GP1800, extending the grease fitting for driveshaft intermediate bearing

[gibbywmu]

K447,

Good point. I just used some old hose I had laying around as well. Definitely doesn't provide a good seal with that hose clamp. I will look around for those at the hardware store and change that out.

As far as some excess grease still coming out, do you think that is an issue? Once I change clamps, should I try pumping more in? I figured 30 was more than enough.

What size are those threads on the grease gun hose? I may change to that later..........but I don't feel like taking that seat bracket off again or the electrical box .

[K447]

...

As far as some excess grease still coming out, do you think that is an issue?

... should I try pumping more in? ...

Grease seepage is a bit messy, not really a 'problem..

I would only be guessing regarding adding more grease. I have no idea how much grease capacity 'room' there was inside the intermediate bearing, nor how much grease you may have put in already.

[gibbywmu]

Grease seepage is a bit messy, not really a 'problem..

I would only be guessing regarding adding more grease. I have no idea how much grease capacity 'room' there was inside the intermediate bearing, nor how much grease you may have put in already.

Good call. I'm just going to say its good. I know there's more in there than before! LOL. If I change to the grease hose, I just want to be able to adapt whatever thread is on those to the 1/8" NPT fittings I already have.

[K447]

... If I change to the grease hose, I just want to be able to adapt whatever thread is on those to the 1/8" NPT fittings I already have.

Standard US grease gun hose is 1/8" NPT male thread each end.

Should screw right into your Alemite 1/8" NPT female fitting.

https://www.amazon.com/inch-Flexible-Grease-Hose-3000/dp/B006ZB8ITS

[gibbywmu]

Standard US grease gun hose is 1/8" NPT male thread each end.

Should screw right into your Alemite 1/8" NPT female fitting.



https://www.amazon.com/inch-Flexible.../dp/B006ZB8ITS

Thanks K447. My lazy butt went back and verified this in an earlier post you had in this thread. Sorry about that! I think I'm going to change out to a grease gun hose to prevent any leaking. Will have to do the job over, but it should go quicker this time! It's just a pain getting to those bottom 2 bolts on the electrical box.

[TimeBandit]

I just wanted to alleviate some of the paranoia about "blowing seals". Sure, as a general rule, please slow-down and go-easy when back-pressure builds in the grease gun - its a good indicator the IB housing is full, yet it's not that easy .... in-fact hard to really hurt these seals.

There are 3 seals total in the housing ... one forward - facing forward, and two aft - facing aft. There is a huge cir-clip fwd, and another aft in the housing, so the seals ain't going anywhere!
I used the term "facing" deliberately, as the the seal material contacting the shaft has a single-direction relief taper - a quasi "lip" if you will. Supporting the backside of the lip is a typical spiral circle spring to insure even tension as this lip rides the shaft's circumference. (( Keep it clean folks! ))

Referencing the pics above .... so if you are grease sitting on either side of this seal, you can easily ooze past in one direction, and nearly impossible in the other. Thankfully all seals are therefore facing outward in respect to the IB housing's inner cavity, so over-filling, grease air water can simply slip by the seals outward. And because there is only one seal fwd, that's typically where that excess grease will go - you got it, hits the spinning flange coupler and flung everywhere !

The reason I'd still "go easy", is if your seals are worn or otherwise slight defective, as it is plausible to rip the lip or unseat the lip's supporting spring behind it, given you really blast a fist-full at once.

Again ... just pointing this out, so those of you out there are not going too-gingerly on the fist pumps. Give firm squeezes, in fact, it doesn't hurt to slightly over-fill, so the "old" aka possibly contaminated grease can get flushed out - eventually.

[speeder]

I have updated my original post with the info about using a metric threaded adapter to fit the metric threaded hole for the intermediate housing grease fitting.

http://greenhulk.net/showthread.php?t=265622&p=2892809&viewfull=1#post2892809

Thank you for pointing that out!

I suggest you edit your original post to remove reference to tapping the bearing housing, or any of the incorrect fittings so as not to lead anybody else down the wrong path. you have to read carefully to see the one sentence that references the correct fitting, but it's buried in pages of procedure for tapping the housing which is completely unnecessary.

[K447]

I suggest you edit your original post to remove reference to tapping the bearing housing, or any of the incorrect fittings so as not to lead anybody else down the wrong path.

you have to read carefully to see the one sentence that references the correct fitting, but it's buried in pages of procedure for tapping the housing which is completely unnecessary.

I have added additional text and clarity to the original posts.

There is only one post describing the thread tapping procedure, and it and the post prior both now reference the 'correct' metric fitting.

Some people may not have access to metric grease fittings or perhaps would be interested to read how I did the thread tapping.

