Quote:
Originally Posted by anomolli
Does everyone here pretty much change their own oil and filter? I've been reading through this forum as well as the service manual and it seems like the initial task takes a bit of investment on my part.
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All investments in tools pay for themselves very very quickly. Usually the first time you use them (depends on the tool, of course).
Have you seen what shop labor rates are?
Besides the financial incentive, greater familiarity with your bike is an excellent reason to spin your own wrenches. Nothing in the world beats understanding your machine.
Tool tips FWIW:
- Buy the maintenance manual. You can also get it online for free if you hunt around. You WILL NEED IT eventually.
- Do not buy cheap-a$$ tools from the dollar store. Ever. Craftsman (Sears) are not the greatest, but they've got a lifetime, no-questions warranty. You break a tool, take it back to the store an they give you a new one. The tool catalog makes good bathroom reading....
- Those unfamiliar with tools routinely overtighten fasteners, and that can be a BAD thing. Buy a decent torque wrench. The click type, not the beam-and-pointer type. It'll cost you a lot, but a stripped-out oil pan or cylinder head is WAY more expensive. Buy quality, buy it once, and be done with it. My Sears digitork is, if I recall, now over 20 years old (they still make the exact same wrench) and paid for itself years ago.
Read the directions. Somebody posted recently (here or on KF) that he thought the torque wrench would let go completely and spin freely when he reached the torque value. So he kept pulling and pulling and pulling... you get the picture. USE YOUR BRAIN. Don't be that guy.
- If you just can't do a torque wrench yet, here's a trick:
When you're tightening the bolt, get the socket (or wrench) on the fastener and shift your grip so you're pulling the wrench with just the tips of one or two fingers. Tighten until you feel significant pressure in your fingertips... say, until the tips of your fingers start to turn pale. Each finger you use is good for about ten foot-pounds.
This is sort of a poor man's torque wrench. The idea is you can only pull the wrench so hard before your fingers pop off. The fewer fingers you've got on it, the lower the torque.
For your drain plug and oil filter cover bolts use two fingers. When you reach torque, STOP! Don't give it "just one more yank to be sure."
This is horribly crude, but it will help prevent you from overtorquing.
BTW, I read somewhere that the reason smaller wrenches are shorter than larger wrenches is to make it harder to overtorque fasteners.