Guide to changing the oil on an LC4

Loosen the oil filter...retighten. run, repeat.
bill

I have been using Hi Flo filters from day one on my 640s mainly because of economics... The OEM spin on filters through KTM are priced around $25 and the paper filters about $10 which adds up to about $35 combined... I buy the Hi Flo filters in bulk and can get 3 of each {6} for the same price... If you are looking to do the same I found that these guys have good prices on Hi Flo filters and will soon have a proper website up: http://www.classiccycleparts.com/

Hey guys, I have recently changed my oil and apparently made the mistake of putting too much oil in. I discovered this when my 98 620 LC4 started running poorly after about 150 miles. BTW when it began running poorly there was a significant amount of oil in the air box. I have since drained the oil to the proper amount but the oil smells of fuel and seems awfully thin. Do you recommend just starting over with a fresh oil change and new filters? Or am I screwed?

If the oil smells like fuel, I would change it again.
How did you get fuel in the oil???

You are not screwed........it's nothing that time and money won't fix.

Cheers

That's what concerns me. From my understanding, fuel has no place any where near oil. Money is something I have access to, time however is a different story. Which leads me to my second conundrum; if I have no time, is it worth fixing? Things to think on I guess.

it really warms my lc4 powered heart to see that this thread is still active

i have the instructions printed, and still use them. granted i have only put about 11k miles on my 625SMC

With the fuel smell in your oil what you may have is a faulty float needle or a chunk of debris holding it open in the carb... When the carb float bowl fills to the correct level the needle/seat is supposed to stop any further flow of fuel until the level drops... If the needle does not do it's job then the fuel will keep on flowing, making your engine rich when running... When your engine is not running and the fuel tap is open it is possible for the fuel to make it's way into your engines base with gravity and mix with the oil...

What gunner said. If the petcock is open while the bike is off and the float valve leaks, gas drains and overflows through the carb and past the piston into the crankcase. If your oil smells strongly like gas you should change it and fix the cause. Remember, your oil is now as flammable as gas so be careful around sources of ignition!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks guys! This actually makes a lot of sense. The bike has sat longer than expected and I did not properly prepare it for storage. For the time being i am going to drain the fuel, then when I have some spare time I will change the oil and clean the carb and fuel tank. Thanks so much for the advice.

Replace the rubber tipped needle and the O-ring,
set the floats.
b

Hi Guys - im a new lc4 adventure owner and decided to do an oil change. all went well but i just have two questions which ive searched the answers for to no avail. i filled it up with motorex oil and the oil through the sight glass is still black. should i flush/change oil again or is this normal. i did get the oil hot and drained it properly and changed all the filters. secondly - when the motor runs what should one see in the sight glass? i see oil slowly pulsing down the window. seems the oil is circulating which seems good to me - just want to be sure this is what should be happening. any advice will be appreciated....

Even on the first run of my totally rebuilt & sparkly clean engine my oil turned black quite quickly just like it always has. Don't worry about it. When running & warmed up the oil level should be around the lower sight glass line & it should be flowing down like you say.

Cheers
Clint

thank you clintnz. suppose all i need to do now is ride...

i tried to make sure i had the tip in the filter but did not crawl under to visually confirm
oil temp seem normal
after a drop on right side everything is back to normal
if i really want to check i could just drain bottom case recheck filter and reburp top end
i burped mine flat and got a small flow of oil from a loose upper nut (normal?)
i did not do the 2x4 trick do i now have to much oil??
thanx for all the tutes guys
would it be possible to put them all in one file (the one peeps are not arguing over)
i would gladly donate if this happened
allthough i think this is possible with thread tools if i am not mistaken

Just did my first change on the 03 640. Went well, thanks for the guide. Did spill mch so I'll call that I win!!!!

Get your filter kit from bolton online and be done in less then 40 mins with the warmup ridearound.

Since the oil on my 640 was drained yesterday and I won't have the filters till tomorrow..........
I think I'm going to crank the engine with the starter or the kicker with the decompression lever engaged and wait for the oil to flow from the upper frame.
I don't like the idea of waiting for oil to fill the journals while the engine is running :eek1

Don't stress. Remember that the LC4 has all rolling element bearings on the crank, cam etc. Unlike the pressure fed plain bearings used in many motors the roller bearings will quite happily turn over for a while at low load with just the residual oil.

Cheers
Clint

What he says.
Friend of mine years back forgot to fill and bleed the frame and rode close to 3600Km before having a crank failure.

The oil in the engine is more for cooling components than lubricating, so running it for a minute to fill the frame reservoir is absolutely no problem

Stefan

Done it
What a f .... g mess I did ... draining oil from engine is the same as on all bikes I owned. But the frame oil, well let's just say my neighbours in Austria did an A job on that. My adventure has a bolt just above the oil filter and since I haven't had a pause for thought before I unscrewed the plug I made myself an additional 15min job cleaning the oil from the floor.
I've bled the system with the method of screwing in the upper plug two or three threads and waited for the oil to make it's way out. To be on the safe side I unscrewed the banjo near the fuel pump and the oil came out nicely.