Drive shaft warning

I have read about this on another related forum and made the mistake of thinking that it only applied to earlier models other than mine.

I am in the middle of a 4000km trip and 1600 ks from home I was happily overtaking a semi and all of sudden had a grinding noise rather than forward propulsion. I had the bike put on a tilt tray to the nearest Suzuki dealer and they pulled the drive shaft apart. The inner spline at the front of the shaft was reamed. Evidently this is a dry assembled allegedly sealed part but it didn't save it. The bike only has 25000km on it. I would advise to check and grease it if you can.


It had been a bloody fantastic ride until then.

Sounds like this could do with being checked out with Suzuki themselves ??? 'tis a tad concerning ...

Bloody hell I will check mine now just incase, sorry to hear that!

There has been a link on this site for some time now for download on how do grease the shaft.
All you need to do is Look and you will see it in the THIS SECTION
* Maintenance Manuals, Links & PDFs - Library *

Thats scary, oh well I guess it's about time I did a bit of routine maintanance so I will check that as well.

Thanks for the pdf download link Mr I

I can't F^*+* n download it... and my cd manual isn't much help either... so anyone care to do a "How to..." feature on this ... ??

I cant see why your having a problem, I just clicked on the link and away it went.

try the link below

Click here to start download from MediaFire..

captain crash wrote:

I cant see why your having a problem, I just clicked on the link and away it went.

try the link below

Click here to start download from MediaFire..

Nope .... maybe it's the browser I'm using.... I'll try it on IE and see what happens !!

Hi Icetechaus done mine today it was fairly dry.
[img][/img]before
[img][/img]after
[img][/img]before.
[img][/img]after

It only took approx half an hour,the hardest part was lifting the wheel back into place,not the lightest of wheels when you are on your back,another pair of hands would be easier.

Is this easy to do yourself?I'm not the most experienced mechanic.

* Maintenance Manuals, Links & PDFs - Library *This is the write up on this forum,check it out,you will find it is easy to do.

How do you know what the settings are when he mentions torquing up
the bolts? Or did you just go hand tight, then a bit more? Or did I miss
the settings? Looks like I shall have to invest in a bike lift, as everyone's
shafts seem to have dried up.

Hi Badger the torque settings are in the manual or cd in this forum.

I've booked in with my local bike shop to have it done.90 quid they are charging.Gonna get a lift for Christmas and then in future I can do it.

I just got the bike back today. I took a $500 hit to the pocket but it could be worse.

The service chech and found out that Suzuki Australia have just (27/7/11) issued a service addendum for all shaft drive bikes and ATV's. Basically it tells you to apply Moly grease to the prop shaft splines every 1200 km.

So they have obviously acknowledged the issue and it is now part of the routine service.

I will scan the service notice in and add it to the maintenance page when I get home. 400ks today 1200 to go. You've gotta love it.

Every 1200 km.(750 miles) that seems to be very often that means some owners will be having to do that every month some more often. Could it be 12000 km? I have just read an article on the internet where it says it should be done every tyre change.

Sorry that was a finger fault should read every 12000 km.

Thought so.

Does it not mention how long between it in months?My bike is an 05 plate and only done short if 4000 miles.

icetechaus wrote:

Sorry that was a finger fault should read every 12000 km.

12000km = 7456 . 45431 miles. [Google is my fwend].

I will need a tyre before next year, so I may take it up to the the local guy, in Hopkinstown, [cheap tyres]
and see what he will charge for some extra work ... he removes wheels for you, and does other
bike related work. If it's too much, I will invest in a lift, or borrow one.

I made it to 25000ks so I think you should be ok. I have seen a novel el lift made out of timber and a steel bar. Again when I get home I will try and find it.

Nowhere near that mileage on mine yet, but I'll get it checked when I get me new rear tyre. Thanks for the heads up.

Badger wrote:

icetechaus wrote:

Sorry that was a finger fault should read every 12000 km.

12000km = 7456 . 45431 miles. [Google is my fwend].

I will need a tyre before next year, so I may take it up to the the local guy, in Hopkinstown, [cheap tyres]
and see what he will charge for some extra work ... he removes wheels for you, and does other
bike related work. If it's too much, I will invest in a lift, or borrow one.

I got one mate if you wanna borrow it .... need transporting in car though too hefty a bit of kit... to strap on the 125 !!

Nice one Bro ... I'll get the grease, and we will share.

....... [shit, that sounds sooooo wrong].

Yes it does

Think I'll cancel having it booked in and just buy a lift, some moly grease and a torque wrench. I'd rather do it myself and then I've also got the lift for cleaning and other jobs.

Good move

I agree with Captain Crash you can buy the lift and the grease for life, for less than the garage were going to charge for doing a simple job.

Bike lift and Honda Moly 60 ordered. Just need to get a torque wrench.Hoping to do it on Saturday.

Hi all just thought I should let you know that this saga is over for me. I am finally back home again. 1700 ks over 3 days and no troubles since the shaft gave up on the way down. They blame the problem on water incursion rather than lubrication per se. Nobody was adequately able to explain where the water gets in but if the lube is maintained it won't be a problem.

Hi glad to see you got back home safely,we have all learned from your experience,thats the good thing about these forums.

Anyone know where to get the Moly paste from.I ordered some Honda Moly 60 from a site and they are out of stock for 2-3 weeks. Is there any good alternatives?

