I have searched the sight and can not find a thread, but i am sure there is. What is the capacity in CC's of the FD in the 09 LT. Thanks

0.26 US Quart

Should be ~230 CCs. At least, thats what ole Toad takes during a refill. Now, if you're adding fluid for the first time after a rebuild, it'd be just a tad more.

thanks

I've always just filled to the bottom of the threads of the filler hole per the manual.

Yep - just keep filling it. I spin the rear wheel to get a good load in as well.

You can't "overfill"... add oil until it's up until "full" to the fill cap and running out.. not that critical...

Actually you can overfill.
If you spin the wheel like cookie says, and keep adding, viscosity will carry oil up onto the crownwheel assembly above the filler hole. This is especially true if you are using non-synthetic "dino" oil which has higher viscosity than the synthetic stuff. You can get quite a bit extra oil in by spinning the wheel, adding more and then putting on the filler plug.
If you let it sit a while and then remove the filler plug, you'd be surprised how much extra flows back out.
I don't think you'll hurt anything if you over fill this way, but you may find that some of the excess oil finds its way out the breather when the drive gets hot.
There is no benefit is "squeezing in" more than is specified in the service manual.
Just fill to the bottom of threads of the filler hole, no measurement needed.

I have overfilled my FD as CharlieVT stated and it puked some of the extra out and down through the brake rotor area . Not a proud moment as the other riders I was with started the LT FD failure bashing . By the time I limped home with what was thought to be FD failure the puking had almost stopped , lowered the oil level to correct and no more problems in 7500 miles .

Bob G

While changing the oil and FD fluid on the LT using the directions from the ARTICLES section, I decided to double check the measurement in my Clymer's manual.


Clymers recommends 230 ml while Mark Neblett's states "2/10 of a quart" or 189ml. Is this a mistake or am I worrying about nuttin?

With the bike on level ground & on the center stand I just fill it until it comes back out the fill hole. Once it stops coming out the fill hole then I install the fill plug & torque to spec.

I said that?? Seriously, I don't recall it, but I don't doubt it, either. I suspect what I was saying was that if you read the specs, you need 1.1 quarts of gear oil -- i.e., buy two bottles, but in fact during a typically drain/refill, a single quart has enough oil to fill the LT tranny to the bottom of the filler threads (~.7-.8 qt) with enough left over to fill the final drive to the bottom of the threads of its filler hole (~.2-.3 qt.).

230cc is the official spec. Recgonizing that the engineers want the drive filled to an appropriate level, rather than mindlessly filled with a fixed volume of oil, I fill to the bottom of the threads of the filler hole -- same as I've done for decades with my airheads. 230cc may or may not get you there -- depends on how much oil actually drained out before the refill. This ensures that I have a sufficient amount in the drive, while avoiding overfillling (yes, you can overfill -- usually manifests itself during the next longish-, higher speedish run, by considerable flow out of the vent cap at the top of the drive).

HTH!

That must have been an INCREDIBLE relief to find the overfill instead of a failed FD.

I trust / hope I have this situation as well...
During last winter I installed a new (supposedly 9 miles driven) FD which I bought from Tony (LTparts.com). Now I am travelling in Central Europe with fully loaded bike and I have been pushing on the German autobahns a constant 130 - 140 km/h. During our stop in a small town in Czech Republic I noticed my FD looked pretty oily outside and even the rim and tire were quite messed up with oil remainings.
I opened the fill plug and the oil level was right there on a correct level but the oil was all grey and looked like it had been mixed with water (looked like an emulsion). I turned the rear wheel and listened to the FD with my stetoscope (travels in my fake exhaust pipe... ) and no strange sounds from the FD. The next day we stopped at a Yamaha dealer and I bought some 75-90 W gear oil (synthetic) and changed the oil which I actually should have done some 4500 km ago. The drain plug magnet was covered with soft kind of gunk which I guess is typical for a break in period .Provided hat this really was an undriven FD from a 07 triked LT I guess the first oil change should have been done at 1000 km (600 miles)...

Oh well, we continued to Prague and the my FD oil temperature stayed at moderate 45 deg C during this 140 km but no high speed journey.
Tomorrow we will start again towards North Poland via the German autobahns (830 km) so we will see how the FD behaves on a higher speed.

So I hope this oil on the outside has just been blown from the vent plug and we get home OK.
BTW, this trip has been full of learnings for me, I had my engine serviced by a German K- motor specialist last week en route and I will write a report on that later...
But as a quick teaser: I really got a good lesson in flying brick basics and learned to use ONLY original oil and air filters from now on as my engine was by accident saved from a probable major breakdown...

Regards

Hello Ari,
The mud on the drain plug does sound like break-in wear, and the grey lube could be explained by an overdue first change aggravated by your autobahn speeds.
A bearing failure would have shiney, glistening particles, bigger than the mud seen from wear-in.
If you've been riding the Alps, you might have experienced the venting of lube that has been reported by some folks who did big altitude changes.
Here's hoping the bike is okay and the ride is good.
cheers

You will be fine Ari, I have had mine spit out oil from the vent before. Since it is an 07 it should be fine.

While I don't spin the rear wheel when filling the FD, I turn it a few degrees in reverse direction to move the oil from the ledge at the bottom of the threads. A few degrees is enough to move the oil away from the ledge, but not so much that it doesn't settle quickly. Easy to tell then when the proper level is reached.

OK; now we have done close to 1000 km with the new oil and all seems to be normal.

On the German autobahn doing a constant 120 - 130 km / h the FD oil temp goes up to about 55 deg C when riding in dry and relatively cool (15 deg C) . But when it rains enough for the FD to get wet the oil temperature cools down easily 30 deg C. The cooling effect of the water evaporating from the FD housing seems to be phenomenal.

Now in Gdynia, Poland and tomorrow just to ride to the harbor (10 minutes away from our hotel) and then 18 hour boat trip to home...

Thanks to all for the encouragement!

Regards

Good news, Ari!

Thanks for the data. We don't have much info regarding FD temps so your info is good stuff. My only problem is, while I think in millimeters better than I do in inches, I have to covert degrees C into degrees F before it makes any real sense to me. Typical Yank.

Enjoy the ride.

Best Regards,

Hi Curtis,

sorry, me being lazy about the temp readings. I sometimes forget to convert the readings...(your F readings are the same Hebrew for me... )

Anyway, my FD oil temperature meter reads from 20 to 100 C ( 68 to 212 F). Typically my oil heats up to around 55 C ( 131 F) when doing an hour or so constant 70 mph. On a warm day (30 C / 86 F) I have seen the reading go up to 68 C ( 155 F) but never really any warmer. (OK, we don't get REALLY hot days as you guys do, so I don't know how hot the oil gets in a 110 F day...)

When riding in a (heavy) rain the water cools the FD down to the bottom of my thermometer 20 C (68 F) regardless of the speed. If the there is just lighter mist on the road the cooling is not so efficient, the temperature climbs up 30 C ( 86 F) or so.

So that brings the idea of a water cooled FD...

Regards and hope to meet you in Killington.

Hi Ari,
You are kind to take the trouble to do the C to F conversion, I didn't mean to ask you to do that. But I sure appreciate it.
Good info for me regarding operating temps as I am heating components during FD assembly and was curious what the temps I have been using compare to operating temps.
Good stuff, and thanks again.
Regards,
Curtis