Thanks for the quick replys guys. To answer your question SH, the bike has about 7K miles on it and has been ridden mostly in dry conditions. I don't believe the problem ins crud blockage as I get the same result when injecting grease into the zirc on the rear part of the shaft connected to the bevel box which should pose no resistence to the flow of grease when disconnected from the front part of the shaft. Indeed, I can replace the needle with a normal grease gun fitting and freely inject grease into the open area where the forward splines normally fit when the shaft is together.