A crush washer at my local Kawasaki Dealership is a whopping 100 US Centavos. One buck.

For the first time ever the guy at the counter asked if I want a gasket and washer. Copped those items. I always forget that pesky gasket. 2k miles on my 06 klx, probably the original gasket, needs changed soon. It is not leaking but it seems shrunken and showing slight wear. I always oil the gasket before re-installing it. This has probably increased gasket life exponentially.

I buy premium or OEM brand oil and oil filters. Why cheap out on your motorcycle? Your motorcycle was a few thousand dollars and a new engine is not much cheaper + inconvenience if it blows up.

A Kawasaki oil filter is 10 dollars at the dealer, K&N oil filter is 7 at cycle gear, and the cycle gear premium filter is 10ish. Dealer oil is 10 a quart for full synthetic, cycle gear synthetic is not far from there.

My bike is my baby so spending 10% more to be all OEM, all Kawasaki dealer parts is nothing to me. Reading some of these posts does not offend me, I figure I must rely on my motorcycle more than others. I am good to her, she is good to me.

On my last bike I bought a copper washer to stop a drip at the oil drain plug. 3 bucks at ace hardware. I precision honed out the inner diameter of the washer with a drill and pliers to have it fit the bolt threads and voila- fit excellente and also stopped the oil drip and the drop.

I have used conventional oil up until this point and obsessively changed my oil weekly. I would have used synthetic oil at 1500 miles but I caught some good brand conventional on sale for half price at cycle gear so I just dumped it like it was free. Keeping my oil nice and fresh. At 2k miles from here on out I will be running synthetic. Probably all dealer oil and parts, or premium oil and parts at the worst.

Current conventional oil is 500 miles old, will probably dump this oil in 500 miles from now, replace with Kawasaki brand Full Synthetic, new Kawasaki filter, gasket and aluminum crush washer bought at dealer.

I may run a copper crush washer since they tend to last much longer in my experience. They take a good crushin-a many. Depends on how this Al washer holds on the next few changes.

Running no crush washer currently I have no drips to mention, though It does seep slightly. My bike is ridiculously clean and maintained daily so I notice these things. It is worth one dollar to absorb the stress on the threads of Oil nut versus oil pan threads. If I get the motor really muddy, nasty with road grime or soggy I don't need to worry about fighting a seized nut- possibly breaking something or having to drill it out.

In the attachment you will see, on the dealer's counter, my 2 bottles of Kawasaki Synthetic oil, crush washer, Kawasaki oil filter and gasket in the filter bag where I put it- they are not included, they are sold seperately.

 

They have medication for people like you

 

bent the tip of the spring last time and it stayed in place...drain plug out...shook every bit of the oil out...no debris in the oil....kind of let it drip for almost 30 minutes while i did something else....drips for a long time....shook some more...hi-flo oil filter looked pretty clean after 3,000+ miles....broke off paper filter to take a closer inspection...wiped clean...installed the new permanent stainless steel flo filter i had laying around...

oil filter rubber side out...plugged to the cover, right?....my mind went blank...

drain plug on...oil filter cover on...didn't replace the o-ring..looked good....open top and poured in about 1.4 liter of 10/40w semi-synthetic yamalube and half liter of leftover 10/40w full synthetic redline oil mix ....let it settled...near max line...fired the engine up....perfect amount of oil...between the two lines....

 

Yup "plugged to the cover" ...exactly right.
Bending the spring is the ONLY way to go in my mind

 

I only changed the oil no filter when I wrote this tread. I have a couple of filters at home now and when I change it next time a new filter will go in. I will check out the little spring at that time.

I have put on about a 1000 miles now in a month. Well really since the odometer is optimistic maybe 900

This rate may slow down as I am looking at a second bike

 

just did 100 mile ride after the oil and stainless steel oil filter change...no leaks ...pulled over after about 5 miles to check oil levels and check for any leaks....klx runs like a champ....tired from practicing leans on curves...fun fun fun...wish they would fix this darn forum...hate sorting each time...

 

the spring is strong...i used two needle nose pliers..one to hold, and one to pull and widen one end...snap it in and perfectly stays in place...

 

Well I just changed the oil and filter. Yes that spring us an engineering blunder. I managed to get it to work anyway with no tricks. I noticed a but of residue grease that the dealer used however.

What is the torque on the two filter cover bolts?

 

honestly...i've seen guys strip the drain plug and cover bolts using a cheap torque wrench...i use a small 1/4" short handle socket wrench...with an adapter for the 14mm socket...the moment it feels tight..it is good enough...same for the oil filter cover....

 

Thanks. The drain plug is like 11ft pounds. My torque wrenches are decent. On the filter cover I got one off with my screw drivepr style nut driver and I used that without measuring. I bet its good.