Oil Change Demon

Yea. Great assortment of plugs. By the way, Ed..If Goald Coast changed your oil, make sure you check the level. More than once he overfilled by quite a bit (and inch over the top line...about 4 ounces) AND waaaaaay over tightened the dip stick. If he did, use a piece of leather under the pliers, not towel or paper towel. It mars very easily. I'm pretty sure your going to have to extract some like I did. Tubing and a squeeze bulb from the top worked well. Oil extraction kit for 4 stroke outboard motors. siiiiiiiiiigh :roll:

Curtis,

I did check the oil level when I got home.
It's become a ritual for me with the 961.
It was perfect.

I also noticed a new mechanic at the shop who was very thorough, who I spoke with for a while and who sounded like he actually knew quite a bit about the 961.
Good news for sure.

I hope he sticks around because I intend to have the "oil in airbox" fix done in the winter.

The new guy worked on my bike. Actually, quite a good mechanic and willing to spend time with the customer and genuinely loves the bike. Above and beyond regular service......just that damned oil level and wrenching things. Maybe because of all the leaks I had, he wasn't taking any chances with me. Also, if the test ride your bike, make sure he's not wearing boots with buckles all the way up the side. I pointed out the scratches on my primary cover. Steve said its because of my boots. Then he looked down at my sneakers and said......"oh". grrrrrrrrrr

richard-7 said:

I'm sure that richard pearce bike had a hex head when we did the oil change. I remember commenting on it. I bet all the new 961's have it.

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Hello , If that's the case look no further than Auto Zone . I have just had a good look at their selection of M14 x 1.5 pitch drain plugs . There are many to choose from including with a magnet attached and some with built in O-ring . The M14 x 1.5 pitch drain plug is common even automobiles . This may be one of the easier things to find for your bike.

TonyA said:

The M14 x 1.5 pitch drain plug is common even automobiles . This may be one of the easier things to find for your bike.

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Ah, so you know the size already? That's great. I will confirm that dimension when I pull mine.

TonyA said:

The M14 x 1.5 pitch drain plug is common even automobiles . This may be one of the easier things to find for your bike.

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Ah, so you know the size already? That's great. I will confirm that dimension when I pull mine.

I don't know if this will help anyone, but I figured out how to drain the oil without coating the X-pipe. I bought a set of square, sturdy, shallow paper plates at the grocery store. I cut a drain slot and shoved it above the X-pipe and underneath the drain plug before unscrewing the drain plug. It was very tedious turning the drain plug in small increments with the plate below my wench, but it saved my X-pipe from getting coated with oil while hot. "No muss, no fuss"? ... pretty close.

Good idea. I'll use that next time. Thanks.

Thanks. Good tip. Over the years I've found most people that know how to do a job usually have to make some of their own tools to do a job quicker, cleaner or more efficiently. I know I have had to often. Sharing tips like these and of course Richards manuals eliminates a lot of grief for all of us. So far the handiest tip I have to pass along for service work on my 961 is using my "Pit Bull" front stand with a standard pin to go into the bottom of the neck stem to raise and work on the front end of the bike. You can buy different pins to fit different bikes and the pin that fits the Norton was one I already had for one of my Ducati's. Other little tips include starting hard to reach spark plugs by sticking them into a 4" piece of stiff rubber hose and threading them into the head easily without damaging threads or plugs. Save old license plates to bend as needed for protective shields while you're working on something close to what you want to protect, draining fluids, grinding, spray lubing drive chain, etc.. Of course then you run the chance of being a "pack rat" like me. Geeze, don't throw anything away, you might need that one of these days. Any tool I make that does a specific job well will be kept and reused. I've found my garage and my toolbox have to have special places for tools for each specific bike. So many tools work for one purpose and nothing else.
Charlie

I'll do anything to avoid a mess. Funny thing happened this morning after I so neatly drained the oil. I removed the drain plug again to take with me for sizing up a replacement. As soon as it dropped a gush of oil came out with it. :shock: I had to scramble for my drain pan and some rags! So much for the clean X-pipe. Must have been the stuff still in the frame.

cehenard said:

Of course then you run the chance of being a "pack rat" like me. Geeze, don't throw anything away, you might need that one of these days.

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My wife is determined to cure me of this, unfortunately. :roll:

While I am back on this thread I need to pose a question. On Tony A's suggestion for an immediate solution I went to the local auto parts store and found a suitable substitute for the stripped drain plug. But I also found one with a magnetic tip that I'd really like to use except the shank length is about 8 mm longer than the original. Does someone know if this will interfere with anything? The shorter one and the original are about 12mm long below the head. The magnetic plug is about 20mm.

I thought better of using a drain plug that was so much longer. Instead I ordered a Gold Plug MP-02T on Amazon.COM - a shank length of 14mm.



