missing spring & thimble screen

I took my scoot to a dealer yesterday to have oil & filter changed. Mechanic said the spring and screen were not in place. Didn't know where they were. I didn't have a clue at the time. Decided to fill with oil and trust the screw-on filter to do its job. Ran fine. But where might the spring and strainer be????? Are they inside the engine? If so, will they come loose and do some damage? I need ideas and some advice. Thanks for ideas.

u p tom wrote:

But where might the spring and strainer be????? Are they inside the engine? If so, will they come loose and do some damage?

I would ask whoever changed your oil this time, if they inserted their finger in the hole to see if the spring and strainer were inside and did not "automatically" come out with the drain plug.

If so I would think that whoever changed your oil previously may not have reinstalled the spring and strainer.

I thought I was missing the strainer and changed the oil a coupla times before I thought to "stick my finger" up inside. Guess what? Whoever had changed the oil prior to my buying the scoot had inserted the strainer wrong way in, so it didn't fall out when I removed the drain plug. There it was though. As for the spring, I don't know if I can imagine it getting stuck inside, but maybe it could. Other wise, as Bill says, they've gone missing.
Personally, I don't think either of them being absent would cause any damage. That is, if you change your oil regularly.

Oops. Misread the title.
Thought someone was missing Bruce Springsteen. :lol!:

x

Same here I changed my own oil. No screen or spring. Decided to check a little further It was there Next time have him check real good. I bet it's there

dspevack wrote:

Oops. Misread the title.
Thought someone was missing Bruce Springsteen. :lol!:

He lives in a town called Itunes now. His address is MP3 something or other.

The next day I took the bike to the dealer in Marquette. Oil had been changed day before in Escanaba. The Marquette dealer reviewed records and, yes, oil & filter had been changed there within the year. They wouldn't admit it but the rookie mechanic who had done the work - and no longer worked there JUST MAYBE had dropped the spring/strainer into the pan and had, maybe, forgotten to put it back. Nothing could be found in the dealer's memorabilia of parts and stuff, of course. The dealer did assure me that my sometimes practice of using a suction pump/plastic tube to suck out almost all of the old oil could not have touched the spring so, no, I had not knocked it into the sump as I had feared. I probably will order another spring/strainer and replace it at the next full change. p.s. I have 79000 mi on the bike and it runs fine.

u p tom wrote:

JUST MAYBE had dropped the spring/strainer into the pan and had, maybe, forgotten to put it back.

Is the dealer going to JUST MAYBE replace the spring/strainer?

Just thought I'd make a comment here as I changed my SW oil today.

When I released the plug it fell into the oil catch tray and I had to let it go because the oil was very hot. (Always wise to drain the oil while it's hot so that it drains more easily and runs out of the system more efficiently).

Anyhow, I had only the plug and no spring or screen....yikes ! It turned out that the spring had shot out into the oil catch tray faster than the eye could see. As for the screen, I referred to the comments above and found it still in the drain hole but it was pointing 'into' the engine, i.e the open end facing downwards. On looking at the service manual, in German!, I discovered that it should be placed with the open end facing upwards, so this is how I put it all back in. New oil filter, a refill and job done.

The worrying thing is that I've done this twice before and had completely forgotten how it all goes together or whether or not I had a spring or screen!!

Age or beer? You decide.

My opinion is the spring is in there to put pressure against the plug to keep it from working loose. Works like a lock ring.

A good friend of mine lost his oil out of his bike because he was running without his spring. The oil light came on..... so he shut it down. He was out in the country..... with no oil plug and no oil. Called a cab to get into town. Plug costs $25 and the oil. Another cab ride out to the bike and he was on his way.

Modernman1953 wrote:

My opinion is the spring is in there to put pressure against the plug to keep it from working loose.  Works like a lock ring.  

A good friend of mine lost his oil out of his bike because he was running without his spring.  The oil light came on..... so he shut it down.  He was out in the country..... with no oil plug and no oil.  Called a cab to get into town.  Plug costs $25 and the oil.  Another cab ride out to the bike and he was on his way.  

 

The spring is there to put pressure on the screen. The screen goes in open end first. The spring then goes around the screen. The drain plug goes in next applying pressure to the spring to hold the screen against the crank case.

First time I changed the oil I put the screen in backwards facing up. Road around for 1,000 miles or so and no damage was done.. Oil light never came on and 12k later still running fine.

Spring doesn't keep drain plug tight. Tension on the threads holds it Spring holds the screen in place. Friend was lucky oil didn't get on rear tire and cause a crash.

I have often wondered if the spring/thimble were really necessary. With 22K on mine I have never had to clean the thimble filter. I do use quality spin-on oil filters and synthetic oil. But I keep putting it back in... My grandson had a Kymco Like 200 and I did one of the oil changes on it and it ONLY had the spring/thimble filter. No spin-on...