Greasing the K2 main driveshaft every 5,000 miles.

[RVDude]

Just curious, the K2 manual and Spartan themselves will say the main driveshaft should be greased every 5,000 miles (all 3 zerk fittings on it). Not really a big deal but kind of a dumb design given everything else is on a 15,000 and up mile schedule. So...

How many of you grease your driveshaft every 5,000 miles????

[RVDude]

Just curious, the K2 manual and Spartan themselves will say the main driveshaft should be greased every 5,000 miles (all 3 zerk fittings on it). Not really a big deal but kind of a dumb design given everything else is on a 15,000 and up mile schedule. So...

How many of you grease your driveshaft every 5,000 miles????

[tmitchell]

I have read several posts about problems that Spartan blamed on inadequate grease intervals, for the drive train. They were for the chassis used for my DSDP. To be on the safe side, I grease mine at approximately 5,000 mile intervals. I never have had grease come out the end of the slip joint. I know you are suppose to hold your finger over a hole that lets the air purge while pumping grease in until you see the excess come out the end. With the 7 or 8 times I have greased the drive shaft I have never gotten excessive grease to come out. Makes me wonder where it all goes.
Tom

[Lug_Nut]

Okay, I don't. It's the 15 k rule for me. I've never had a problem. The last MH I treated the same and I did 58k on that one. The drive shaft on the K-2 is longer than on my last, therefore should be even better as less angles while operating.

[GaryKD]

Jeff,
While I feel the same as you, I do grease every 5K or there abouts. Like Tom said, I wonder where all the grease goes. I've put a lot of grease in the spline zerk fitting and never had any come out anywhere.

[tom wilson]

if you do not see grease coming out of the spline grease outlet then you are not putting in enough grease. you may want to check your grease gun to be sure it is not pumping air??
i have found several 14 oz cartridges that have air pockets inside. not good for the rv.

[GaryKD]

Tommy,
Been there and done that. My grease gun is pumping grease. Thanks for the thought.

[quikduk]

I have the GT chassis, not the MM or K2 but I am replacing my driveshaft u-joints this weekend. When I greased the slip spline, it took the better part of a tube to fill the splines and finally it burped out the weep hole at the transmission end...which is where it should come out of. I wiped the excess off with a solvent soaked rag, as well as the existing u-joint bearing cups. It appears that it should take the better part of a complete standard grease gun tube to fill both u-joints and the slip spline from scratch, then just several pumps in each at regular maintenance intervals.

[GaryKD]

I wonder:
1. why Spartan doesn't fill it when they build it?
2. should the spline/shaft be full of grease or is there some level less than full that is correct?

[RVDude]

I try to grease my driveshaft every 5k miles. Seems I'm doing it almost monthly these days! The splines do uses a lot of grease. Both Spartan techs and several CoachCare techs all said to pump the u-joints and the spline until you see grease come out of the U joints and out of the spline weep hole. Which is standard procedure for any and all driveshaft lubes. No surprise there, just an every 5k PITA for 3 zerks.

I was just curious to see what y'all do. The Spartan guy said he suspects few folks do it.