oil change

[david lee]

i havent ridden my trike for a while and want to change the oil seems it has sumped. no oil on dipstick. my idea is to add some oil to the tank take out the plugs and remove the oil return hose and pump all the oil out of the engine. then change filter and oil. correct procedure ? thanksYou cannot see attachments on this board.

[JW113]

Or... put a pan under the breather hose and fire it up...

-JW

[kd]

Not really advisable. Place a pan under the engine (incase it pukes some from the breather), start it and idle it. Watch through the filler cap for oil returning to the tank. Once it is all back to where it should be take it for a ride to get it hot and Bob's your uncle.  Do a regular oil change. 

If you want to do an oil change that gets rid of the black oil left in the engine system, once you have refilled it with fresh oil, remove the return line and place it in a jug you can see through.  Restart the engine and idle it.  When clear oil starts to flow from the return line shut it off and top it up with the same amount you just pumped out. It'll be the color of clear honey and hard to read on the stick for some time longer than you are used to.

[david lee]

Or... put a pan under the breather hose and fire it up...

-JW

seems to me the breather hose goes to a fitting at the bottom of the horseshoe oil tank next to the supply and return hose

[JW113]

That would be the oil tank vent line. The breather either comes out of a fitting down low on the right side of the crankcase (case breather) behind the oil pump, or from the two air cleaner support bolts on the right side of the heads (head breather). If case breather, the hose either goes up to a fitting on the air cleaner, or, like mine, just to a hose and vents it down to the ground. If you have a head breather motor (93 & later), they typically don't blow oil out the breather hoses in the head if the motor has wet sumped. Either case, just fire it up, and deal with the mess if you have to. It will clear the oil out of the cases on it's own, and not hurt anything. Just don't rev it up until the oil is back in the bag.

-JW

[david lee]

That would be the oil tank vent line. The breather either comes out of a fitting down low on the right side of the crankcase (case breather) behind the oil pump, or from the two air cleaner support bolts on the right side of the heads (head breather). If case breather, the hose either goes up to a fitting on the air cleaner, or, like mine, just to a hose and vents it down to the ground. If you have a head breather motor (93 & later), they typically don't blow oil out the breather hoses in the head if the motor has wet sumped. Either case, just fire it up, and deal with the mess if you have to. It will clear the oil out of the cases on it's own, and not hurt anything. Just don't rev it up until the oil is back in the bag.

-JW

thanks mr jw