They’ve finally been fitted
The friend came over and gave the bike a full service including clutch and brake fluids, removed the brake calipers and serviced them and generally did everything you’d get if the bike went to a main dealer for a major service but he certainly wished he’d never said he’d do it. The oil filter refused to spin off even with a proper steel banded filter removal tool and eventually the ultimate nightmare occurred and the canister part ripped off the backing plate that screws into the sump
I’d left for work just before he arrived and 6 hours later he was distraught because that was the first time he’d had it happen though he had heard of it happening to others. He tried to chisel the backing plate away but it wasn’t having it so when he spoke to me on the phone I said send me details of how far back into the sump it was, what the hole spacings were on the plate and any other info he could get so I could make a peg type tool to get the plate out.
I made said tool and last Friday was the first time I’d been home so I attacked it straight away. First problem was that the holes on the new filter were 5mm closer together than the filter in the bike so it didn’t fit. Not a problem, I used a Dremel to slot the holes in the spanner and in it went. I’d used M6 screws as the pegs so screwed them into the holes as if they were self tappers and had a go. The bastard thing wouldn’t move and I ended up bending the spanner. Well at this point I was preparing to use the Dremel to cut slots from the holes across to the hole in the filter backing plate and weaken it’s hold then have another go but I decided to carry out a further modification to the spanner so it fitted adjacent holes rather than use holes opposite each other which meant they’d be closer together and hopefully be a bit less inclined to twist.
I wasn’t too confident so had a 4lb club hammer handy to hit the spanner or the bike if I got really pissed off but lo and behold it came out. Very slowly at first because it was tight but eventually it was sitting on the garage floor and massive sighs of relief were released. All I need to do now is fit the new filter, top it up with oil, fit the battery carrier and fire it up.
I’ll post a couple of pictures showing the old backing plate as it ended up and the flexible tool that eventually solved the problem. I think the person who was most relieved was the poor guy who’d volunteered his time to do the job and had offered to foot the bill if the engine had to be removed to sort the problem. He’s a top bloke who knows what he’s doing on these bikes so certainly didn’t deserve the hassle.
That bike is going as soon as the wife can get it advertised