I have retained the original text along with the updated info, clearly posted and in bold.

http://greenhulk.net/showthread.php?t=265622&p=2892809&viewfull=1#post2892809

[Tnt]

You are not correct, you are greasing the splines on drive shaft. There a tiny pin hole in mid shaft that rear seal and bearing create cavity so when you pump grease in it.goes through the pin hole and your greasing the shaft splines only. See the hole just in front of my finger, the seal is just bellow the hole and the bearing is just behind my finger, there a grease seal formed between the rubber shaft seal and the bearing adding protection and grease goes through hole and lubricates the splines. This is where there two small o rings in mid shaft sealing grease in those o rings get dry and crack you need to grease it regularly or you have spline wear Some aftermarket mid shafts do not have the hole and there for spline wear is big issue

[TimeBandit]

You are not correct, you are greasing the splines on drive shaft. There a tiny pin hole in mid shaft that rear seal and bearing create cavity so when you pump grease in it.goes through the pin hole and your greasing the shaft splines only. See the hole just in front of my finger, the seal is just bellow the hole and the bearing is just behind my finger, there a grease seal formed between the rubber shaft seal and the bearing adding protection and grease goes through hole and lubricates the splines. This is where there two small o rings in mid shaft sealing grease in those o rings get dry and crack you need to grease it regularly or you have spline wear Some aftermarket mid shafts do not have the hole and there for spline wear is big issue

^^^ Can you confirm the part number in your photo? We're trying to get relevant information here, which includes being accurate about specific make & model of this thread's title and categorized section. If it's not related, your absolute assertion of a pin hole existing does no service to other owners of this craft, or others that share the same part : FZR/FZS, FX (all 1800), VX HO, VXS/VXR ranging from year 2008-2020 (present). We simply do not want these owners thinking the splines are getting lubed, when contrary to your post above, they are indeed not.

Not sure what shaft that (pic) is off of (superjet/blaster maybe, perhaps a 1st gen VX's) . . . but it's not from a GP1800 (aka thread title). There is no such pin hole on the GP1800 mid-shaft. Okay, but let's pretend we wanted to put a hole there ourselves for such purposes ... you can't .... due to the depth/offset of where the splines are recessed deeply into the housing, to get the hole at said seal/void alignment, the hole would end up smack in the middle of one of the machined spline valleys.

The Service Manual substantiates that the housing (zerk fitting) is designated with grease (A), while the splines are designated with grease (M) - again, there is no hole for these to to cross-contaminate. The zerk provides grease (A) to the housing's bearing, and excess grease pumped into the GP1800 housing results in grease slippage mainly across the fwd seal, some also past the aft seals - yet there are two aft, so not as much. Splines on the GP1800 are greased once, when the pump shaft is being reassembled, and the two o-rings inside the mid-shaft form a tight seal on the drive shaft locking that one-time (M) grease inside along with some trapped air - in fact, it's a big no-no to attempt to completely fill the inside of the mid-shaft solid with grease, else frankly, you simply won't be able to get the shaft inserted.

[Bell]

That's super clean set up very nice!

[speeder]

Some people may not have access to metric grease fittings or perhaps would be interested to read how I did the thread tapping.

that really doesn't make any sense...even if you don't have access to metric grease fittings, you would be better off running the SAE fittings through a metric die than tapping the intermediate housing. yours is a very high risk procedure, the other is simple. Unsure why you think anybody would be interested in seeing how you unnecessarily tapped the intermediate housing or even why you'd want to spread that misinformation.

[TimeBandit]

that really doesn't make any sense...even if you don't have access to metric grease fittings, you would be better off running the SAE fittings through a metric die than tapping the intermediate housing. yours is a very high risk procedure, the other is simple. Unsure why you think anybody would be interested in seeing how you unnecessarily tapped the intermediate housing or even why you'd want to spread that misinformation.

^^^ Well, not totally disagreeing with you, but kinda a moot comment as this thread has long since evolved. Aka, since the OP had originally opted to tap, there have been BOTH aftermarket fittings AND oem fittings (as I pointed out back on post #42 and you replied too - thanks) identified that can avoid the need for tapping the housing. That said, there are some folks that live abroad and/or cannot readily acquire said precise parts, so the tapping is retained as - yes risky yet - an alternative option.

[K447]

... this thread has ... evolved. ... since the OP had originally opted to tap ...

Indeed, that is one reason I posted what I did, and updated the thread as new information became available.

When I learn new information (and especially when I read helpful comments from others) that provides a better option I try to update the original posts/thread so people who come along later can benefit.

During the original modifications three years ago, I was unaware that the Yamaha housing thread pitch was not SAE inch thread for grease zerk. Just did not occur to me. I had an adapter fitting with 'standard' grease Zerk thread, and that thread pitch looked 'close' to what was in the Yamaha housing, but would not quite fit in.

In hindsight I could have re-threaded the adapter male thread, but I did not have an accurate way to measure the existing female thread pitch in the housing. Now that I know the housing is metric thread, there are several alternate ways to make it work.

At the time, I elected to re-thread the Yamaha housing. As originally posted, with photos. Both of those GP1800 now have well over 200 running hours each, and so far no ill effects from the modification.

[nitric13]

Why isnt this part of maintenance? Or is this a "lifetime greased" bearing?