Motor Trike solid axle drive shaft removal

[2old4two]

Greetings! I'm putting my 1999SE solid axle Motor Trike conversion back into service after 10 years off the road. In my defense I traveled for business at the end of my career, retired, moved from the west coast to the mid west .... blah,blah blah. Long story short, I'm going through all the systems upgrading, maintaining etc. I feel embarrassed to ask but whats the trick to removing the drive shaft? I've removed the 4 bolts at the diff but need about 1/8" more clearance to clear the rear yoke over the diff pinion bolt. I would hate to think I'm going to have to disconnect and move the axle aft to gain clearance ( I mean I would if that's the trick). I'm wanting to slick that baby up with some moly paste and then on to timing belts.

Larry

1999 SE Merced Green

Classic II Motor Trike conversion

[Marc H]

Welcome to Trike Talk Larry!!! I don't know about Motor Trike but taking the axle loose was the easy way for my old Champion kit.Glad you have the time and patience to go through it an get it back on the rode for many more miles.

[3W-lonerider]

Greetings! I'm putting my 1999SE solid axle Motor Trike conversion back into service after 10 years off the road. In my defense I traveled for business at the end of my career, retired, moved from the west coast to the mid west .... blah,blah blah. Long story short, I'm going through all the systems upgrading, maintaining etc. I feel embarrassed to ask but whats the trick to removing the drive shaft? I've removed the 4 bolts at the diff but need about 1/8" more clearance to clear the rear yoke over the diff pinion bolt. I would hate to think I'm going to have to disconnect and move the axle aft to gain clearance ( I mean I would if that's the trick). I'm wanting to slick that baby up with some moly paste and then on to timing belts.

Larry

1999 SE Merced Green

Classic II Motor Trike conversion

take a big screwdriver and wedge it between the yoke and the rear. pry out and you will get the clearance you need. the spring on the front of the drive shaft is whats holding you back.

when re-installing the drive shaft. just push the shaft towards the engine and it will go right back in place. big flat screwdriver works best.

[rhino 2]

Larry.. Welcome to Trike Talk 👍👍.

[2old4two]

Thanks for the greetings!

I’ve tried the screw driver trick but the shaft didn’t budge. I sprayed the front yoke with penetrating oil thinking it might be stuck on the splines. I’ll try a bigger screw driver.

Thanks

Larry

[3W-lonerider]

Thanks for the greetings!

I’ve tried the screw driver trick but the shaft didn’t budge. I sprayed the front yoke with penetrating oil thinking it might be stuck on the splines. I’ll try a bigger screw driver.

Thanks

Larry

the screw driver i use is about 10 inches long with a thick shaft. prybar will also work.

to clear the pinion bolt and nut the shaft will feel like its binding coming off but just keep prying. i would pry as close to the center as i could get.

putting it back on goes alot easier.

[2old4two]

Well, a bigger screw driver didn't work nor a pry bar. I rearrange my rear jack stands, removed the wheels, and gained access by removing the two spring bolts and bottom 2 ladder bolts. At that point I was able to swing the axle enough to extract the drive shaft. Now, the question is why wouldn't the drive shaft collapse? The yoke also took a little mild persuasion to slide off the shaft. The splines were obviously twisted preventing the yoke from sliding up and down, jamming the yoke on the shaft. All the prying in the world wasn't going to collapse that shaft any farther. Who'd guess? OK, silly question, Motor Trike knew. My local Motor Trike dealer knew. On the upside we caught this before I got stranded. On the downside my local Motor Trike dealer is getting $400 of my social security check this month for a new and *improved* drive shaft. It is improved, right? (not a silly question)

Larry

[3W-lonerider]

Well, a bigger screw driver didn't work nor a pry bar. I rearrange my rear jack stands, removed the wheels, and gained access by removing the two spring bolts and bottom 2 ladder bolts. At that point I was able to swing the axle enough to extract the drive shaft. Now, the question is why wouldn't the drive shaft collapse? The yoke also took a little mild persuasion to slide off the shaft. The splines were obviously twisted preventing the yoke from sliding up and down, jamming the yoke on the shaft. All the prying in the world wasn't going to collapse that shaft any farther. Who'd guess? OK, silly question, Motor Trike knew. My local Motor Trike dealer knew. On the upside we caught this before I got stranded. On the downside my local Motor Trike dealer is getting $400 of my social security check this month for a new and *improved* drive shaft. It is improved, right? (not a silly question)

Larry

new drive shaft is a big improvement. the problem with the old shaft was the front universal was to far back from the engine compared to the angle of the shaft. so the old shaft always wanted to go into an elliptical spin instead of staying true. the new shaft puts the front universal closer to the engine. it is also splined to the shaft going from the front universal to the rear will only go into the front universal one way. there is no way to get the universals out of sync. you will like the new shaft. i'm glad you got the old shaft off and yes if those splines were twisted there was no way it was going to slide forward enough to get it off. another nice thing about the new front universal is you can souce a new one from any auto parts store and just install a new joint into the yokes when the time comes. new ujoint also has a grease fitting.

[cjmitch]

Well, a bigger screw driver didn't work nor a pry bar. I rearrange my rear jack stands, removed the wheels, and gained access by removing the two spring bolts and bottom 2 ladder bolts. At that point I was able to swing the axle enough to extract the drive shaft. Now, the question is why wouldn't the drive shaft collapse? The yoke also took a little mild persuasion to slide off the shaft. The splines were obviously twisted preventing the yoke from sliding up and down, jamming the yoke on the shaft. All the prying in the world wasn't going to collapse that shaft any farther. Who'd guess? OK, silly question, Motor Trike knew. My local Motor Trike dealer knew. On the upside we caught this before I got stranded. On the downside my local Motor Trike dealer is getting $400 of my social security check this month for a new and *improved* drive shaft. It is improved, right? (not a silly question)

Larry

Than NEW drive shaft is a monumental improvement over the old one, if just for the fact that it has a zerk fitting on the front joint.

Secondly its keyed so retiming it is not an issue.

Go buy it, get the correct grease, and lube that sucker up like its no tomorrow.

On thing though, if those splines were twisted and would not compress, Im wondering how you got ANY action out of that driveshaft. They are made to compress and retract during rotation. Ill be you had a LOT of vibration

[2old4two]

Thank you Lone-rider for the info. The drive shaft was ordered through my local Motor Trike dealer last Wednesday afternoon and I got a call this morning (following Tuesday) that the drive shaft is in. I’m happy considering it’s was the July 4th holiday weekend. I’ll check in after the install and give my expert opinion🤣

Larry

[3W-lonerider]

Thank you Lone-rider for the info. The drive shaft was ordered through my local Motor Trike dealer last Wednesday afternoon and I got a call this morning (following Tuesday) that the drive shaft is in. I’m happy considering it’s was the July 4th holiday weekend. I’ll check in after the install and give my expert opinion🤣

Larry

you're quite welcome. have a great day.

[2old4two]

OK, driveshaft is finally in (life got in the way but we’re back on track!). Looks like all the pics I’ve seen on line. Coupling and u-joint seem to be more robust. I had to take the right muffler and header pipe off in order to loosen the heat shield. This was necessary to gain access for slipping the drive line into place. What’s a few more nuts and bolts at this point?

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Larry