Oil change tricks | Yamaha SR500 Forum

miker
Senior Member

1978 SR500E

Posts: 341

Oil change tricks Oct 25, 2007 9:56:25 GMT -5

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Post by miker on Oct 25, 2007 9:56:25 GMT -5

Finally did it without making a mess yesterday.

1. Bike on centerstand with front wheel turned to left, remove front downtube drain bolt while holding oil pan in the air in front of it. Catch stream, gradually lower pan to ground as stream weakens. When done, replace bolt.

2. Bike on sidestand. Remove bleed screw, then unscrew lower allen bolt a bit to allow filter cavity to drain. Then remove cover and wipe any small drip that starts. Tilt bike towards me to finish draining last bit. Replace filter, cover, and bleed screw. (Almost forgot to put the new filter in!)

3. Bike back on centerstand. Oil pan behind centerstand with pour spout supported on centerstand crosspiece. (That's where it likes to drip at the end.) Remove sump drain plug and drain, tilt bike onto back wheel to finish. Replace plug.

4. Pour new oil in.

That's it! No mess for once. The sidestand trick helped a lot.

(I did the screens when I got the bike, probably will only check them every few years unless there's a funny noise.)

miker

Last Edit: Oct 25, 2007 9:57:54 GMT -5 by miker

StewRoss
Senior Member

Posts: 2,334

Oil change tricks Oct 26, 2007 3:30:48 GMT -5

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Post by StewRoss on Oct 26, 2007 3:30:48 GMT -5

Yes, with practice you will not get any oil on the bike at all.

I do the lot on the centre stand. I tape a piece of cardboard shaped in a V to below the downtube drain and also beneath the filter housing. All oil runs off into the container and not onto the cover or the sump plate.

Completely remove the lower filter cover bolt and it drains the filter nicely.

SR

...'Any unnecessary items on the bike, that it doesn't really need, shouldn't be there!'. (Café racers creed). SR...

fe2cruz
Junior Member

Posts: 43

Oil change tricks Oct 29, 2007 1:07:02 GMT -5

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Post by fe2cruz on Oct 29, 2007 1:07:02 GMT -5

Before my next one I'm gonna cut up the top of a
few of my empty oil quarts and tape one to the
frame; to make like a reverse funnel catch/skirt.
I think a kinda front wheel fender wide banana
shape might work the best. It should have enough
room to get my ratchet& socket in from under and
out easy quick. Either that or someone needs to
design an oil pan with an adjustable vertical catch
shield (like a urinal you can bend and reshape).

I found a 24mm bent box end wrench cheap from
JCwhitney for the drain plug. A metric SET was $11.
It fit great because I have a lot of mess in the way
on my bike. The straight box end in the toolkit had
no space to move.

Next time I will remember to have a spare rag to
wipe the oil drip from from the bleeder over the
filter. It didn't shoot out when i opened it slowly
to get any remaning air out of the system. But it
did drip on my exhaust.

I used a candy thermometer to measure the oil
temp after riding it a few miles to get everything
circulated. I just swapped it in quick with the stock
dipstick after shutting off the bike. Its pretty accurate.
Its a bit harder to find these cheap now though.
Most places only sell really crappy ones that don't
show proper temperatures or fancy digital ones that
need batteries.

Wish we didn't have to change the oil so often, but
otherwise no biggie. If you still make wind up making
a mess thats what hotel towels are for!