cardan joint

[ital4me]

Greetings, it's been awhile. I am bringing my 79 CX100 out of 7 years storage and have a question or two about the cardan joint. The joint feels fine but it doesn't have seals on the needle bearings which surprised me. Is this normal? How is the joint lubricated in situ? Sorry if this is asked a lot but I couldn't figure how to search topics.

[guzzisteve]

It's oiled by atmospheric pressure, an oil mist from rear drive is to come out of a sliver opening on top edge of the forward pinion bearing travel up shaft & go through the splines inside carrier bearing to splat on the ujoints.
Hope this helps.
If yours is dry, I'd soak it for a day OR take it apart & grease it(good luck). If you pack it full of grease on the outside it will fling off & stick to your boot.

[moto-uno]

 They tended to come with those bearings sealed .  Peter

[guzzisteve]

 Got me thinking if mine still had the rubber in place, so while having a cigar in garage I looked. Yep, even the ones out of the 68 & 69 still had them. LM3 also and it's the original at 50K hard miles. I would'nt think twice about using it if not loose. Run it till you feel vibration.

[ital4me]

Hey thanks for the replies. It feels tight and I will use it. It appears to have never had seals or was rebuilt without seals, but no evidence that they were ever there. If there were seals wouldn't that prevent a migration oil system from reaching the needles?

[huub]

Hey thanks for the replies. It feels tight and I will use it. It appears to have never had seals or was rebuilt without seals, but no evidence that they were ever there. If there were seals wouldn't that prevent a migration oil system from reaching the needles?

The swingarm is supposed to be dry where the UJ is turning.

[guzzisteve]

Packed w/grease when new, you may be able to shoot some grease back in w/grease needle that pops onto end of gun.
Never had much luck at that but tried.

[John A]

In the old days, some would take off the seals, heat up the joint and put it in a pail of grease and let it cool off. I think the theory was the grease would get into the cross bearings. I never tried it but they said it worked for them.