driveshaft spline wear

[erik]

Has anyone had trouble with the driveshaft spline that the front sprocket connects to?
I've seen a photo of a gsx250 spline that was badly worn. The bandit uses the same method to keep the front sprocket on the drive shaft (a circlip) and I've noticed a reasonable amount of play in my front sprocket. It's not anywhere near as worn as the gsx250 was, but if there is anything I can do now to prevent it getting worse, I'd like to try it.

It seems a bit of a bad design using only a circlip to retain the front sprocket. If it were held more securely, it would not move and wear the spline.


http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e118/edorp/gsx250spline.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e118/edorp/banditspline.jpg

[Zhi]

The shaft on my bike has over 20k miles on it, and the last time I changed the sprockets at 20k, there was little to no wear on the shaft. However, I have heard story about GS500's having the problem you mentioned.  As for the play, are you referring to the sideways play or rotational play?

[erik]

My bike currently has about 50,000km on it (31,000 miles), so if it keeps wearing at the current rate, I'd guess it would last another 50,000km. But eventually it would need a new driveshaft, which would be a major job.
But it bugs me. It's something that shouldn't wear, it is only wearing because of the way it's held on the shaft.

I was refering to the rotational play when I said there was a fair amount. There is also a fair bit of sideways play, but even a new bike would have that (unless the OEM sprockets are wider than the JTF433-14 sprocket?).