Yeah I looked at these mate already but not sure what's good or not.

Nip to Halfords and ask them for drive shaft moly grease it is supposed to be extreme.

Nah I worked at Halfords for 8 years and the only one they do is the Lith-Moly grease by Comma. I checked the website and it's still the only one they do. It's not upto the job.

It's ok anyway. I've ordered some Honda Moly 60 from the US.

This shaft issue is for all suzuki c800 or from some specific year and on? If I am going to buy a c800 should I look in the maintaince book/garantee bok/service book that the shaft has been greased?

//c800

It is for all Suzuki shaft drives according to the service bulletin. The bulletin has only been released in Australia in July this year so you are unlikely to see it included in the service book yet. I would be asking the question of the seller and if it hasn't been done make allowances for it when you negotiate the price.

So if I am looking at suzuki c800 from 2007-2008 should I assume that the shaft drive is worn or damaged? I am not a technical person but I understand that restoring the shaft drive is most likely expensive.

Here in Sweden suzuki has 5 years gurantee if it is a bike which less then 5 years old I guess that it falls under garantee.

suzuki c800 wrote:

So if I am looking at suzuki c800 from 2007-2008 should I assume that the shaft drive is worn or damaged?

My friend, I really would not worry!

Remember this is new advice that has so far only been released for Australia, not the rest of the world. I wonder why the issue has not been relayed by suzuki in the rest world, so it could possibly be a production related issue on Australian bikes

Bearing in mind also that these bikes have been around for a very long time and are known for being rock solid, there has been no known issues apart from very rare faliures & they are very rare.

Suzuki Australia are saying that the shaft should be greased every 12000km's which would not be an issue as it's an easy thing to do.

I had a look at my drive shaft after this thread was started and although there was not an overload of grease in there, I applied more simply because I had started the job.
I know that tthere is a warning in australia but the fact remains that there isn't one here! If the shaft has grease on it then the fact is that it is greased, you can put as much grease in there as you like but its onlt the tiny bit that's on the metal that is actually doing anything the rest is simply redundant

Anyway that's my opinion & I only speak for myself

Well this isn't just maintenance that should be done on Suzuki's.Any shaft drive from any manufacturer should have the splines greased every so often.Just searching lubricating drive shaft brings up many message boards like this about this. As for anything that requires lubrication, if it's not done things wear and break.

Does the final drive oil need draining before removing it?

suzuki c800 wrote:

So if I am looking at suzuki c800 from 2007-2008 should I assume that the shaft drive is worn or damaged? I am not a technical person but I understand that restoring the shaft drive is most likely expensive.

Here in Sweden suzuki has 5 years gurantee if it is a bike which less then 5 years old I guess that it falls under garantee.

Hey mate ... my bike's a 2003 with 20000+ miles ( 33000km ) on it and I've had no trouble at all with it. I am going to check the shaft lube ( that sounds wrong doesn't it ! ) when I next remove the rear wheel but it's not something which I consider to be a major issue at the moment ... chill dude, just buy the bike you want, the Intruder range has a reputation for being ultra reliable

Cheers ... Mick

Maybe Oz bikes are more prone to this problem, due to a production fault as Mr I said or maybe 'cos they got an awful lot of dusty desert out there, or maybe they just ride 'em further and faster ,,,,cos they got more room !!

It could be something to be with the fact that they are upside down

You know how water goes down the plughole the other way to ours in the southern hemisphere?
Well, shaft drives spin the other way to ours there too.

...................... FACT

Somehow I don't think so. But some of the real differences may be high humidity, it's not uncommon for 80 to 90% in summer. I may be wrong on this one but I suspect that the distances that we cover in a single hit may be greater than yours, a typical Sunday ride with the boys is around 450k's and I had just done 2 700k days in a row when the shaft went. The mechanic that did the shaft replacement on the bike reckoned that it looked like moisture incursion so just may be that all of the above and riding through a few decent storms have somehow combined to cause it to happen.

In any case as Rattler said any bike with a shaft should be lubed and maintained, even if the book doesn't say to do it.

Done my shaft just now .. less than an hour, didn't have any Moly grease , but acquired some of the stuff they use at work!! I reckon that if it's good enough for the continental coaches and the national express ones ... should be just about ok for my motorcycle !!
will let you know if I end up going down the road with a grease fire chucking smoke out of the back end!!!
Drive shaft was as dry as Badgers mummys cock and so were the splines in the hub and rear drive unit , although there was very little signs of wear (done 12000miles)........ must be a severe grease shortage at Suzuki !!
Also checked and cleaned the rear brakeplate and shoes while I was there !
One tip though ... when putting back together, reconnect the brake rod BEFORE the rear torque arm .... D'uuuuh!!

I've got all the bits to do mine. Just need to get round to it now. I got the Honda Moly 60 grease from the US.

Did mine today, with Exile at his place. Yep ... just under 10k and dry as my Mummy's cock.
There is now officially a grease shortage at Suzuki Japan.
Thanks for the use of your garage and gear bro.

S'alright mate .. was good to do some spannering again , didn't realise how much I missed it !! Sorry didn't offer cuppa or chance to wash your hands even (shit host me!) ...... but as you know was on taxi duty today as well ! Take it bike all hunky dory as you must have got home !!