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Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:25 pm
by grant81rs
Gidday fellas,
Just what would happen if i was to cut the plastic connection tab that holds the 2 x bendy filters together and place them in the filter housing when I do an oil/filter change....and why you ask??
Well it would be so much easier to replace the oil filter when doing an oil change on my RS which has crash bars & also an oil cooler fitted.
Now I can just undo the filter cover with oil cooler pipes attached, then move it forward a bit and the old filter comes out easy one at a time if I cut the plastic tab, but to try and remove the whole "Bendy filter" in it's proper format as two joined peices with the headers, crash bars and fairing all in place is is impossbile.
Would the oil filter work the same if unjoined in the filter housing?? has anyone do this before?? and I think the whole "lining-up" process of the 2 x seperate peices in the housing would be easy enough to do and achieve, but is it correct in doing also???
Any thoughts fellas....
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Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:17 pm
by Kurt in S.A.
My big concern would be will the two middle parts join correctly once the attachment is cut? There's a possibility they could end up being offset such that unfiltered oil would get through the engine. At least the bendy strap forces the pieces to come together properly when installed. I think you would be flirting with disaster...
Kurt in S.A.
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:18 pm
by grant81rs
Gidday fellas,
My question above about this was due to the fact that it is about 40c degrees and blowing like buggery here today in lower Oz
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so I knocked off work very early today, well to tell you the truth I never actually got started due to the dust & heat
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which is not good for signwriting in.....
So with this being the first time for a oil filter change since I installed some crash bars on the ole RS and what was going to be a quick service in the bike shed with the big fan blowing in my face, I realised that it was going to take longer than expected, so I asked the question......
Anyway I went back out after lunch, nothing like a full stomach of toasted cheese sandwiches with tomato sauce to get the mind thinking straight again, I sat and looked and had another play around, un-done the lower fairing at the split and the front 3 screws and it gave enough room to work the bendy oil filter in one peice back in the engine block..
So all is now good and happy again in sweaty ole dusty fly blown OZ, beer anyone
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Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:54 pm
by Major Softie
grant81rs wrote:So all is now good and happy again in sweaty ole dusty fly blown OZ, beer anyone
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Dusty, or flooding? I just can't keep track of you guys down there...
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:00 pm
by grant81rs
Major Softie wrote:grant81rs wrote:So all is now good and happy again in sweaty ole dusty fly blown OZ, beer anyone

Dusty, or flooding? I just can't keep track of you guys down there...
Yeap it's like that lately,
Keep watching the news as the Northern east coast of Australia is about to get the shit beat out of it with a massive cyclone and heaps more rain to add to the flooding that the middle of Oz got a few weeks back.
We live in the state of "Victoria" about 120kms east of Melbourne on the Princes Hwy and bout 100kms inland from the coast and it is very hot and windy just lately which is our normal summer conditions....But the big rains have stayed away from us here in the south..... "Google - Gippsland, Victoria" and have a look about....
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:20 pm
by barndeadr80
Smart move on the break and food. I would've stayed hungry, let it get to me and ended up doing something very nasty with a hole saw and a big drill.
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:10 am
by ME 109
The thin metal plate guides at each end of each section of a bendy filter will line up the halves with or without the plastic joining strap.
iirc, of course.
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:56 am
by grant81rs
ME 109 wrote:The thin metal plate guides at each end of each section of a bendy filter will line up the halves with or without the plastic joining strap.
iirc, of course.
Hearing ya there Jeff, so OK, if I cut the plastic strap to separate the two filters but not removed the plastic from around the ends of the filters where they join together when inserted, just cut the strap, would they work the same.....They would not roll or spin around in the housing when the motor/oil is hot and working, do you think??...
The housing cover has a plenty of force on them when it is done up nice and firm. It's alot easy to install the bloody things like this when doing a oil change....
Anymore thoughts!!
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:25 am
by SteveD
I'm at home now Grant, and having a look at a bendy Mahle delivered from Lancashire today.
I don't KNOW the absolutely correct answer for your question, but looking at the filter those ends appear to mate and maintain alignment. If you could guarantee that they don't "unmate" during installation then I'd think it'd work. I can't see why the filter halves would want to move either, as the flow would be straight thru it, not oblique to it. Forces should keep it steady I'm thinking, but as I said above, I don't KNOW this for fact, just supposition.
Re: Cutting the "Bendy Oil Filter" ???
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:15 am
by ME 109
Nothing would move around Grant 'cos as you say the pressure of the cover will hold things in place,