trophy driveshaft off EBay for about $45. Good insurance IMO.

[GarminDave]

Hi tdragger,

I took your advice and have scheduled the Universal Joint service kit as I’m at 100,000 miles and I don’t fancy a dramatic failure!

Prevention is better than failure.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[tdragger]

Originally Posted by GarminDave

Hi tdragger,

I took your advice and have scheduled the Universal Joint service kit as I’m at 100,000 miles and I don’t fancy a dramatic failure!

Prevention is better than failure.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Excellent move. I was shocked at the condition of the driveshaft.  A real wake-up call.

[GarminDave]

Had the job done today and the front UJ was seized to the drive shaft and one plain was seized!  So excellent call on getting it serviced before a catastrophic failure.

[STJIM]

Nice to know.

I lubed the front spline @ 20K miles and the u-joints ( cardens ) checked good. Probably both should be checked at every 20K mile service.  It doesn't take that long to remove & replace the driveshaft. i admit I'm a preventative maintenance disciple.  The front spline didn't look too bad @ 20K miles but probably would have been overdue @ 40K miles.  I'm surprise this isn't a required maintenanvce item.