carb boots and intertubes

Greetings

I've had some idling problems in my '81 XJ650 Maxim that led me to believe I had a vacuum problem. I kept eyeing the carb boots which are cracked with age. In the past couple of weeks I noticed that the 3rd cylinder wasn't working at all at idle (pulled the plug while the bike was running to verify) and decided to tackle it.

I have the carb off and was debating the best way to approach the cracked boots. For those of you who have tried the bicycle intertube method, how is it holding up to heat?

 

Welcome gabrar,

You can try this post, and there are some others if you use the search option at the top of the page.

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=334.html

Post some pics in the gallery.
I think they actually use the inner tube to smooth the RTV that you apply.

Don't think I've ever seen a XJ605 before 8O

 

*cough* *pets the edit button nicely*



Based on posts in that thread, i got the idea that you could use silicone the boot and slide a tight fitting intertube over it and just leave it. I hope I got that right ...

 

I've not done it yet so I really can't say for sure.
Don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

I would encourage you to give it a shot, you've nothing to loose and plenty to save if it works well. I'm interested in trying it the next time my boots crack. I'm planning on using my mountain bike inner tube for the application since it's 2.5 inches round and will stretch nicely for the 3 inch boot. Just got to punch and line up the hole for the vaccum tube.

 

Added some pictures of where I am at to my gallery.

 

Several days after fixing some very cracked boots, the rtv gasket I used seems to hold well. I had no doubt about the gasket material handling the heat, since I've used it at the joint between pipe-muffler.

I've not used the inner tube idea.

 

Wow. It is a rare day that something I try to fix goes right on the first try. I haven't really road tested it yet, but the third cylinder is firing great now, my idle problems appear to be gone and it sounds just gorgeous.

We'll see how long the intertube thing lasts. God getting those carbs seated back in was a pain. To whomever suggested a ratcheting tie down to pull it in, I thank you. That worked well.

I did something to the electrical system though that is wierd. Turn signal indicator isn't working. The neutral light only comes on when the kickstand is down and the tach isn't running. Any suggestions before I start taking things off again?

 

What's the "ratcheting tie down" trick??? Must have missed that...

Cheers!

 

I bought a small ratcheting tie down strap (like you would use to strap something down on a trailer), wrapped it around the back of the carbs and the front of the frame and then tightened it to pull the carbs all evenly into the boots on the engine side. It took a little fiddling to get the angle right and make sure i wasn't putting side pressure on the sparkplugs, but once i worked that out, it was fine.