Oil strainer screen - worth removing?

[Guest]

So I've removed my oil pan and the old gasket came off pretty easy without sticking to the engine or the pan. It felt really brittle but it came off almost entirely in one piece. One small piece stuck to the engine but I was able to get it off without too much trouble.

Is it worth removing the oil screen to clean it or anything? My Haynes manual says the screws,phillip's head, are supposed to be installed with locking fluid and it sure feels like that's what happened 'cause they're not budging.

Normally, I clean everything I can when I do a job on the bike, but I'm inclined to leave the screen as it is. I don't see any pieces or flakes on it.

Is leaving it in a bad idea?

Also, check out the pan when I removed it -



It sure had a lot of gunk in it! I think this gasket is the original so, I dunno, is this alot of gunk for a 30-year-old bike? Don't know if you can see that little bit of gasket that fell in there. I think that was my valve job of a couple of years back!



I washed the oil pan thoroughly - it was even worse on the outside!

[JEEPRUSTY]

I wonder is one can backwash the sump filter by accessing through an oil gallery passage.

I have taken mine off once and it had a very few tiny wee bits of metal along with a few tiny gobs of sealant.

If a metal bit is a sliver I suppose it could eventually wnd its way past the mesh.

My mesh is spot welded to the pickup in three places so its not perfectly sealed to begin with.

[kdo58]

I used vise grips to break the screws loose than used a short screw driver,

[oldgsfan]

So, when you guys re-installed the screen, did you use loctite on the screws?

[JEEPRUSTY]

I used me some blue stuff.

[oldgsfan]

Thanks! Switched to the home repair project for the evening, but tomorrow I'll take a crack at removing that screen before I install the new gasket.

[Mekanix]

Electric impact gun and #3 philips works great! and yeah its worth adding a little bit of blue locktite and 10mm bolts instead of the screws.

After that screen is the oil pump, after that is the filter cavity.
The only thing getting damaged is the oil pump if something gets by the screen. The filter should take care of the rest as long as it doesn't go into bypass from being clogged.

You could backflush it by removing the oil pump and feeding back that way but it would be less work to take the screen off.

[Eli69]

the last one i did had quite a bit of gunk stuck in the screen. i used an impact driver w/ phillips bit. just a couple whacks to break the screws loose. also used medium loctite.

[daturat100r]

just cleaned mine while had sump off to helicoil plug thread.screen was pretty chocka full of rag lint and had to lie the bike over to get impact driver at the screws

[chuck hahn]

Remove it and add some semi permanent loctite when you install it. The cleaner you can get it means the better the oil cirulates in the engine...and without restrictions.


If your leary about removing it, maybe a shop vac with as small an adapter as possible will suck the gunk out of it.

[SqDancerLynn1]

There are some O rings in there too... On the oil pump that should be replaced..

[sparki]

also.... keep an eye out for the o-ring inside the sump... renew and replace

[TeamDar]

also.... keep an eye out for the o-ring inside the sump... renew and replace

Now there you go confusing people. The sump in question is from a GS850. No O ring in the sump.

[Steve]

Also, check out the pan when I removed it -



I dunno, is this alot of gunk for a 30-year-old bike?

Oh, I don't know, why don't you tell me?

This is from a 850 I had for a while that was "catch and release".




Fortunately, it cleaned out very easily. Simply running the solvent (kerosene) over the sludge took it away, I only had some very light brushing to do in the corners.



.

[oldgsfan]

OK, these little bastards almost had me beat and I almost gave up - but after about an hour that seemed more like two I finally managed to get all three screws out so I could remove the screen.



I tried the impact driver with a phillips bit but I couldn't get enough leverage and not enough room in the garage to lay my bike down so I could really whack at it.

I tried the vice grips and, at first, no luck. So I went back and forth for about the next hour between the two - and sometimes just lay there staring at those damn screws wishing really hard they would just fall out.

Removed my exhaust so I could get more room to work and went at it with the vice grips again...then, presto, there was a slight crack sound and the screw came right out. After the first one gave it up, I knew I could get the other two - they only took about 15 minutes.

The screen was actually pretty clean. But I think it's always better to know for sure.

Thanks for all the advice - This week I'll be putting it all back together after work hours.