Originally Posted by
SkinGriz
Did you do your penance for stealing the wife’s juice and tea pitcher?
Heh... I used to use a large beer stein for this!
The problem is that the axle extends so far below the gear cluster that a whole bunch of excess oil is required to submerge the gears.
I made a container that cuts way down on the amount of oil needed. See the attached images. A plastic ice cream container has a hole drilled in the bottom to allow the axle to pass through. Then a syringe barrel large enough for the axle is attached with epoxy (I used dental acrylic). Then a "stand" is needed because the container won't balance on the tip of the syringe. The amount of oil shown in the second image is enough to completely submerge the gears.
This syringe, with a small screw in the tip, provides room for the axle.
This is the amount of oil needed to fully submerge a Nexus-8 hub.
A perfect combination for supporting the oil bath!
As Dan pointed out, however, this is not necessary to change the oil in the Alfine-11. A drain plug is removed, and the oil is aspirated out with a syringe and a short tube that screws into the hub. The same syringe, or another one if you want to get fancy, is used to inject the replacement oil. The replacement of the drain plug completes the process. The wheel never leaves the bike.