Did my first oil, brake, and air filter change today! It got a little messy!

[g-lock23]

So I had some free time today, and figured I'd take care of a few things on my new 04' GS500F. It started with just wanting to change the oil and filter, nothing too crazy since this is my first bike, and my first time working on bikes. So I went to the first autozone, no filters.... I roll a few miles down to a checker and the same thing, no filters. So I went to a store called cycle gear, and they were sold out of EVERY filter that fit the GS.... My last stop was a local powersports dealer, thankfully they had the filter and a gallon of new oil which I put in the backpack and drove home with. I put the bike up on the center stand, waited for it to cool for awhile before I performed my task. Today became a great learning process for me, but thankfully all went well...

Once the bike cooled, I followed the brilliant how to on oil/filter changes which was going flawlessly, until my makeshift oil pan began filling up more and more until it started overflowing, luckily my quck hands and plenty of towels stopped the flow enough for me to switch pans... LOL so make sure your pan is large enough before you begin an oil change. I replaced the filter, tightened it back up, filled it with new oil and started the bike. Thats whe the oil started SPEWING out the bottom, so I shut off the bike, checked the oil filter area and sure enough the O Ring wasnt attached well. A reseat of the ring and a tighten patched that and within 30 minutes I had changed my first oil!

Feeling inspired I decided to change the rear brake pads I had sitting on my desk for the past week. I brought up the next how to on changing rear brake pads and began to follow it step by step... Everything went well until it came time to put the new pads in, which I figured I could do without clamps, but that proved to be a chore. After several minutes of frustration, I finally managed to force the brake piston back into its place so I could squeeze the new pads in. Next time clamps will same me alot of sorrow!

Finally I was looking for other what seemed to be easy tasks of maintence when I realized I could clean my air filter with gasoline, and I didnt even have to remove the tank! I yet again brought up the how to, followed the steps, and once I had the tank unbolted and I started to lift it up a stream of liquid was shooting on my shorts, and it smelled quite similar to gasoline!  I Assume I had just lifted the tank too high, so I tried again but was careful not to lift it too high, however the stream got bigger, thats when I realized the tube that goes to the petcock had a crack all the way around at the tank connection. A little wiggling and it SNAPS in half and gas is going EVERYWHERE!!! Now keep in mind I've NEVER really worked on bikes, I have a good basic knowledge of motors but nothing serious, and I sure as hell had no idea how to stop this gas which was pouring all over the ground! Whats worse is I, being the genius that I am decided to top my tank off just before doing all of this. So I find a spare gas tank and being aiming this steady stream of gas into the opening of the gas can, when I remember something I read about there being a screw which cuts the gas from flowing from the tank. I sacrifice my shorts to the gas, find the screw and stop the flow! A moment of releif let me tell you, I literally was about to call the fire department just incase. So I go to autozone again, get new tubing, attach it to my tank and everything seems to be working great!

So the things I learned today...
1- Make sure your oil pan is large enough to hold ALL the oil in your tank
2- Get Clamps for a brake job you plan to do
3- Do no attempt to clean your oil filter on a full tank of gas
4- Know where the cut off screw for the fuel is before you take off the tank.

[Bluehaze]

awesome dude..  i am the same as you.. confidence keeps going up as you keep messing with the bike..  so does the little "mistakes".   cant thank enough the people here that take the time to provide pictures and videos of how to.

[g-lock23]

all i can say is that without this forum, I would know practically nothing about the GS... thanks alot GStwin!