Change Your Oil

[jonathan180iq]

I used this:




And I have no slippage.

[Stretch]

I read that BadBob, what I was wondering was, if after the second and subsequent oil changes the slippage disappeared entirely or if you still get it occasionally as you stated in your earlier thread. In other words, is this something I will now have to live with, whether I change oils or not, or if this is temporary and it will go away as all the traces of this oil disappear.
-Bob

[Stretch]

Jonathan, my bottles look like that, but without the spash advertisement right below the brand name on the left side. On my bottles, that area is blank.

As BadBob mentioned, it is quite possible that Suzuki is using different manufacturers for the parts, especially as mine is an older bike. Perhaps mine reacts differently than yours.

I am just thinking that too much oil might to this too... I know too much oil can mess up seals from overpressure. Could such pressure act on a clutch plate at high revs I wonder? I am going to try to rig a little syphon and take out some of the oil to bring the level to the midpoint tonight, and then drive her to work tomorrow to see if there is any difference.

-Bob

[Badbob]

Originally Posted by Stretch

I read that BadBob, what I was wondering was, if after the second and subsequent oil changes the slippage disappeared entirely or if you still get it occasionally as you stated in your earlier thread. In other words, is this something I will now have to live with, whether I change oils or not, or if this is temporary and it will go away as all the traces of this oil disappear.
-Bob

You must not have read it since I posted the update.

Originally Posted by BadBob

I'm in the second oil change using Rotella T. I still get some clutch slippage occasionally. A little to much throttle and clutching to fast will do it almost every time. It might have done this before the problem occurred. The clutch slippage continues to be less with time.

Before the switch to Rotella T I could be riding along at 60 mph in 5th gear and when I started up a steep hill the clutch would slip until I down shifted. This no longer happens. My trip to Franklin GA and the ride around Cheaha state park convinced me that the problem is pretty much fixed.

[Badbob]

Originally Posted by Stretch

I am going to try to rig a little syphon and take out some of the oil to bring the level to the midpoint tonight, and then drive her to work tomorrow to see if there is any difference.

-Bob

Get a small plastic tube. Push it in all the way to the bottom of the crank case. Put your thumb over the end of the tube and pull it out. The oil in the tube will stay in the tube. Hold the tube over a container and remove thumb. The oil will run out. A straw will work but its slow.

Go to WalMart and buy a measuring cup graduated in milliliters. Use this to measure your oil next time. Don't put it in the kitchen or your dinner might taste funny.

The clutch just spins in the oil.

[Quimrider]

Good write up!
You might want to add something about that little rubber oring for the oil filter. The first time I changed my oil I almost didn't put the oring back in as it was stuck to the old filter.

[Stretch]

Well folks, I just got back from draining the excess oil from the bike. What I am now sharing may seem stupid, but hey, hopefully someone else may learn from my mistake.

As I mentioned earlier, I had checked the site glass after adding the 1.5 quarts of Syntec and it looked fine - right at the high mark. BUT, having gone back and looked again tonight, the site glass was completely filled when the bike was cold! I drained the excess until the oil level was 2/3rds of the way up between the low and high levels on the site glass. The excess? Would you believe 1.5 CUPS! Yikes!

Looking back over my oil change, I did three things wrong:

• 1) I was checking the level while the tail end of the bike was elevated about an inch on jackstands. Since the sight glass is toward the rear end of the housing, it is not surprising it was giving me a false low reading.
  2) I blindly trusted the bottles and put what I thought was 1.5 quarts in.
  3) I didn't do the math.

Next time I know to check the oil level after the bike is back to flat... I thought I had, but I must have had a senior moment.

Next time I will pour the oil into a measuring device before putting it in the engine. My "cager" days betrayed me: I am too used to just opening quarts and dumping them into the hole.

Next time I will believe my third grade teacher and realize that one day math may save my life. The engine cover is clearly marked "1300 ml" and since I was educated in the 1960's that means absolutely nothing to me - I spent my time learning "a pint is a pound the world around" instead. But luckily, now I have Excel. That mysterious and even-sounding "1300 ml" really means 1.37 quarts or five-and-a-half cups (5.496829 to be exact). Meaning that by adding a quart-and-a-half I was adding a half-cup too much. Since I have already admitted to having a heavy thumb on this, it was probabily closer to three-quarters-of-a-cup or more.

My cup-and-a-half error seems to be evenly split between poor technique (the one-inch rear elevation must throw the sight glass off about three-quarters-of-a-cup) and failure to follow directions. (Note: I did drain the engine completely - let it drip until nothing was coming out -- but again, if the oil pools forward of the drain plug, perhaps some of the old oil remained. The oil did slighty darken after I drove it the four-mile test run: don't know if that is from heat or old stuff mixing in... just being honest.)

So, tomorrow, on the way to work, I will ramp the old girl up to 60 in fifth and see if perhaps the slippage was due to overfilling the oil (if the symptoms go away) or if it is due to the oil itself (if the slip continues). I will let you folks know either way.

Sorry to be such a bonehead about all of this, but I am still learning. Thanks for the syphoning suggestions BadBob.
-Bob
:oops:

P.S., I did then crank her up, let her warm, and checked the oil level on flat ground. The level was about the same.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Sorry to be such a bonehead about all of this, but I am still learning. Thanks for the syphoning suggestions BadBob.

I can't quite believe that after all these messages (in more than one thread apparently), nobody has suggested that you also check the clutch adjustment. If you haven't, you definitely should.

[Stretch]

Just got back in. The clutch slippage is worse, now occuring as low as third gear whenever I am going up a hill, popping the throttle or otherwise putting a heavy load on the system.

Easy Rider, I would be more than willing to check the clutch adjustment - I just don't know how. I will look over the site to see if I can find any advice on that - anything you care to share will be greatly appreciated.

As for me, back to work (this time in a cage) and off to buy some regular 10W40 oil. I will dump out the Syntec and see if dead dinosaur drippings work better than the erzatz stuff. Who would have thought that one day oil would be too slippery to be useful? Only in America!

:??:
-Bob

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Easy Rider, I would be more than willing to check the clutch adjustment - I just don't know how.

As for me, back to work (this time in a cage) and off to buy some regular 10W40 oil.

What year is your bike? You REALLY need an owner's manual. I think someone has posted a link somewhere on here to an online copy.

What I should have said is check the adjustment of the clutch CABLE, not the clutch itself.

There should be a tiny bit of free play in the clutch lever; that is, the lever should move just a tiny bit before you feel resistance from the clutch. The adjustment is at the lever end of the cable.....near to where the cable attaches to the lever.

For this to be visible, you may have to slide a rubber boot out of the way.

If there is NO free play in the lever, this can cause the clutch to slip because the tight cable may not be allowing it to engage fully. The adjustment should be somewhat obvious when you get the boot out of the way. If not let us know.

As for the oil, (probably too late now) you probably should get motorcycle specific oil.......since you are already having clutch slippage problems.

Here's hoping that the cable is too tight and adjusting it fixes the problem without changing oil.