pawtracks
Well-known member
I came out of Wendy's tonight and two guys were looking at my bike pointing and talking all about it.
Turns out one of them has an 03 FJR.
I told them about the forum, how great it is, wealth of knowledge, etc...
I 've learned much in my 2 short months.
I told them to check it out when they get home.
Like many I bought my FJR sight unseen, never sat on one or anything before owning my 05.
One of the things I really enjoy about the FJR community is the sharing of info, tips, farkles, how-to's, etc...
Here are a few things I will share tonight (maybe it will help someone else out or inspire some ideas).
Got around to my 2nd oil change today.
Maybe a little early at 2500 miles but I had the time and the oil looked a little dark to me.
One of my first posts here was about oil capacity.
This time around I told myself "Self, make sure you change the oil on the sidestand this time to get the little extra bit of old oil out that won't come out on the centerstand"
With the bike nice & warm from an afternoon ride I started with the bike on the centerstand since it is easier to get to the side panel to wrap in aluminum foil, access to the drain plug, etc...
Oil came out nice, no mess.
Took off the filter (more to follow on that)
Everything going along smooth
Remember bike is on centerstand with oil drain pan underneath.
Plan:
Carefully push bike forward to get it off the centerstand
With one foot, I will carefully nudge drain pan forward and place bike on side stand to drain out the extra oil with a goal of not spilling a drop of oil.
Problem:
Drain pan is much to high to fit under bike when off center stand
I basically pushed the bike off the center stand onto the drain pan which wasn't that sturdy.
I felt the bike going over (away from me), heading towards my freshly waxed black car :diablo:
Noooooooooo!
Somehow I grabbed hold of the bike and tried pushing the center stand through the garage floor with everything I had, the bike jumped back on the center stand.
<heart-rate waaaaay up there>
Note to self: The bike is much heavier with a full tank of gas (just filled it up on the was home)
Lesson learned (get a shorter drain pan, measure ground clearance first or leave the extra dirty oil in there next time)
Soooo close to a bonehead move :dribble:
My oil drain pan is 6.5" high at its lowest point, parts of it are 7-7.5" high
15qt capacity Blitz
In my attempt to place the bike on the side stand about 5-10 drops of oil came off the aluminim foil wrapping onto the garage floor. At this point I figured screw-it, I already have a mess so I just put the bike on the side stand to see how much more oil would come out. (no drain pan, straight to the floor)
As you can see, not a whole lot more (side stand vs center stand)
Not sure if getting a shorter pan is worth collecting the extra 3-4 ounces of oil
I told you I would get to the oil filter
I have a small collection of oil filter wrenches (none of which work worth a damn on the FJR filter size)
-Returned one of those plastic ones that is "supposed to" grab the end (didn't work)
-Broke 2 craftsman rubber strap wrenches on my last oil change
-Needed vice grips, a large screw driver and a strap wrench to get the last filter off.
-I only put this filter on hand tight last time (how did it get so tight??)
Even at the smallest setting my smallest wrench is too big
I need something to wrap the filter in to make the filter wrench grab tightly.
What do I have??? Hmmmm...
Found a lonely glove sitting on the freezer, other glove long been lost (why do I still have this?)
Just kind of put the glove over the filter and tighten the wrench around the filter
Works perfectly, now I have a filter wrench that works on the FJR!
I knew there was a reason I hadn't thrown that glove out
While I had my camera out I figured I would take some sightglass photos.
Many people ask about oil level in the sightglass.
After draining as much out as I could on the sidestand and a filter change I refilled with 4.25 qts.
With the bike on the center stand, everything tightened back up, I started it up and let it run for about 2 minutes.
Your oil level may differ but this is what mine looked like:
-Main picture sight glass (almost empty with bike running)
-Turned bike off, this is what my sight glass looked like at:
-15 seconds, 1 minute & 5 minutes
Turns out one of them has an 03 FJR.
I told them about the forum, how great it is, wealth of knowledge, etc...
I 've learned much in my 2 short months.
I told them to check it out when they get home.
Like many I bought my FJR sight unseen, never sat on one or anything before owning my 05.
One of the things I really enjoy about the FJR community is the sharing of info, tips, farkles, how-to's, etc...
Here are a few things I will share tonight (maybe it will help someone else out or inspire some ideas).
Got around to my 2nd oil change today.
Maybe a little early at 2500 miles but I had the time and the oil looked a little dark to me.
One of my first posts here was about oil capacity.
This time around I told myself "Self, make sure you change the oil on the sidestand this time to get the little extra bit of old oil out that won't come out on the centerstand"
With the bike nice & warm from an afternoon ride I started with the bike on the centerstand since it is easier to get to the side panel to wrap in aluminum foil, access to the drain plug, etc...
Oil came out nice, no mess.
Took off the filter (more to follow on that)
Everything going along smooth
Remember bike is on centerstand with oil drain pan underneath.
Plan:
Carefully push bike forward to get it off the centerstand
With one foot, I will carefully nudge drain pan forward and place bike on side stand to drain out the extra oil with a goal of not spilling a drop of oil.
Problem:
Drain pan is much to high to fit under bike when off center stand
I basically pushed the bike off the center stand onto the drain pan which wasn't that sturdy.
I felt the bike going over (away from me), heading towards my freshly waxed black car :diablo:
Noooooooooo!
Somehow I grabbed hold of the bike and tried pushing the center stand through the garage floor with everything I had, the bike jumped back on the center stand.
<heart-rate waaaaay up there>
Note to self: The bike is much heavier with a full tank of gas (just filled it up on the was home)
Lesson learned (get a shorter drain pan, measure ground clearance first or leave the extra dirty oil in there next time)
Soooo close to a bonehead move :dribble:
My oil drain pan is 6.5" high at its lowest point, parts of it are 7-7.5" high
15qt capacity Blitz
In my attempt to place the bike on the side stand about 5-10 drops of oil came off the aluminim foil wrapping onto the garage floor. At this point I figured screw-it, I already have a mess so I just put the bike on the side stand to see how much more oil would come out. (no drain pan, straight to the floor)
As you can see, not a whole lot more (side stand vs center stand)
Not sure if getting a shorter pan is worth collecting the extra 3-4 ounces of oil
I told you I would get to the oil filter
I have a small collection of oil filter wrenches (none of which work worth a damn on the FJR filter size)
-Returned one of those plastic ones that is "supposed to" grab the end (didn't work)
-Broke 2 craftsman rubber strap wrenches on my last oil change
-Needed vice grips, a large screw driver and a strap wrench to get the last filter off.
-I only put this filter on hand tight last time (how did it get so tight??)
Even at the smallest setting my smallest wrench is too big
I need something to wrap the filter in to make the filter wrench grab tightly.
What do I have??? Hmmmm...
Found a lonely glove sitting on the freezer, other glove long been lost (why do I still have this?)
Just kind of put the glove over the filter and tighten the wrench around the filter
Works perfectly, now I have a filter wrench that works on the FJR!
I knew there was a reason I hadn't thrown that glove out
While I had my camera out I figured I would take some sightglass photos.
Many people ask about oil level in the sightglass.
After draining as much out as I could on the sidestand and a filter change I refilled with 4.25 qts.
With the bike on the center stand, everything tightened back up, I started it up and let it run for about 2 minutes.
Your oil level may differ but this is what mine looked like:
-Main picture sight glass (almost empty with bike running)
-Turned bike off, this is what my sight glass looked like at:
-15 seconds, 1 minute & 5 minutes
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