When draining the tank I use the cardboard tube out of an old roll of kitchen tissue as a funnel, to direct the oil (and often as not the plug) into a suitable pan.

As for how much oil, just buy plenty and fill to the top mark on the dipstick. If you put 4 UK quarts in it you would be standing in the stuff!

But it sounds as if you have done OK. Now go for a long ride as your reward.

 

I used to fill my filter at oil change time. Everytime I took it off it was but half full and now I put it on dry, and it's always full when I pull it down now... go figure

 

I checked the oil and it reads perfectly on the kickstand. Its 3/4 up between the 2 hash marks.
4 quarts exactly. Time to go riding!!

 

First of all Harleys are a dry sump oil system. You can run them a qt low if you had to. They draw the oil from what is in the oil bag. When I do an oil change on a bike that im not sure about I only fill it with 3 qts. after changing the filter. Then check it after i run it and add what it needs if any. I always run mine a half quart low to prevent blowing oil out the breathers. All bikes are different though. On a touring bike like yours 4 qts. should be fine.

 

HEY !!! What's the story on the windshield ? Check you messages.

 

I use a vacuum pump to pull the oil out of my 1990 FLHTCU, it was always a mess draining it, even using a funnel. Now I stick the hose in pump it 20 or 30 times and wait, and wait, it's pretty slow - many times I will get the vacuum pump working and and come back later, I even left it sit over night, and it even the hose to the pump had drained clear. Once the oil is out it only takes a couple minutes to change the filter and dump in oil and usually I only have a drop or two of oil to wipe off the side cover.

I did mine last weekend and it took 4 quarts, I usually fill the oil filter before I put it on. When I changed engines, I had the opportunity to move the filter to the front, but I really do like having it under the transmission, makes it easy to take on and off without making much of a mess. If you start having trouble with too much oil out the breather you can cut back to only filling it half full which some times helps, also be careful to use evo oil filters, the more restrictive TC oil filters may also cause oil out the breather.

 

One thing I like about having the filter under the tranny is that it makes it easy to get all the old oil out of the crankcase. I just leave the filter off and fire up the bike after adding the new oil. When the oil coming out stops coming out black I just shut her off, clean up, spin the new filter on and top her up.