Light brown mist in the air

[the Ferret]

Today was service the ST day (plus adjust and lube chain on CB) , but primarily it was time to work on the ST. Oil and filter, final drive fluid, add an ounce or two of coolant to the puke tank, and check tire pressures.

I know the processes. I have changed the oil in the ST 22 times prior to this one. Something always goes wrong and I get oil everywhere lol, but for some reason today was going better than normal. Put bike on center stand with wifes help, remove access cover and decoratve cover, remove oil fill plug, put drain pan under bike, take 17 mm socket and remove drain plug checking for crush washer. Drain oil. Move back to oil filter... Put on homemade funnel, remove old oil filter using Honda filter cup making sure gasket is still on filter, drain. Clean engine block where oil filter goes, put fresh oil on gasket and an ounce or two in the filter, and install new OEM oil filter .... hand tight. Clean engine block and put oil drain plug with crush washer back in and tighten. Move to rear end, using 17 mm socket remove fill cap, put pan under and remove drain plug. Let drain. Wipe off case and reinstall drain plug. Put in 5.2 oz 80 wt oil, and reinstall fill cap. Move back up front and put in 1 gallon of 10w 40 (yep thats what it called for on the 2006 STs...in 2007 they started calling for 10w30) GN4 Dino oil. Remove funnel, wipe it out and put it away.

***** Here's where I went wrong. NORMALLY! I would reinstall the fill plug, but for some reason I decided to recheck tightness on all plugs and filter. I don't normally do that. Everything was tight. I put my tools away, checked oil level in bike (perfect) walked around to the left side, fired it up and watched the oil light go out. Then while it was warming up took the old oil out and drained it in my used oil can. Figuring the bike had run long enough I walk back into the garage (now on the right side of the bike) and the bike is making a stuttered hissing sound. WHAT THE HECK?

Looking down I saw that I had forgot to reinstall the fill plug. Shut iit off, shut it off!
Oil is everywhere in tiny fine mist dropplets. A brown mist if you will. I move the rug I was laying on while working on the bike and there is an outline around it. Want to know how far oil will go out of a fill plug with the engine running? 12 feet! I measured. There are tiny spots all over the floor. BTW want to know what was 10 feet from the ST? MY CB! Oil spots everywhere. Guages, switches, front fender, headlight rim, handlebars, triple tree. Has to be on tank and tank bag too. ARRGGHHH!

Ok, get down and see how much oil you lost. It's down to the low mark in the window. Good grief. Open another bottle of GN4, remove fill cap and bring up to top level and REINSTALL FILL CAP lol. Take rag and WD 40 and clean up all of the brown mist you can readily see. Reinstall decorative cover and access cover. Push ST outside. Will wash the CB later tonight.

Right now I need a break and and some lunch. Oil changes, I hate em, something always go wrong! (for me). Today's was a doozie!

 

[ride4now_imp]

Yikes!!!!! I'm glad you noticed the problem before more oil flew out and actually caused damage to the engine. But look at the bright side to all of this.... the CB is going to get washed! I bet that will be the CB's first cleaning... this year!

 

[jedd_imp]

WOw!
what an unfortunate turn of events. Glad it all happened in the garage.
I rode w/ a bikers group where one guy lost his oil fill plug out on the hwy.

We tried looking for it, quite futile I might add, but in the end, he had to call in the tow truck.

 

[dsan1964_imp]

Wow. Took some big stones just to admit that one!! Sorry about your luck!


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[stateboy_imp]

I still think oil changes are fun (relaxing might be a better word for me here). Bike washing? Not so much.

 

[Ole]

Boy I been down that road before. Last winter I put two new tires on my TC185 Zuki. Done dozens of tires I am no rookie. Get everything almost all buttoned up and go to re-adjust the chain? I put one of the chain slack adjuster things upside down so the punch mark was pointing DOWN not UP to the marks on the swing arm. That's when I sad screw it I'm having a beer,,,,

 

[Oop North John_imp]

With all that oil mist the bike shouldn't have any corrosion problems

 

[Rocky_imp]

In spite of 25 years of riding experience I did this once too a couple of years ago.
I noticed it immediately and shut the engine off before there was too much splash.

 

[4 Paws_imp]

Must have been quite a mess if you really are going to wash your CB with soapy water instead of rain.

 

[Cormanus]

Yikes!

 

[redbirds_imp]

Sorry to hear of your mishap Micky. I always dreaded changing oil in my ST-seems there was no neat way to go about it. Hope the cleanup goes easily.

 

[Obleo]

Me too- I can make an easy job go to bad in a second . I could write a book on the boo boos I have made

 

[Cormanus]

Wow. Took some big stones just to admit that one!! Sorry about your luck!


