To drain, or not to drain.....

[Guest]

I ordered a generator side gasket for my 1100E, and the guy shipped me the wrong one, I got a an 8-valve gasket. Of course, I already drained the oil, pulled the cover and cleaned all the RTV (thanks PO) from the gasket surfaces.

While tyring to negotiate him shipping me the correct gasket, I wanted to fire the bike to see how my carb rebuild worked out, and I found that the 8-valve gasket is a close fit and that with a little trimming would bolt up and (I guessed) hold oil.

The good news is that it did hold oil, and I did get the correct gasket. Now I want to swap the gaskets, and I need to know if I have to drain all that new Rotella, or if I can pull the cover without making my garage look like the Gulf coast from a couple years ago?

I know I can drain it, and then funnel it back into the motor once the swap is done, but I'd rather not if I don't have to.

[GateKeeper]

Lean it over to the other side, remove and replace your old gasket with the new one, you might lose a little bit of oil if any

it's how it works on my bike....

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[spyug]

Well if you can lean the bike over to the right, you can get away with it. You might stand the risk of dropping the bike or damaging it in some way so I wouldn't recommend it. Do it right and save yourself some agro, drain and refill when done.

Good luck with it.

Spyug.

[Larry D]

I'd lean it over. Do you have someone around that can hold onto the bike as it's leaned to the right ? Heck, prop it up against the wall or something, it won't ake 5 minutes to swap them out.

[koolaid_kid]

I pulled the stator cover multiple times on my 1100E with it on the center stand and only lost a few drops of oil each time. No leaning required, no draining required. Just put it on the center stand.

[Steve]

Just put a 2x4 under the left pad of the centerstand. Plenty stable that way.





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