Tag Archives: filter

Oil Sump & Strainer Cleaning

Posted on by motopsyco

Alright! You’ve got your latest barn/field/junkyard find home, it still had good compression, so after cleaning the carbs, topping off the oil and putting in fresh gas it actually fired up and ran okay. Yeehaa! now comes the hard part, do not immediately go running in the house to scour the internet looking for the thousands of dollars worth of parts & accessories you need to restore or customize your new to you machine, there is one more thing you must do to be sure that you don’t need to tear the engine down to bare cases, or perhaps just throw the whole damn thing in the trash. Most vintage Japanese & British machines have an oil sump (oil pan to some of you) strainer, that has probably never even been looked at since the machine left the factory. For this lesson we are going to remove the oil sump (pan) from my personal 1980 Honda CB650 and see what we find inside. After a few minutes running time  & a valve adjustment this old thing has less the 8 p.s.i. difference in compression from the lowest to highest cylinder, I can live with that, if there is nothing wrong in the bottom end. Lets have a look shall we.  First if you have a lift put it up on the lift securely.

1980 Honda CB50 on Harbor Freight Motorcycle lift

Let the serious work begin!

The mufflers are off of mine because I am planning on binning them anyway, it is not necessary to remove them for this job on this motorcycle.  On some bikes it may be required, refer to your service manual for details.

Locate the oil drain plug,

Honda CB650 oil sump drain plug

the location of the drain plug & oil pan bolts

and remove it with the appropriate wrench and drain the oil into a catch pan.

Honda CB650 Drain Plug Location

be sure to catch the aluminum sealing washer.

Since this involves changing the oil you might as well go ahead & change the filter too. On these old air cooled Hondas the filter is a cartridge in this housing on the front of the engine.

Honda SOHC Four oil filter housing

Oh no! this bolt has pliers marks on it. Not cool.

Remove the filter and housing, be sure to move the catch pan so that it catches the oil from the housing.

removing the oil filter bolt

removing the oil filter bolt

Now move to the bottom of the machine and begin loosening the bolts on the sump. The CB650 has 10 bolts that are all the same size & length, so all I have to do is don’t lose any. If you motorcycle has different size or length bolts holding the sump on be sure to note which bolts go into which holes.

the motopsyco hard at work

the motopsyco hard at work

Before you completely remove the last bolt and thus the sump be sure you slide the drain pan back into place beneath the engine.

Before you rush to dump the oil pan set it on the bench and have a good look at the goo stuck in the bottom of it. This will tell you a lot about the health of your engine. Believe it or not the crappy looking mess in the picture below is actually what you hope to find.

inside the CB650 oil pan

inside the CB650 oil pan

This one has a thick coat of clutch dust & what ever dirt that got into the engine & settled out of the oil, what I don’t see are any pieces of gear teeth or metal shavings that indicate an serious problem with the engine or transmission. Now take a magnet & swish it around in the muck to see if it picks up anything. Mine came back clean this time. This is no 100% guarantee that all is well with the transmission etc. but it does make me feel better about buying the parts needed to get it ride-able.

<cb 650 oil sump craftsman magnet tool>

Now it is time to inspect & clean the strainer screen.

location of oil strainer Honda CB650

location of oil strainer Honda CB650

While you are down ther3 have a peek up into the engine to see how everything looks.

<inside the bottom of a Honda engine>

this all looks good in here

On a CB650 slide the drain pan back under the engine & pull down on the strainer, it should slide out.

remove CB650 sump strainer

just pull it straight down.

Once you get it out carefully inspect the screen and if it is damaged or loose replace it. If it looks good wash it out in the parts washer.

1980 CB650 oi sump screen

Inspect the strainer & its o-rings if you have any doubt about their condition, replace them.

Now you just have to clean everything up inspect & replace all gaskets & o-rings as needed, and reassemble everything in reverse order installing a new oil filter & fresh oil. NOw you know that you have one less thing to worry about.

Peace ‘Yall

2006 V-Star 650 Basic oil and plug change.

Posted on by motopsyco

Hello Everyone!

Yes I have been having lots of fun lately, but every now and then you gotta do some work. Let’s turn our attention back to the motorcycling world a bit and I’ll give you a nice meaty maintenance how to for the 2006 Yamaha V-Star 650 pictured above. This is a low mileage bike that is in for a basic oil & spark plug change. I am going to do this down on the ground without using a lift, just like the majority of you who do this yourself will.

First lie down on the left side of the bike and identify the oil drain plug on the side of the block.

This 17mm plug will be a lot easier to remove if you have an obstruction wrench like this, but might be able to be done with a normal box end. (I didn’t try sorry)

These 2 shots show the wrench on the plug for removal to give you a better idea of where it is.

Next to get to the oil filter you have to remove this fake “derby” cover.

Now you can access all 5 of the bolts holding the oil filter cover on.

This long handled ball end Allen wrench is optional but I am glad to have it for jobs like this.

Here’s the back side of the cover showing the location of the long bolt in the center.

Be sure you pay close attention to how the oil filter sits in the crankcase so that you put the new one back in the same way.

Here’s the other end of the filter.

Be sure to clean this hole out well with a CLEAN lint free shop rag.

When you are cleaning the oil filter cover inspect the o-ring thoroughly and if you have any doubt about its condition replace it. Absolutely, under no circumstances should you use any type of sealer here.

The new oil filter is sitting in place.

This shot shows the location of the long bolt on the front of the oil filter cover.

While you are putting the drain plug back in make note of the oil sight glass. For reasons I will explain later I despise these archaic things, especially on bikes without a centerstand. But this engine is actually a detuned and over decorated direct descendant of the best air cooled 1980’s Japanese cruiser to ever exist the Virago, so I understand why this engine has one.

On top of the left crankcase you will find the oil filler cap, take it off, insert a good clean funnel and pour in 2 ½ quarts of any good brand of oil the meets the minimum API standards for the engine. Put the cap back on and get your lovely assistant straddle the bike and hold it straight up and check the oil level in the sight glass. It should be over the top of the glass at this point.

Start the engine and let it run at idle for just a minute and then shut it off.  Once again have your stunning, ravishing, gorgeous, assistant hold the bike in a vertical position and verify the level of oil in the sight glass and if needed add more until it is at least halfway up the sight glass as shown here.

Let me add a slight disclaimer, when checking the oil level resist the urge to nibble on you beautiful assistants ankle, she might be ticklish and drop the motorcycle on your head.

At this point I am ready to replace the spark plugs, first gather your tools and parts. Because the plugs are recessed so deeply into the heads I recommend the use of either a locking extension as shown here or a factory plug wrench.

If you tend to be ham fisted, I am going to urge you to get a service manual and use a torque wrench to tighten the plugs to their specified torque values, because aluminum heads are easy to strip out. I warned you so be careful not to over-tighten your spark plugs.

Here’s a shot of an original plug next to an new plug.

Once you get the first head done, it is time repeat the process on the other cylinder.

Put the wires back on, hit the starter button and go for a ride!

Don’t forget to properly dispose of the old filter and recycle your oil!

Peace Y’all