[SafetyFirst]

I changed the oil on my 250 this afternoon. I’ve put 1000 miles on it so far (4202 miles total) and figured I should change it to be sure I know there’s good oil in it. Wow, was that easier than I expected.

I found the other Ninja site has a great write-up on how to do it:
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10780

I went with a jug of Shell Rotella-T synthetic 5W-40. The Ninja FAQ site says that it’s really good oil for the baby Ninjas. I had to go with a Fram oil filter. I live in a small town, and didn’t feel like waiting to special-order a K&N filter. None of the car part stores or bike shops carried them on-hand. You can bet next time I change the oil, I’ll have ample stock on hand of K&N oil filters. Got a quart of the Rotella-T for the tailbag, just in case.

I don’t have a wrench that measures torque, but I think I have them oil filter and the oil drain plug tightened appropriately. I left a clean rag under the bike for a while, and nothing dripped onto it. I reused the crush washer on the drain plug — I don’t know what kind I’m supposed to replace it with.

One thing to remember is that there’s an O ring in the cap to the where the engine oil goes in. I found it when I was cleaning up the oil I dripped onto the inside of the fairing.

On a scale of 1-10 in hardness, it’s a 1. It’s time to go for a ride and see how the 250 likes it’s new oil.

[JtownJJA]

You’re ahead of me. It tooke me quite a while to figure out how to get my bike on the center stand. Thanks to gstwin.com, I was finally able to accomplish that, and now it is quite easy. I’ve also got through 1 chain clean and lube. I guess the oil change would be my next big thing.

[SafetyFirst]

Centerstand is awesome!

As an added bonus, the bike isn’t leaning to the side, so you can do a spot-on oil level check before you ride, without having to hold the bike upright. Cool!

[briderdt]

And that’s not me, I’m just passing on what he told me…

When you change the oil, ALWAYS swap out the crush washer on the drain plug. People have a tendency to over-tighten the plug to get it to seal again, and that steel bolt in the aluminum case doesn’t take a lot to strip out… the case. Repairing that gets REALLY expensive. The crush washers are, what, $.50 max? Sounds like a cheaper alternative to me.

[SafetyFirst]

Where do I get crush washers?

[Clay Dowling]

Last time I changed my oil I did a lot of research on oil filters and oil. Fram was universally rated one of the worst. It uses cardboard for its internal support structures, and has less filter material than other filters. The Walmart equivalent filter is actually better.

Purolator filters cost slightly more, but they support the filter material with metal instead of cardboard, and they have a lot more filter material than others (esp. Fram). The price difference wasn’t that great though, so you really don’t need to sweat price.

As for crush washers, you can pick them up at a car parts store, where you also get the filters and oil (although I prefer to buy my Rotella-T from the local farm supply, where it’s slightly cheaper). You need to know the diameter of the nut, then ask for it at the counter.

A torque wrench is also a lot cheaper than you would think. If you were a professional mechanic you’d pay a lot of money for a really good one. If you change the oil on your bike once or twice a season, you want a $15 wrench from Harbor Freight, and an inexpensive metric socket set. Make sure you match the wrench’s size to the attachment size of the sockets. 3/8″ and 1/2″ are the most common sizes. Think I went with 1/2″ because it’s easier to get the large sockets needed to swap out wheels that fit a 1/2″ wrench.

In general, the more you can do on your bike the better. Motorcycle mechanics charge way more for their work than car mechanics do, and motorcycles are a lot easier to work on than cars. Tires are the one area when the tool investment to mount and dismount the tire from the rim will take a long time to pay off, but even then, if you’re going to make riding a long-term thing, it makes a lot of sense to buy the tools and learn how to do it yourself.

[briderdt]

I got them at the local motorcycle shop, but I’d imagine they’d also be available at any auto parts store as well (know the drain plug diameter though).

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