How to change engine oil and filter 1983 Yamaha XJ650 Maxim

You forgot the washer between the spring and the rubber seal on the filter.
Without it the spring can distort the seal and could leak there, bypassing the filter

 

Good morning, just watched oil filter change, you stated oil filter orientation front towards engine? I recon front stamped in oil filter would be towards front of bike reverse of your take on the filter orientation….. seems like

 

Nice video but unfortunately it is not correct or accurate. As above, the washer between the spring and filter is missing. (Likely stuck to the old oil filter and thrown away). The oil filter orientation is incorrect, "Front" should face forwards away from the engine, not towards it. No mention of removing the middle gear drain plug.

 

I am about to change the oil in my '83 XJ650 I have a XJ650K manual and it mentions the middle gear oil drain plug but when doing a bunch of reading, people say to just leave it alone as you have risk of breaking it.
I can't even find mine. The manual picture gives no perspective of where the photo is taken and I can't tell where it is.

 

Don't lose any sleep over it, @Melnic. Just change the oil and don't worry about the middle gear plug.

The arrow in the photo below shows where the plug is from inside the engine:

 

Here's the middle gear drain plug from underneath. If that engine was installed there would be plenty of frame and exhaust to work around or remove. That's why it's not worth it for a couple tablespoons of oil.

 

On my 1980 4K0 (UK) model, I used to remove the exhaust system to access the middle gear drain plug. Since then, had a tool made which now means it can be done without needing to do that. The plug has a coarse thread and has never been a problem to remove.

 

That's interesting, @DaygloDavid . Could you share a photo of that tool?

 

Sorry, can't do a photo but basically, it was a 10mm 1/2' sq. drive socket with along reach allen key wrench adapted to fit the sq. drive using an allen bolt head which was filed square to fit the 1/2" sq. drive.

Something like this. The dimension "h" needs to be 45mm to clear the frame tube and fit between that and the original 4-2 exhaust system collector box. The length of the allen key "l" in my case is 215mm. The allen key is ~10mm across the flats ("e"). "d" is obviously the 10mm socket which in the diagram is double ended. Hope that gives you a reasonable idea.

 

Pulled my oil filter off and low and behold, Washer is missing. This post in the how to instructions was very helpful including the corrected orientation of the filter
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/oil-filter-assembly-install-detail.130464/