Grease containing a minimum of 60% molybdenum is highly recommended when lubricating the drive shaft splines of your Goldwing. It is the only lubricant recommended by Honda and for good reason: it adheres to the splines and continues lubricating when other greases would squish out and allow accelerated wear of the splines. Considering both the expense to replace worn out parts and the amount of work involved it only makes sense to smear some 60% moly grease on the splines at least every time you disassemble to replace your rear tire. Although there must be other suppliers, I got my tube of the grease at a Honda dealership.
A number of opportunities are presented when replacing the rear tire including draining and refilling the final drive gear oil, checking for leaking seals, checking wheel bearing wear, brake line inspection, brake caliper and pad inspection, swing arm condition, swing arm bearings, drive shaft splines and even more with further disassembly. This spring I found myself unwilling to do the extra wrenching necessary to remove the swing arm since the bearings checked out good and there was no deterioration from rusting. But I did want to get some 60% moly grease on the transmission spline shaft which requires pulling the u-joint off the shaft and according to some requires pulling the swing arm. I found that ain’t necessarily so.
Yep, I guess you could say I cheated and there’s the chance my actions could come back to bite me but it’s a chance I’m willing to take. You see, what I did was carefully pull the bellows from the back of the transmission, slide the u-joint off the transmission spline shaft and carefully as possible inspected the u-joint for indications of abnormal wear. Then I smeared moly grease on the splines and slid the u-joint back in place. I used a piece of 1X1 lumber in the drive shaft tube to press against the u-joint and get it back in place. As versus holding the u-joint in my hands and checking it carefully the inspection process was a bit limited and the reason I say it could come back to bite me. But I would expect to notice a difference in sound and smoothness if there was excessive wear and that has not happened so chance taken. Oh, if you follow suit don’t forget to refit the bellows to the transmission. It would be an easy oversight that would assuredly contribute to premature u-joint failure.
Somewhat over 1000 miles since the bike went back on the road and new rear tire along with all else is working smoothly. I’m keeping fingers crossed.
