What did they change on the 2012 Dip Stick. Must have been the original design engineer for the 2011 Dip Stick was forced at gun point to unscrew the hot cap, burned 3 layers of skin off and then vowed that he would redesign the 2012 stick to solve his own screwup.

Guess I'll be stopping at my Dealer and checking out the 2012 model Dip Stick. One good thing about MOCO, they do roll and evolve.

 

Yes, it is threaded. Must have gotten tired of hearing about all the oil caps that burst out.

 

I'm a cold check guy. On my bike the difference in oil level between hot and cold is about 3 dots on the dipstick or roughly a quarter inch.

I don't know why HD just doesn't publish hot and/or cold specs. Same with clutch adjustment specs. I guess their argument would be the "range" between hot and cold and specifying one or the other leaves less room for error. But then again, one could argue with the "hot" specification also. Is hot 180, 200, 230, 250 degrees? And the "cold"...

I always experiment on my bikes to find the correlation between hot and cold, then I can do the checks/adjustments either way or anywhere in between.

 

Generally in trade service manuals hot is referred as "warm to the touch".

 

If that is the case, then I'll pose the same question with different wording. Is "warm to the touch" 100, 120, 140, 160 degrees...?

If these specifications for "hot" vs. "cold" were really that critical, they'd be specified at a specific temperature with a +/- tolerance.

 

mines only 2 dots off between hot and cold....so I check it cold now

 

I dont think you will ever find specific numbers. The reason warm to the touch is the rule of tbumb is because oil like anything else expands when warmed up so warmed to touch is adequate enough foroil expansion to check the max level of oil in a system.

 

Here ya go. I have one and it works great. You will need to carry a adapter to fit the socket style while on the road like a 1\4".

http://www.hdsmartsocket.com/hdsmartsocketvideo.html

 

The things got about an inch of thread. Just run mine down till it touches and stop. If it vibrates, unsrcews and falls out, you probably have turned your scoot upside down and it dosen't matter anyway.

 

Put it back on only hand tight.
I have checked my oil 100 times and never ever needed anything but a cloth to keep my hand cool.