| Author | Message | ||
     Ingemar |
After 1,5 weeks of flu followed by 2 weeks with a lung infection I'm ready to roll into spring. The bike needs service (motor/tranny oil, filter, new sparks and new brake pads front) which is planned for saturday. Tomorrow I'll go for my first spring ride with my cousin. We'll be going to a Aprilia demo day. Yes I'm curious about the tuono. I'll let you know what my findings are. Now for saturday, what do you guys do to get all the oil out of the engine and tranny? I know what the manual says but some of you may have found ways to do it better or get more of the old stuff outta there. The manual seems pretty straight forward on the front brake pads. Anything beyond that can help me on this? Thanks guys! | ||
| M1combat |
I place a 2X4 under the kick stand. That pretty much stands the bike straight up. After doing that, I always end up using the entire one quart in the primary. If it's windy, be careful as there's not much weight on the kick stand and a gust would most likely blow the bike over. I generally use a rolled up piece of paper for a funnel to a gallon milk jug for the engine oil. DO NOT use a transmission funnel. The tube is too small and the funnel will fill up, prompting you to need to put the plug back in the bike to buy some time to let the oil drain. You may then drop the plug into the transmission funnel and completely plug it. In this situation, the oil will continue to flow at a good rate. Right onto the concrete. You will then need to fish the plug out of the hot oil while yelling curses that you didn't even realize that you knew. THEN, you can stick your finger in the drain hole when you can't get the plug out. This causes another little problem... A burnt finger AND the fact that not only do you have to wait at least five minutes in a very awkward position (with your finger still burning), but you STILL have to remove your finger and let more drain out and hope that THIS time you can actually get to the plug. After this is complete, wipe the excess oil (LOTS of it) from the rear of the exhaust and then go get a bucket of water and soap along with a dish scrubber to clean 2.5 quarts of oil off the concrete. To review... Make SURE your funnel has a high enough flow rate. | ||
| Ingemar |
That's funny. I see you have some experience - LOL. This will be my third oil change on the buell. I've got some custom made tools (Oh Yeah Baby!!) for a funnel and catch can. It's my *intension* not to spill over the exhaust this time (we'll see about that). So straightening the bike will get most out of the tranny. How about motor oil? Do you lean it to the right (towards the filter) to get it all out? | ||
| Ingemar |
PS, just sent you a PM  | ||
| M1combat |
I just drain it until it stops draining, then I prop it up onto a 2X4 and I get a little more. I've done it 4-5 times now (only spilled oil ALL OVER THE PLACE the first time ). | ||
| Lpowel02 |
for the engine oil...I have one of those large disposable foil baking dishes (they sell tons of them for turkeys at Christmas or Thanksgiving) that I keep in my garage. I put a piece of tin foil over the end of my muffler to stop oil from getting on it, pop the plug and let it drain. For the tranny...my disposable baking dish is big/deep enough to hold oil from both, so if I'm changing both I slide the dish forward a bit, pop the other plug and let it drain. Once finished, I tip the bike up straight and get a little more. Once everything's drained, I slide the dish out of the way...I have a habit of stepping in things like that...not pretty...  after I refill engine/tranny oil, I bend one corner of the dish into a point and pour all my old oil back into the empty containers that had the new oil in them I then dispose of the old oil...but don't dispose the diposable dish...  ...so it just 'costs' me a piece of foil each time (Message edited by lpowel02 on March 24, 2005) | ||
| Charlieboy6649 |
I use the box the oil filter came in. Crease the top flap and the oil runs down the box into a normal catch basin... Anyone tried putting a little valve in place of the plug??? You could just run tubing out of the valve and into the pan. Open the valve and voila! | ||
| Ejiii |
I do it exactly the way Lpowe102 does it. I use a heavy rubber glove to unscrew the drain plug so I don't get burned with hot oil. Piece of cake! | ||
| 2dflyer |
I quit changing hot oil a few years back. After leaving the vehicle over night I pull the plugs on cold oil and let it drain for 20 minutes while I'm doing other maintenance stuff. Think about it. How much more are you going to get out just cause its scalding hot? | ||
| Al_lighton |
Allan, I don't know about that for Buells, especially tube frame Buells and sportys where the oil tank is substantially higher than the engine sump. It is less to do with the viscosity due to temperature, and more to do with having the oil pumped back into the tank. Oil can drain from the tank overnight, so you're not getting all of it out that you could. Now, on wet sump motors, what you wrote makes plenty of sense. But not on a Buell. That's why you can't check the oil level on a cold Buell, it has to be warmed up so that the tank level is the true oil level. Al | ||
| Ingemar |
Thanks for the tips guys. I didn't get to ride an aprilia today so no news on that. How about changing the brake pads? Any tips on that other than what's in the manual? | ||
| Al_lighton |
Not sure if the manual says to do it or not, but it's a good idea to blast the pistons with brake cleaner BEFORE you start the job. The gunk on the pistons gets pushed back into the bores when you retract the pistons for the new pads, best to clean them before you do that. It's a pretty straightforward job otherwise. Al | ||
| Drift |
Do it with the lights on. | ||
| M1combat |
Good point Al... I never thought of that. Thanks . |
