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Dains Drawings :

Dains Drawings

Updated: May 16, 2013 5:47pm PST

Oil Change 2012 : Oil Change I’ve always wondered about oil changes. You know are they necessary, what’s the reasoning behind it. After a little research it becomes clear that yes we do need to change our oil and on a regular basis. Fist off oil becomes contaminated with dirt, carbon, acids and tiny pieces of metal that any gasoline engine produces as it runs carrying on whatever function it is designed to do In this case carrying us and sometimes a guest around on our latest adventure. I’ve always taken my HD to the dealer to have service done. I thought we could look into an oil change just to see if I(we) could do it at home. I asked our friends at Adventure Harley Davidson If they could give us a little instruction into changing oil in a customer’s new Switchback. Dan there led mechanic takes us on a surprisingly easy but time consuming procedure. It takes a little more time to do things right being methodical and following the correct procedure. First we have to get our oil filters and an O-ring kit. Harley has been taking care of their bikes for decades with oils, filters and parts especially made for Harley Davidson motorcycles. That being said here we go. Dan looks over the work order checking for any special problems or requests by the customer. He then heads over to a rack of baskets each one with numbers corresponding to each work order and checks to double-checks he has the right material. In this case all is well except the customer wanted a black oil filter not a chrome one. With a simple exchange Dan heads over to the one tool he can’t do without his shop manual. I always buy a factory shop manual because I know it’s correct in the info it provides. We look up the oil change specs. Let’s see it takes one quart of for the transmission Quarts of for the motor and the primary requires of . Next Dan lays his supplies out and rolls his trusty tool box next to the lift he be using for the oil change. Time to get the Switch back it too has a work order number taped onto the headlight corresponding to the work order Dan has for this job. He starts the bike up listening for any unusual motor noises letting the bike warm up before putting it on his lift. A lift used safely makes this job much more enjoyable to do. Dan warms the bike up but not to full operating temp as the motor well get to hot to work on. He’ll ride the bike onto the lift fasten it to the lift so it can safely be raised to the proper work height. Dan Places a clean drip pan under the bike. This does a couple of things one it makes it easy to spot an oil leak you know dripping on our clean drip pan and if you always put your drain plugs on your drip pan there easy to find. Our tech uses a cool looking tank on wheels for the used oil. I always keep a empty plastic jug of the right size to put my used motor oil in so I can dispose of it at a local auto parts store in an environmentally correct way. Dan removes all three drain plugs with a 5/8 wrench. As our oil drains our tech cleans the drain plugs and replaces the O- rings on them. With that task done he puts a dab of Teflon paste on the treads just for a little extra protection against those pesky oil leaks. Oil rained he puts the drain plugs back in being careful to not pinch the O-ring seal. It’s time for the new oil. He goes about filling the transmission, motor, and primary with the right amounts of the right oils. Now the oil filter gets changed using a genuine HD filter wrench insures an easier job as it has a cut out on one side of the filter to clear the engine lug that is in the way of the filer wrench. You can use a filter strap wrench but the HD tool in the easiest to use. We fill our black filter with oil putting a dab of clean oil on the O-ring this will help the seal well seal better. Our tech puts the filter back on hand tight. Remember the first time you changes oil in an old truck or car and you had to borrow a X large pair of channel locks to get it off and by the time you got it off you were using four letter words directed to the guy that put it on to tight. Hand tight is good enough. Drain plugs in check the right amount and type of oil back in CHECK and No oil dripping on our clean drip pan CHECK (I use an old cookie sheet for my drip pan and a word of caution don’t give it back to the misses after you used it or the next batch of cookies will taste a little funny and you will be in the dog house again! Well there you have it Dan is ready to start our switchback with one last look for any drip of oil. None so start the bike up let it idle for a little while (enough time to get the oil -flowing, thirty seconds to a minute or so). Our techs checks for oil leaks one more time and tops off the oil levels takes our bike for a short ride and were done. I think it took me longer to write this peace then it did for Dan to do the oil change. Not a hard task but it takes a little time to do it. Me I’m lazy I’ll let our tech do it and then I know it’s done right and I have more time to ride. Racer Rob

Oil Change 2012

Oil Change I’ve always wondered about oil changes. You know are th ...

Updated: Jul 22, 2012 8:13pm PST

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A 32 Ford built with a ton of original hot rod parts.This Duce is in t ...

Updated: Jun 29, 2010 7:37pm PST

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Updated: Jun 29, 2010 6:12pm PST

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Updated: Jun 24, 2010 8:30am PST

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