so i was thinking about doing this today but started reading through the clymer manual and it says to disconnect the rear body work, the battery, and the fuel tank.  it sounded a bit overwhelming, but i suppose it's all necessary.  how hard is this whole procedure; mind you i'm mechanically retarded, so approx. how much time would this project take?

It is not hard at all.  But there are some "cheats" you can do:

(1) You don't have to totally remove the rear plastic body work.  Just undo the screws near the lock/latch machanism, then pop the two pieces off the front and middle grommet.  As long as you have access to the two big bolts that secure the fuel tank.

(2) You might not need to remove the tank completely.  What I normally do it to remove the tank bolts, then carefully move the tank and rotate it 90 degrees and rest it on top of the frame.  As long as you can access the air filter.  This way you don't have to remove (and reconnect) the fuel hoses which is always messy (for me at least  :mrgreen:).  When you move the tank about, becareful not to (a) short the battery and (b) pop the fuel hose off.

If you are slow like me, give yourself 2-3 hours and do it slowly and carefully.  Once you are are good and familiar, 10 minutes.

Cheers,
e.

A tip about tank removal that I learned the hard way.  Remove the 2 bolts on the side of the frame that hold the bracket on (towards rear of tank) and NOT the 2 screws under the tank.  You'll be in for a big headache if you remove the 2 under the tank with the rubber gromets.  You'll know what I mean when you see it.

You should only need a screwdriver (phillips I think) for the air filter, 10mm wrench or socket for the tail plastics and a 12mm wrench for the tank (maybe 14mm but memory is fuzzy).

I've rotated the tank and another way is to simply place a block of wood between the frame and tank.  You only need to lift the tank a couple inches to remove the filter.  You shouldn't have to remove the fuel lines from the tank to do this job.

The tail plastics are secured to the bike by the 2 bolts mentioned higher in the thread.  They also have pegs of sorts that fit into rubber grommets on the tank/subframe.  They simply pull out but try not to torque the plastic so it doesn't crack.  If you want to completely remove the tail plastics, remove the 2 screws from the rear mid piece (above tail light) so the 2 sides can separate.  You can remove it all as one piece but that is an unnecessary risk and doesn't save that much time.

Its not as bad as it sounds.  Just take your seat off and you'll see its not that bad

I left the battery in, didn't get in my way.  But I did remove all the bodywork, which I've done before so that only took me 10 minutes.

I wasn't about to completely remove the tank, disconnected hoses, etc.  so I held the tank up while my girlfriend removed the old filter and installed the new one.    :lol:

great!  the thing i was really worried about was completely removing the tank, disconnecting the hoses, etc., as outlined in the manual.  hopefully this'll be a snap, thanks everyone for the tips!