So last week I did an oil change. Took a long ride on Saturday and everything is cool.
Revzilla dropped the ball on the air filter I ordered. They finally sent one and it arrived yesterday. So, a little while ago I decide to go ahead and R&R the air filter. Got the bike ready, read the manual, watched a couple of YouTube vids, grabbed some tools and got after it. I figured the most difficult part of the job was going to be removing the gas tank. The airbox is underneath it. It ended up being pretty painless. Remove and few bolts, disconnect the fuel line and the fuel pump power connector and the tank comes off pretty easy.
Next, just loosen the six machine screws that hold the air filter to the airbox and install the new one, right? I put the new one in place and tighten all the screws. It doesn't seem right so I get down eye-level with it and there's a gap. I look over at the old filter on the ground and notice I installed the new one upside down. The screws on the new filter where already in place on the filter and I didn't pay any attention to the orientation. I start removing all the screws to move them to the other side. The filter plate is plastic and there are six metal threaded inserts in it. I tried to screw the screws down and they won't go in all the way. I thought the inserts were installed upside down, but they were the same as the factor filter. The threaded inserts only have about four threads in them, on the top side of the filter. The other side of the inserts have a larger diameter. The machine screws are only partially threaded so when they are in all the way there are no threads grabbing the bare part of the screw shank and they spin freely, but don't fall out. I suppose they did it this way so you don't drop screws down into the intake. Turned out, that on the after-market filter the ID on the threaded section of the inserts was too small and they stop the screws from going in all the way when the bare shank contacts the threads. I couldn't get the screws to go in all the way so that the heads were flush with the filter plate, and they didn't spin freely. That's probably why the bozo at the factory put the screws in the wrong side. They will go in all the way in from the wrong side, but they don't spin freely so that you can screw them into the airbox.
Good thing I have a numbered drill bit set. I had to incrementally drill the six insert threads little by little so the screws would go in all the way and spin freely, like the factory filter. I could have drilled the threads out completely, but thought it was a better idea to leave the threads so a screw wouldn't have a chance of falling into the intake.
Finally got done. Should have been about a 15-minute job.
And I got an email from Revzilla today saying the original filter was being delivered today and I can go ahead and keep it. I guess I'll know what to do when I have to change it again.