Changing The Motor Oil With A Skidplate Installed

January 2, 2011

This past summer, (2010), I shot new photographs of my technique of changing the motor oil in my DL-650 with a SW-Motech skidplate installed.

I roll the motorcycle up on to its centerstand. (I modified my SW-Motech centerstand by welding extra “feet” on to the “soles” of the OEM feet, so it is nearly 3/4″ taller then a stock SW-Motech centerstand.)

I loosen the two rear bolts that hold up the aft end of the SW-Motech skidplate. ( 13mm)

I press the aft end of the skidplate to the floor.

I loosen my oil filler cap to let air vent into the crankcase as the old oil drains out.

I loosen the oil drain plug…..  ( 14mm )

….then slide a modified, one gallon solvent can underneath the motor, and finish unscrewing the drain plug; letting the old motor oil drain into my homemade “catch can”.

When the oil appears to be drained out, I rock the bike, “up and down”; pivoting off of the centerstand, to “jiggle” more oil out of the crankcase.

I then reinstall the oil drain plug and tighten it up.

Next I slide the “catch can” up the incline of the skidplate and underneath the oil filter.

Using a Suzuki OEM filter wrench and a 17mm socket, I loosen the oil filter…

…just enough to let the oil in the filter drain out into the “catch can”, BEFORE I completely remove the oil filter from the motor housing.

When the oil filter is empty, I remove it from the motor and drop it into a modified laundry detergent container to drain more.

I inspect the oil filter area of the motor to make sure that the gasket from the old filter hasn’t been left behind, and that the area is free from dirt.

I have only used OEM Suzuki oil filters on my motorcycle.  At 84,000 miles in 4 years, why change now?

And, I follow the directions printed on the side of the filter.

Before installing the new oil filter, I will wipe some fresh oil around the new gasket…

….and cinch it down as per the printed instructions on the side of the oil filter. (Refer to photograph above.).

I will fill the crankcase with fresh oil.  (As with the oil filter, I have only used Suzuki 4 stroke motor oil in my bike, for the same reasons that I use their oil filter.)

I usually overfill the crankcase just a little bit….

….because I know that when I start the motor…. (Don’t you just love the “factory look” of my cockpit instruments and layout?)

….the sightglass will show “low” after the oil has made its way around to all of the “nooks and crannies” of the motor and has filled the oil filter.

I then top up the crankcase to the proper level.

The waste oil I drain into a laundry detergent container.

During the winter months, I take all of my used motor oil to my local motorcycle dealership so that they can burn it in their service department furnace.

I then re-attach the rear end of the SW-Motech skidplate and I am ready for another 3 – 4,000 miles.