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Mate, it's important to share these stories. We all do silly things, and in a couple of months it'll be OK for us all to have a laugh about the inside of the Ferret's garage. You have to feel for him. I think he's the only man I know who hates engine oil more than I do.

 

[Stichill]

Oil changes are a perfect place for Murphy to show up and lend a hand. A friend at work once decided to change oil and filter in his car late Sunday night. He didn't notice that the filter gasket stuck to the block. Upon installing the new filter, the gasket got all balled up. When he started the engine to check pressure, the entire contents of the sump were quickly pumped onto his garage floor.

This afternoon I changed automatic transmission fluid in my car. The fluid is not cheap: spent $70 on it. Upon re-installing the drain plug, I did not realize that the crush washer had fallen off into the drain pan. I noticed it weeping. In a daring display of bravado and dexterity, I removed the drain plug and quickly covered the hole with a finger while my free hand deftly put the washer on the drain plug. I managed to get it re-installed and by my estimate lost less than 0.1 L of fluid in the process.

 

[the Ferret]

Stichill... Wow amazing. I would have lost about $65 worth of the atf lol.

If we share, then others will know they are not alone when they mess up a little. I'm not afraid to admit I am not perfect, especially when it comes to turning wrenches. I know What to do, i'm good at explaining it, and photographing it, I'm just not the best at doing it lol

BTW after guests left about 9 PM, Mrs Ferret and I washed and somewhat polished the CB. And for R4N, this is not the first bath the CB got this year (it's the second lol)

 

[LongRanger_imp]

I had a 3 hp Briggs and Stratton minibike when I was ten. The bike ate #35 master links for lunch and it was all I could do to save enough allowance to buy replacements ($1.05 at the motorbike shop down the hill). Mom had to drive me so it was always a big production. She wasn't keen on me having a minibike in the first place.

Anyway, one day I'm at the small engine repair shop with my dad and sitting on the counter is a rack of authentic Briggs and Stratton 30W oil. I had never seen such a thing. $2.40 a quart if I recall, which was a lot of money for a ten year old kid back in 1970. Naturally, I had to have some.

So I bought a can, got home, pushed my minibike out to the curb, drained the crankcase in the gutter, and proceeded to refill it with the authentic nectar from the Mother Company. It was all good until I realized that I forgot to reinstall the drain plug. Lesson learned! From that day forward, I've never made that same mistake. Nor have I ever drained oil in the gutter again!

 

[DaSwami_imp]

At least you weren't being paid to do that work for somebody else....!

Never had a mishap with an oil change, but the oil filler cap on my Triumph Scrambler worked loose while riding and THAT was interesting. It was a brown geyser shooting oil everywhere, what a hot stinky mess, oil all over me and the exhaust, which smoked aplenty.

Fortunately a good samaritan stopped and loaned me some tools to fish the cap out of the space on the engine it settled into and work the cap back on the bike.

I actually posted this story in the Triumph forum and lo and behold 2 weeks later a new design oil filler cap direct from Triumph showed up! Impressive!

 

[LongRanger_imp]

Same exact thing happened with my V7 Classic, although Piaggio never showed me any love. I guess the oil filler caps are known for vibrating loose. What a mess. And the 10W-60 they use isn't inexpensive.

 

[Stichill]

I had a 3 hp Briggs and Stratton minibike when I was ten. The bike ate #35 master links for lunch and it was all I could do to save enough allowance to buy replacements ($1.05 at the motorbike shop down the hill). Mom had to drive me so it was always a big production. She wasn't keen on me having a minibike in the first place.

Anyway, one day I'm at the small engine repair shop with my dad and sitting on the counter is a rack of authentic Briggs and Stratton 30W oil. I had never seen such a thing. $2.40 a quart if I recall, which was a lot of money for a ten year old kid back in 1970. Naturally, I had to have some.

So I bought a can, got home, pushed my minibike out to the curb, drained the crankcase in the gutter, and proceeded to refill it with the authentic nectar from the Mother Company. It was all good until I realized that I forgot to reinstall the drain plug. Lesson learned! From that day forward, I've never made that same mistake. Nor have I ever drained oil in the gutter again!

I'll bet a lot of us have stories like that. When I was a teenager, my dad took a rectangular tin can, probably about 6 quarts, cut out one side of it out and rolled over the edges. That was our drain pan. The used oil went into a dry creek bed at the back of the yard. In fact the drain pan lived back there, upside down. Even back then I used to wonder where the oil ultimately went...not everything in the "good old days" was actually good.

 

[use2b_imp]

Glad it wasn't worse and only a clean up .
wrapped my drain plug in a clean rag and went inside one day and when i came back out new pup had the rag in the yard and never did find the drain plug .... things happen