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The Fifty Fifty Tech Tip

Article & Photos By: Jason Hallman

Post Daytona Check-up

Original Published In Torque Magazine Vol 1 Issue 1 – Fall 2021

This month, we are repurposing a segment from our weekly live show where we do everything you would expect in a magazine, plus a lot more. You can see a write-up in this issue, but this article is based on our 50-50 segment from that show. For those who haven’t caught it, the 50/50 is a tech segment that you can do at your home garage for 50 dollars or less in 50 minutes or less. For this segment, we’re gonna change the oil in my 2016 Dyna lowrider. Now I’m fresh back from bike week, and we ran thins thing pretty hard, so my guess is the oil is pretty cooked. Let’s take a look at what we’re going to use to get this job done. 

Our 2016 Dyna Lowrider calls for 3 quarts of oil plus a filter. We’ll be using three quarts of Spectro 20/50, conventional. This is a fantastic oil that’s available at all WPS Hard Drive Dealers. We’re going to use a high flow Filtro black oil filter because I like using a black filter instead of a chrome one.

 We’re also going to change the drain plug O-ring. The O-ring is part number 11105 and is available at all Harley and independent dealers. 

Let’s take a look at the tools needed to complete this job. We need a small pick to remove the Oring from the drain plug. Three-eighths drive ratchet. Three-eighths drive extension with a 17 mm for the end of our old oil filter. The swivel socket is five-eighths for my drain plug on a 12-inch extension, so I can get right under the engine and transmission to take the drain plug out. Most of your major home improvement stores have an excellent tool selection nowadays, and all these tools can be found there. As always, we never use any thread tape on any over our drain plugs. We only use liquid Teflon, so I have some of that here as well. This is a job that anybody can do with a reasonable amount of tools and a reasonable amount of skill. You don’t need a hoist to do it. You can do it all right on flat ground. In fact, a Dyna leans to the left when it’s on the kickstand, which will help you drain all your oil. I will tell you that it helps to heat the bike up to full operating tempature first because the oil comes out a lot faster. Let’s walk through the steps for changing the oil.

STEP ONE: I remove the dipstick. I check to see if there’s any debris on there. I’m also checking to see the quality oil that I’m removing. If it’s too dark, I remember that I’m going to do an oil change sooner than later next time.

STEP TWO: Ensure the drain pan is under the drain plug and remove the drain plug. As I remove the drain plug, there is a magnet on the end. I check that to see if there’s debris, if there is, what that debris is and what it could mean. Now, I clean the drain plug threads, remove the old O-ring, put the new O-ring on, and apply a small amount of liquid Teflon. And now my drain plug is ready to go back in after the oil is completely drained. 

STEP THREE: As my oils draining in the back, I loosen the oil filter in the front. The oil coming out of the front will leave a little bit of a mess, so I wanna give you a little tip here and tell you to stuff something under the filter to catch any additional oil. Once the oil filter is removed, I usually leave it in the pan upside down for about 24 hours, then I can dispose of it properly.  

STEP FOUR: When you’re reinstalling the new oil filter, put a small amount of oil on the O-ring to make sure that when you tighten up to the oil filter housing outlet on the engine’s block, that O-ring doesn’t twist or tear, it’s super important. Also, make sure that the O-ring is there. If it’s not, your oil filter is not gonna seal. 

STEP FIVE: The next step is to put the oil drain plug back and make sure you have a small amount of liquid Teflon on your new O-ring. When you tighten the drain plug, make it snug and go about an eighth of a turn more.  You don’t want to over-tighten it and tear the O-ring because it will leak.

STEP SIX: We add three quarts of 20W50 Spectro Oil back into Our engine.

STEP SEVEN: Reinstall your engine oil dipstick. I like to reinstall mine once, then pull it back out and check to see the oil level is indicated correctly on that dipstick before I fire my engine.  

STEP EIGHT: Once I’ve tightened the dipstick, I start my engine and let it idle until the oil light goes out.  Once the oil light goes out, you’re good to go. Check for leaks, wipe up any residual oil on the motorcycle so that nothing gets on your tires and you’re road ready.