Here's the short story. I ride a Breakout and my wife wants to start riding again, been a couple of years since she sold her Sporty. My neighbor had a 2007 883 Sporty sitting behind his house, been there for about 2.5 years. He says it was running fine when he parked it and it hasn't been started since. Here's what I'be done:
Drained the tank, put in new fuel
New tires
New brake fluid
New pads
New air filter
New plugs
New battery
Serious cleaning job on the rest of the bike, what a mess. Here's the problem, I went to change the oil and filter and there was virtually no oil in the tank. I went ahead and filled the tank to the low level line and put a new filter on it but I'm concerned about cranking it up becasue after doing that I realized all the oil might have just drained back down. Should I drain my new oil out and try and start it with just the old oil or crank it up overfilled and leave the dipstick out so the excess can have a place to go.........I can clean up a mess. Thanks for any advice

 

Yea you can turn it on without dipstick and turn it off again if things get ugly ...
I'd recommend a good injector cleaner in your first tankful of fuel.

 

Use a turkey baster to suck out the overfill.

 

I'm guessing I'll have to crank it up for a bit to get the old oil up out of the sump before I can pull some off............I do have a turkey baster on stand-by!!

 

Do a complete change on the oil before cranking. I would pull the plugs couple of shots or oil in the cylinders and turn over by hand, 2nd gear rear wheel up and turn the wheel. Be patient

 

The problem is I attempted to change the oil and have most likely overfilled it due to the old oil leaking back into the sump. I did spray some fogging oil into the cylinders in antcipation of cranking it. I will turn it over by hand as that sounds like a good idea, I didn't know about putting it in second and rotating the wheel to do it...............thanks for the tip!!

 

I had a Nightster that was parked for nearly six years. We drained the fuel and replaced with fresh fuel and put in a new battery. Leaving the original oil in, we started the bike and ran it until the oil pressure light went off, to lubricate the cylinders. We then changed the engine and primary oil, pumped up the tires and washed the bike. Afterwards, I rode it to the dealership, about 120 miles away, and traded it in.

The last I saw of it was in the service department, where it had been detailed and gleamed like new.

RD

 

Tried rotating the rear wheel by hand in second, that was fun. Ended up rotating it in fourth instead. Sprayed some more fogging oil in first. Still debating on whether to drain off some oil first before cranking it, though

 

crank it with the plugs,,out...

 

So bottomline, what would you guys do about the overfilling of oil? Drain out what I put in or start it with the overfill and clean up the mess?