Many Harley-Davidson, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki motorcycles use a filter housing with a replaceable filter for the engine oil instead of a metal filter that threads onto a pickup tube. If you've noticed oil leaking out between the filter housing and the filter cap, you must replace the filter housing gasket, which is essentially an O-ring.
Drain the oil from the oil pan. The oil tank on motorcycles is always positioned higher than the oil filter. If you do not drain the oil, you will drain all of your oil from the filter housing and make a mess.
Thread the cap off the oil filter housing using a socket and ratchet.
Remove the O-ring gasket from the underside of the filter housing lid with your fingers. If you cannot get the O-ring out of the lid, pry it out with a small flat-head screwdriver.
Lubricate the new O-ring gasket with engine oil and push the O-ring into the groove cut into the underside of the housing lid.
Pull the old filter out of the filter housing and place a new one into the housing. If you plan to reuse the engine oil, you can forgo this step and replace the filter during your regularly scheduled maintenance.
Pour new oil or your old engine oil back into the oil tank.
