I recently got a 87 Tour Glide that had been sitting for about 3 years. I am going through it today and changing fluids and general maintenance. I bought a genuine Harley service manual and am looking through it for the oil change procedure. It clearly assumes that you know what you are doing before you even open the manual.

My question is where is the oil drain plug? It says to either unbolt the plug or unplug the oil drain hose (like the one on my Sportster). In the below picture is the only thing resembling a drain plug I can find. It is just north of the oil filter (underneath the bike) about 6-8 inches. Down is towards the front in the first pic and right is towards the front in the second. DOn't know why it did that. If that is the oil drain plug, where is the transmission drain plug? Sorry, but the manual is very vague about stuff like this. Pictures would help, if possible!! Thanks!! I feel dumb even asking this because I have changed 100's of cars and motorcycles but this one has me baffled.

 

Oil drain plug is under the cover on the right side of the bike. See the dipstick? The cover you want to remove is under that. Takes a bigazz phillips screwdriver down below.

 

PS: I agree on the FSM. It frequently only scratches the surface of what you need to know. Not to worry: There is more Evo expertise here than you could imagine. This group is amazing, and are happy to help you through anything that you run into.

 

Sorry, I might not have been clear. I got the oil tank cover off ok. Yes, it is a big *** phillips. What i need now is to get at the drain plug itself. Is the bolt looking thing in my pic the right plug...or is that for the transmission? The bolt looking thing is north of the oil filter about 10 inches on the bottom of the engine. Thanks!!

By the way. The PO left almost NO oil in the primary. I just put in almost 1.5 quarts. Grrr. Fortunately, the bike didn't miss a beat beforehand.

 

Clean up that puppy! It looks like it has been shot with undercoat.

 

Start at the dipstick. Go straight down. You'll see some wiring. Go down further, you'll see a plug. Big one. IIRC, 15/16" or even 1". That's your oil drain.

The plug in your photo looks like the trans drain.

The primary, from dry, takes about a quart.

 

I'd feel REALLY stupid if the drain plug was on the bottom of the oil tank itself on the outside in plain site. Is it the nut in this pic with the wires coming out of it on the bottom of the tank itself? If so, how in the world can it drain 4 quarts of oil from there? Or, does most of the oil come out when you change the filter?

 

Don't for get to clean tappet screen.

 

Good call on the tappet screen. I'll make sure to do that, as well. Great video! Now...about the drain plug??

 

That photo is indeed the drain plug, although that is not the factory plug.