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I recently removed the old splines from a /5 hub. They are much too worn for the rebuild I am working on.

Has anybody replaced the rear wheel spline before?

If so, have they switched to bolts or stayed with rivets upon installing a new spline into the hub?

I'm not sure new rivets are available and not sure if I have access to the proper tools for replacing them.

Nuts/Bolts seem like a good solution if they are of high quality and fastened so they will never come apart.

I did, 5 or 6 years ago. I ordered the replacement spline ring, with rivets. I took this to a local machine shop, with the wheel. They drilled out the old rivets and installed the new spline ring with the new rivets.

Oak Okleshen has done it...he has discussed it in his Tech Tips. Mr. Snowbum has a section on his website that echoes what Oak had to say.

Kurt in S.A.

Hi JJW, I replaced mine (slash six) a couple of years ago using bolts, as per Snowbum's article. See here, for a great deal of information - http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/rearwhlsplines.htm

The /6 uses 1/4" rivets, so 1/4" bolts are recommended. I note that the /5 uses 5mm rivets/bolts but the method is the same.

For mine, I used 1/4" Allen head bolts. The washers under the bolt heads need to be shaped to fit between the webbing on the /6 hub -



To do this shaping I did this, and ground the flats using an inverted belt sander -



On the inside, the nyloc nuts also needed shaping on the belt sander. I ran a bolt through from the normal side of the nuts first to cut a thread through the nylon bit, then withdrew and screwed through from the 'wrong' side so I had something to hang on to while sanding.



It all went quite easily, once I understood Snowbum's article (always the hard part). I also had the mating part in the final drive built up with weld and re-machined, but there are other ways to skin that particular cat.

Did one 2 years ago on a 78 /7. Replaced rear wheel dog gear (from motobins) and used rivets (also from motobins).

Nastiest part was removing old rivets. Dremel, drills and hammers got it done. Local shop had the correct riveting tools to work with rivets.

However, if did it again would use nut and bolt technique as outlined by Airbear and covered by snowwbum. Reason...found most of the holes slightly elongated from wear and rivets seemed loose to me before the riveting was done, then seem to tighten up ok. Put at least 5,000 Km's on it and they were snug....however, if holes in hub are elongated I would be drilling out a hole slightly larger and use a sized nut and bolt instead...seems pretty straight forward to me.

BTW, replaced the rear drive splines at the same time as well. Got the part from motobins and local airhead shop cut off the old one and welded on new one and re shimmed the drive. Cost me $100 for the labour for both the replacing rear drive spline and riveting of rear wheel drive dog. Parts I think were about $250 from motobins. I'm real lucky to have a "old school" airhead shop, as well as a good friend, in our rural, way-out-there location. That's another storey in itself...

moosehead wrote:however, if holes in hub are elongated I would be drilling out a hole slightly larger and use a sized nut and bolt instead...seems pretty straight forward to me.

If there are clearance issues for a nut the size to fit a bolt going into the stock hole, then it would be a much bigger issue with an oversized bolt.

The nice thing about rivets is that, properly installed, they will completely fill that hole, even the hole isn't perfectly round.

moosehead wrote:... I'm real lucky to have a "old school" airhead shop, as well as a good friend, in our rural, way-out-there location. That's another storey in itself...

You are fortunate indeed, Moose. Perhaps sharing that story (including moodily lit pictures, of course) would be a Good Thing for a forum like Boxerworks.

When the rivets are put in loose and they allow some play, how does one assure that the new spline center is the same as before? If it is off just the smallest part, it will wear very quickly. Check the wear often in the first 25 k miles.

The rivets are not 1/4," as nothing on the bike is SAE. They are 6 mm which is very close to 1/4" but not exact.

Major Softie wrote:The nice thing about rivets is that, properly installed, they will completely fill that hole, even the hole isn't perfectly round.

That's a good point, Major. It makes me wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to try to peen the rivets hot. I'm thinking oxy-acetylene torch applied judiciously to the rivet alone before assembly, but maybe a propane torch would suffice. I'm also thinking that the rivet should be heated to the proverbial cherry red color. Of course the wheel and spline assembly would constitute a pretty big heat sink and might cool the rivet way too fast, and a rivet that small is going to cool pretty fast anyhow. Perhaps a person would also want to judiciously heat the rear wheel hub (to boiling water temperature). This is done all the time anyhow when pulling the rear wheel bearing "stack". My experience with riveting is limited.

Riveting is satisfying if it goes right. A helper would be VERY useful to have around too.


Ken

Ken in Oklahoma wrote:

Major Softie wrote:The nice thing about rivets is that, properly installed, they will completely fill that hole, even the hole isn't perfectly round.

That's a good point, Major. It makes me wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to try to peen the rivets hot. I'm thinking oxy-acetylene torch applied judiciously to the rivet alone before assembly, but maybe a propane torch would suffice. I'm also thinking that the rivet should be heated to the proverbial cherry red color. Of course the wheel and spline assembly would constitute a pretty big heat sink and might cool the rivet way too fast, and a rivet that small is going to cool pretty fast anyhow. Perhaps a person would also want to judiciously heat the rear wheel hub (to boiling water temperature). This is done all the time anyhow when pulling the rear wheel bearing "stack". My experience with riveting is limited.

Riveting is satisfying if it goes right. A helper would be VERY useful to have around too.


Ken

If the rivet is a loose fit, neither spline nor hub will act as a significant heat sink until the first hammer blow or pressing.
The factory procedure may not have involved heat, if pressing was involved.
Cold pressing would be my choice for production line.
'Course that pressing could also involve hammering hydraulics.

A helper is very handy when it comes to holding the setting tool. (saves yer thumbs)