Change Your Rear End Fluid

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Changing the Final Drive Oil  

By Glenn "¿spoom" Woods

A lift makes the job easier, but if you have a helper of almost any age to man the drain pan the whole job takes about 10-15 minutes. I use a "spill-saver" adapter from Flotool Plastics 1(800)334-3062 to add the oil. Found it at Auto Zone for about $4. It's an on-off valve and about 1 foot of 3/8" ID clear tube with a cap for the end. It screws right on to the bottle of gear lube. You can shove a length of tube onto the gear lube's nozzle too, but they can pop off.


Pull the drain (lowest) plug out taking care not to lose the aluminum washer and drain the old oil into a pan. This plug has a magnetic
insert. Clean the junk out of the inside of the plug with a cotton swab.  Keep an old rag on the wheel/tire below the drain hole to get the stuff that misses the pan. Pull the fill plug (big flat one) just above and aft of the drain plug. The tool kit that comes with the bike has a wrench that fits. If you have after market pipes that are too close to the final drive, you can loosen the two bolts that hold the exhaust on near the passenger pegs and push the pipes away a little. Tip the bike to the right if you want to get most of the oil out. With both plugs out, squirt 2-3 ounces of the oil into the fill hole and let it drain out the bottom. This will help get more of the old oil out. Put the drain plug back in and with the bike level fill the case until it overflows from the fill hole-DON'T STOP. Let at least 2-3 ounces of extra oil go into the bike and flow back out into your drain pan. You may see little specs of junk coming out in the oil.  That's the plan. A qt. of 75-90 Mobil 1 only costs about $5-7 and even this "wasteful" method will get you several changes from a single bottle. The Mobil 1 is fully compatible with regular 80-90 gear oil.  The idea behind all the "wasted" oil is to flush out the solids that will wear your gears. Proper level is when the oil is no longer coming out of the fill hole while the bike is standing level. Put the fill plug back in, making sure the O-ring is still in it. Clean any oil off of your wheel/tire. All done 'till your next oil change.