Question. I was under the impression that the early (79,80) Black wheel spline was the one to get. Stay away from gold, silver ones. So are the later Intruder Volusia wheel spline the hot set up? There cheaper and easier to find... But are they just as good or better than the black ones?
The later silver splines are fine. They're just as good as the black splines.
I think for a while there very few of us had seen the later silver splines side by side with the gold splines and color balance in digital photography was iffy, so it was hard to tell the difference.
The History of the Spline
If you do a bit of diving in the parts fiches, you can find the following:
In the original '79 GS850 fiche, this part number was 64681-45100, and the "pegs" were listed separately. There was a recall of some sort related to these pegs or the retention hardware. I've got an NOS recall kit on the shelf with a replacement black spline and hardware, and instructions for replacing the old driven spline. Not sure what exactly happened or what the issue was.
In 1980, the spline became one unit and was black. At some point in late '81, this part became the infamous "soft" splines used in all shafties through 1984. This part was later superceded through a couple of other part numbers on the Intruders (700, 750, and 800, Volusia), 1990-93 VX800, and 1991-93 GSX1100G until 64680-45113 appeared in 1995. This is the part number still in use today on Suzuki's C50/S50 (805cc) cruisers.
From what I can tell, the spline was only a problem on the late '81-'84 GS shafties. On all others, it was never much of an issue, even on the powerful GSX1100G. (The 1400+cc Intruders and the M109 use a different driven spline unit.)
The early (1986-1994) Intruder splines used a different part number, but interchange with the GS version. Overall, I'd be most comfortable with the 1995 or later spline, but any Intruder, VX800, etc. spline in good shape should be fine. As with any used part, it's possible that someone abused or didn't maintain it and you can't always tell much from photos unless the spline is out of the wheel, as demonstrated above.
Basically, the spline unit in the early '80s was not hardened correctly or was incorrectly designed. Some feel it's supposed to be a sacrificial part, and they simply made it, uh, too sacrificial. Or it could have been a problem with the hardening process.
In any case, the fact remains that on any GS shaftie with a gold driven spline, the driven spline WILL fail, no exceptions. Update it pronto, or cultivate friends with pickups.
