What oil filter wrench do I need?

1984 VF500 - Wanted to remove the oil filter and it's in there tight. There's no room to work on the left side - the strap wrench I bought won't even fit in.

Have it soaking in penetrating oil. What wrench should I get here?

Google says:

 

theres always the screwdriver trick, but it can get messy.

always there, one size fits all filters.

 

Google is correct. you can measure yourself and go on amazon to find the correct size. I had to do it for my lawn mower and generator filters. Pretty cheap too.

 

^^ cool!

 

I don't own your bike, but I use a strap wrench on nearly all of them to remove and install. Not to get tight, but to beasure easily (low effort).

 

LOL. I don't want to destroy the existing filter just yet. I was really just trying to get to the starter, but it seems you need to get the filter out of the way first.

 

The strap on my wrench just did not fit through the gap on the left side of the filter, but even if it did, I'm not sure how I would turn one. It's so inaccessible.

 

Nice - how deep are the side gripper parts? I think there's space for a socket extension to fit through the headers, but am more worried about the tool itself fitting in the space.

 

Thanks for that. I like the idea of having one wrench for many filters.

When I see the bike this weekend I will check if it looks like I could slip that in there. I think there's plenty of room, but since there are no places that can get me the part before the weekend, I have time to check. Surprising since the other styles of Lisle oil wrenches are everywhere near me. I may just try one of the stamped steel ones as they are more readily available - could return if it doesn't work.

 

Google said:

I bought a Lisle 65mm/14-flute wrench, and it looks like Google was wrong. That wrench was way too small.

I love the Lisle wrench that @mello dude recommended, but I can't get the Lisle locally. I think I'll buy what is probably a knock-off that I can find nearby.

I can't see if there's any identifying marks on the filter, but there IS a warning which I don't understand:


What exactly are they trying to say here - do NOT screw the filter on by hand?

After I took that picture, I tried a big pair of filter wrench pliers... I can just rotate it a few degrees back and forth, but with a lot of effort. I don't get why I can't rotate it more than that - I expected that once it turns a bit, it should free.

 

Yeah... that's fucking weird. Literally "do not tighten by hand", and "do not righty-tighty" which is 100% what you are supposed to do.

 

YOUR BIKE HAS REVERSE THREADS!!!!!!

haha

 

Could it be a warning not to tighten too much?

 

Oh, I could order from Amazon - I just couldn't get it in time for this weekend when I get to see my bike. Last weekend I tried a strap wrench (strap too thick to fit in between filter and pipes). Today tried the 65mm - too small. Bought filter wrench pliers -- didn't work.

Tomorrow going to buy the Lisle 63600 look-alike, as well as this Lisle 63500 "BIG RANGE" FILTER WRENCH:

They will be the fourth and fifth solution I've tried. LOL

 

Someone on Reddit suggested it's a warning to not tighten by hand but to use a *torque* wrench - presumably, so it could be precisely torqued.

That's the only explanation that could make sense, but even still it would be a very ambiguous warning that could easily get someone in trouble if misread. There's nothing in that pictogram that says "torque wrench" to me. Maybe the obscured text says that - but if so - what purpose does the pictogram serve?