In the meantime I will use the smaller, cheaper drain plug I got at Advance Auto. It fits nicely and using a 17mm open end wrench to tighten it was so much easier than trying to fit a 6mm Allen wrench at a 70° angle where the X-pipe splits!

I am not done, however. I still cannot get the transmission filler cap loose. Whoever did the first oil change at MCC has no concept of "hand tight". This is really annoying. :x

My 500+ mile oil change will finally get done today. Two over-tightened screws have cost me a lot of time and a little money. I can't explain what happened while they had my bike for 6 months, but in the future I will look to anyone other than MCC for any service I can't do myself.

My real bitch is the Factory insists we allow the incompetent asses touch these one of a kind Motorcycles. Oh and they slap "Ducati" stickers on replacement parts and add $140 to the price. And insist we buy to keep them open.

contours said:

I thought better of using a drain plug that was so much longer. Instead I ordered a Gold Plug MP-02T on Amazon.COM - a shank length of 14mm.

In the meantime I will use the smaller, cheaper drain plug I got at Advance Auto. It fits nicely and using a 17mm open end wrench to tighten it was so much easier than trying to fit a 6mm Allen wrench at a 70° angle where the X-pipe splits!

I am not done, however. I still cannot get the transmission filler cap loose. Whoever did the first oil change at MCC has no concept of "hand tight". This is really annoying. :x

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Contours,Are you sure your plug has a 17mm head?
Amazon spec lists a 13mm head to MP-02T plug.

BritTwit said:

In the meantime I will use the smaller, cheaper drain plug I got at Advance Auto. It fits nicely and using a 17mm open end wrench to tighten it was so much easier than trying to fit a 6mm Allen wrench at a 70° angle where the X-pipe splits!

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Contours,Are you sure your plug has a 17mm head?
Amazon spec lists a 13mm head to MP-02T plug.
[/quote]

BritTwit, I'm pretty sure I was referring to the temporary plug I bought at Advance Auto. The GoldPlug had not arrived yet. :wink:

BritTwit said:

Just about to do an oil change on my 961 CR.

First snag: Found that I can’t get an allen wrench up between the X-Pipe and the sump plug.
The SBN X-Pipe blocks the head of the plug from all angles.

Backup plan “B”:
Remove SBN silencers, and X-Pipe to access sump plug.

Next snag – I can’t get the X-Pipe free of the header pipes. Wiggle to the right, wiggle to the left, wiggle up wiggle down, over, and over, and nothing.
Tried whacking it with a rubber mallet, and extension, no movement.
Appears the techs at my dealer's shop applied liberal amounts of sealant on the exhaust joints. Now they are virtually welded tight.

Backup plan “C”:



Any suggestion from 961 owners who have encountered, and defeated this maintenance demon?

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at the factory we use a stubby 6mm Alen key

Mmmmmm! How is it that the simplest of tasks has the ability to go pear shaped - ya gotta laugh! The dealer serviced my CR in the past but is no longer interested. No problem, I’ll do it myself right!

First issue - the sump plug. Before I attempted to remove it I had a look-see at it’s condition. It’s chewed up enough that I’m really surprised that the mechanic re-used it.



Can’t get a standard 6 mm Allan key/or bit through the X-pipe as we know, so found a stubby Allan key that fits. Good news, there was still enough depth in the plug to get a good purchase. Bad news, it’s FT (f#@*^g tight)’ - tight enough to twist/distort the cheapish Alan key. No way it’s budging. No matter, I’ll remove the exhaust to gain better accesss.

2nd issue - Same as BT above. Silencers off but x-pipe is solid to down pipes, looks like some sort of sealant used. Really don’t want to start bending tabs or hammering away - nor removing oxygen sensors and disconnecting headers. Just more potential for problems.

So, gonna shorten a good quality Alan Key with an angle grinder and try again. Failing that its exhaust off at the headers, remove bottom plate (housing the sump plug) to dump oil and get at the old sump plug - a little heat may assist!

To throw a few Q’s to the brains trust if I may:

- No mention in the manual about running the engine before draining oil. What are you self servicers doing?

- Loosening oxygen sensors serves to rotate the sensor cables - does the tank need to come off to disconnect the other end of the cable first?

- I don’t intend to strip the one way valve/strainer crimped into the feed line (to the oil pump). Is this usually part of the service?

Thanks guys

Stephen_Spencer said:

- No mention in the manual about running the engine before draining oil. What are you self servicers doing?

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Warm oil drains out better than cold oil , so warm up first .

Stephen_Spencer said:

- Loosening oxygen sensors serves to rotate the sensor cables - does the tank need to come off to disconnect the other end of the cable first?

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It is hard to get to the O2 sensors connectors with the gas tank on.

Stephen_Spencer said:

- I don’t intend to strip the one way valve/strainer crimped into the feed line (to the oil pump). Is this usually part of the service?

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Yes , Cleaning the screen should be part of the oil change service . If you don't have the crimping tool or new bands , you can use quality hose clamps . I replace mine with hose clamps.