Frump's Motorcycle Maintenance - It's never as easy as it should be part #2

I wrote this article on October 1st, but didn't publish it.  Now that it's zero outside today, but feels like -22 according to the weather underground, I'm thinking about motorcycles.  I saw the article and made a couple more edits.  Luckily, the Big Sioux Rider's Annual Big Johnson Award has been completed for the year (Congrats Terry for getting his Harley stuck in 5' prairie grass and Steve for being teaching him those skills in his MSF course).

I changed my GS's oil last Sunday. I didn't have a new $0.64 crush washer, so I flipped the existing washer over and reused it.  I probably had done this before with this particular washer (I don't remember details but I know myself), because I noticed the washer was starting to loose its shape.  I also in the oil change process, managed to finally break the rubber bumper which connects the bash pan to the GS - it had been getting worse each time I did a change.

Over my lunch on Monday, I went the dealership and ordered a half dozen crush washers, a filter and a new bumper.   They had everything but the bumper in stock, but I told them I didn't need any of the order until the bumper came in.  

Tuesday evening I'm sitting in the garage watching TV with Ted (my friendly cat who thinks he might be a dog) enjoying a few cigar puffs, when we both notice there was a few drops of oil on the floor under the drain plug.  I wiped off the floor and stuck a plastic bowl under it.  Its not leaking fast so it should be fine for a day or two.  

Wednesday over lunch I head back to the dealer to explain that I really do need to get a half dozen crush washers right away.

Didn't get back to the bike repair until Thursday evening.  By then, as I saw it I had four options:

1. Just throw away the brand new oil and start over?  As a cheap SOB, BMW rider, and fair weather recycling Nazi, it is very difficult for me to throw away $25 of brand new oil.
2. Go to store and buy my wife a shiny new metal mixing bowl which holds about 1.5 gal?  I don't know what they cost, but they probably aren't much cheaper then a new batch of oil and she doesn't really need a shinny new mixing bowl.
3. Sneak into the kitchen and get the 1.5 gal stainless bowl my wife already has and hope she doesn't catch me using it to drain motor oil?  Makes perfect sense to me, but after 20+ years marriage I inherently know she won't see this the my way and it's not worth the risk/reward, or
4. Wipe out my existing plastic oil collection pan/jug thing as best as I can and use that?  

Well, I decided the safest and most thrifty approach is option #4.  After wiping out the oil collector with several paper towels, I began to become concerned there might be some pieces of grit left in there, so rather then just filtering the oil with a coffee filter (that takes a lot of time, don't ask me how I know this), I sneak into the house with what I think is my fairly clean oil pan and wash it with very hot soapy water and then rinsed it several times in the bathroom... with the door locked and the fan running to avoid detection.  In the better lighting of the bathroom I find some old, stinky gear oil residue in the little square leg indentation areas of my pan, so i wiped it out again and then repeated the washing and rinsing processes a few times.  At this point I realized that option #4 was probably not a good choice.  After spending another 15 to 20 minutes wiping and scrubbing oil residue from the toilet and the bathroom sink, I finally sneak back down to the garage with my shinny clean oil pan and leave the pan laying upside down to dry out further.  

My wife hates the smell of hypoid gear oil and I can still smell hypoid in the bathroom, so I scrub the bathroom some more, with the door locked, running the exhaust fan on and the windows open.  I'm starting to wonder if my wife is wondering why I'm spending so much time in the bathroom.  Does she know what I'm doing and just choosing to ignore me or am I really getting away with this?  I guess its the former.  She didn't ask and within an hour or two the bathroom looks and smells fine.

The next day I finish switching out the crush washer and the leaking stops.  Problem solved.