I recently changed the oil on my 96. All of the DIY videos etc required the removal of fairings. I hate doing that for several reasons, so I tested a theory. If you have hands small enough or know someone that does you can remove oil filter without removing the fairings. The girl I am dating is 5'4 and 112lbs and she was more than happy to give it try. Sure enough it came out with some careful maneuvering. It did leak some oil on the header, but who cares. It all dripped off while I let the oil do a good long drain.
I also drained the coolant without removing the fairings too. Granted, I did not change the coolant in the overflow bottle since it was fine. But for a yearly or every other year coolant drain all you need to do is loose the water pump drain bolt with a mini ratchet to break it free, the use your fingers to loosen it to the point where it is about to come out. I never removed all the way. A small wrench will work too since I tried that as well. It is a 10mm or 8mm bolt.
It will come out as a fast stream/leak into your pan. Then I poured more water in to until it came out clear and then tightened it up. Of course, I filled it back up with water, burped it and then ran it to it operating temp to open the thermostat and get the left over coolant to mix with the water. Wait for a cool down then repeat. Total labor was maybe 30-45minutes tops. I don't count the waiting time since I was off doing other things while it was cooling down. I used super tech all makes all models coolant, made by prestone.
Would you be ablate include pictures for me? This si my first bike and the previous owner just had water in it because of a track day rule and I need to switch it to coolant asap and honestly have no idea where anything is at! And I definitely don't want to be putting coolant in a place it doesn't belong!
Sorry guys, I do not have pics. The reason is I did not think my idea would work and was actually very surprised when it did.
It is pretty easy though. For the oil filter change all you need is small hands and you can reach around the header to remove the filter. I have a 3inch tall mini ratchet and about 6 oil filter wrenches for various filters diameters. The mini ratchet was needed to break the filter loose for me. Then removed my hand. A girl did this for me. I would suggest placing some old rags underneath the filter to catch the dripping oil. You either go for the filter from the left or right side, cant remember now. It is one for the other obviously. Drain plug obviously can be removed without removing plastics all day long.
The coolant part is easy. Just look where the water pump drain bolt is. It is a low torgue bolt and you mini ratchet will easily break that loose. All water pump drain bolts are in the same general location on motorcycles.
Remove the two top bolts on the top of fairing to access the radiator cap( on the right while sitting on the bike). Get a dollar store flexible funnel and you are in business.
I did the same idea on my zx12r and this time removed the water pump bolt. Man that came spraying out. All over in the inside of the fairing. No biggie since I did 3 refills with water and 3 warm ups till the fan went on and then drained. I always do that to get coolant in the engine block to mix with the water and that only happens of the thermostat opens up.
End of thread · 4 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 10 Jul 2017