A leaking oil filter cover.

[barryh]

Don't just remove the spark plug cables as that risks damage to the ignition system as it tries to achieve maximum HT voltage into an open circuit.

I put a pair of old plugs into the HT leads and lie them on the cylinder head making sure they are securely earthed.

It takes a surprisingly long time before that oil light goes out so it would be a kindness to your battery to remove the plugs allowing it to crank faster without compression.

Good luck !

[Kurt in S.A.]

Be sure and ground the threads of the plugs on the engine case...they need a good ground. Alternatively, you can drop each float bowl so the engine doesn't get any fuel to start. Then carefully replace.

Kurt

[mralistairjones]

Thanks for the swift responses.

I like the float bowl approach but before I do that I have a question in regards refilling the bike with oil. Should the bike be refilled to the usual operating level i.e. just under the MAX mark on the dipstick.

[Kurt in S.A.]

I always just pour in the required amount which for me is 2 quarts (or liters...forgot what is on the bottle!). Once you start the bike and have run it for 30-40 seconds, let it sit and top off the oil as needed. I wouldn't overthink the issue.

Kurt

[mralistairjones]

I always just pour in the required amount which for me is 2 quarts (or liters...forgot what is on the bottle!). Once you start the bike and have run it for 30-40 seconds, let it sit and top off the oil as needed. I wouldn't overthink the issue.

Kurt

Thanks Kurt.

[mralistairjones]

OK, so float bowls emptied of fuel and now replaced. Oil in.

Any more tips? i.e. How long to crank it for? What to look for or what to listen for?

[barryh]

2 litres of oil is plenty to start with. You can adjust it after the filter is primed. I never fill more than half way between min and max but that's a whole other story about minimising oil consumption.

Crank it until the oil light goes out which always seems a long time to me but in reality it's probably only 20 seconds. It's still a long time for the battery though.

Nothing else to watch or listen for.

[mralistairjones]

Thank you Barry, much appreciated.

Test ridden and everything is working perfectly.

Until next time, sincere thanks. Alistair.

(Just thought I'd post an image of the bike to show you all what the fuss was about!)

[jackonz]

Good evening gentlemen.

This is what I found.

I am holding it as it came away from the engine.

Am I seeing this correctly is the shim between the gasket and the O ring, if so it's not in the correct place, shim first then the O ring held in with the cover, and I thought the O ring was always white, last one I got is as well as my spare is white, Kurt is correct as well you need to measure that canister depth to see if you need a gasket or not.

[barryh]

Good evening gentlemen.

This is what I found.

I am holding it as it came away from the engine.

Am I seeing this correctly is the shim between the gasket and the O ring, if so it's not in the correct place, shim first then the O ring held in with the cover, and I thought the O ring was always white, last one I got is as well as my spare is white, Kurt is correct as well you need to measure that canister depth to see if you need a gasket or not.

I saw the shim too at first but it's an optical illusion, the OP later stated there was no shim and as Rob pointed out, on that model year there shouldn't have been a shim and neither should there have been a gasket which was essentially the cause of the problem.

Some say the whole $2000 O ring thing is over hyped and people fuss over it too much but it seems to me that this is a perfect example where whoever built that bike, didn't know what they were doing when it came to fitting the filter. I don't think it's over hyped if it saves someones engine. Having already done 2000 miles I trust and hope the OP got away with it, no thanks to the bikes builder.

On the black O ring, I'm pretty disgusted with a major UK supplier substituting cheap standard 70 shore O rings for the correct part which is considerably softer. They sold me one and I've never used it and won't buy from them again. No way is a 70 shore O ring going to accept the same amount of compression as the correct item. Next thing we'll hear is someone has stripped the threads in the crankcase trying to get the cover flush. I don't doubt a Black O could be used but only with another level of care in reducing the target amount of compression. Filter replacement is complicated enough without a supplier who should know better making it even worse.