replacement intake boots

I know everyone says to buy from chacal, but I couldn't find comparable prices unless I'm not searching correctly.

I found a set of 4 boots for like $88 or so here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-81-8...intake-manifold-boots-/191866844259#vi-ilComp

I found some more for like $110 here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/81-83-YAMAH...BURETOR-INTAKE-BOOT-SET-11-6115-/400857239435

Anyone see anything wrong with my buying either of these sets for my xj550? The stealership quoted me $750 to replace these ($85 a piece OEM from Yamaha and $380 for labor...which I think is crazy)

Thanks!
-MD

 

I've been burned by ebay. Chacal maybe a bit more, but never gets a wrong part.

The intake boots are expensive, which is why I used silicon to coat and fix them. Doesn't look as good however it worked.

 

I'll let you know how they work out, I opted for the slightly cheaper ones in the first link I posted. I read a few of the previous purchasers reviews of those parts from that seller and the purchaser appeared happy with the product and service.

 

Anxious to hear about these as well. Mine will be getting the RTV treatment once I get my carbs back. My cash for new carb joints went into my sprockets, etc..

 

There has been one report of delamination of the inner layer of one reproduction intake boot. I do not recall which source it was from.
I will admit that I did not get my intake boots from Chacal. The ones that I bought ame from a Canadian Ebay seller (the exchange rate was very much in my favor at the time), and I did not take note of who they were manufactured by.
They are well made, and likely from the same manufacturer as every other reproduction intake boot being sold. I can't imagine there is a large enough market for there to be more than one or two manufacturers at this time.

Don't forget to order new gaskets.

 

keep in mind the bolts on those have been known to twist off and that pretty much ruins your day.
It probably won't help but start putting penetrating oil on them today.

 

Apparently the $88 ones I got were made in Japan (as opposed to China, which the seller points out) which I'm hoping correlates to better boots. Plus gaskets come with.

I'll report back, having a different dealer install for $150 (wish I would have taken it to this place first, last place was a joke and now they can't even get my bike started even though it was running when I brought it there! That's on them though, and they know that)

 

maybe it's just me but i'd go get the bike and push it home if i had to

 

Normally I would but knowing that it ran ok when it went in, I'd like it to be in the same shape coming out so I don't have to troubleshoot it. They gotta fix whatever they broke

 

They should but I'm with Polock on this one...hurry, go get your bike.

Gary H.

 

+1 You are the best mechanic that you will ever pay.

 

Its fine to say that it's on them if they aren't going to tack things onto your bill to cover their labor. "oh it needed a new battery. And 2 cans of carb clean. And a new fuse. And the air filter was kind of dirty. And we put a fresh set of plugs in. Runs great now!"

 

Definitely! Make sure you confirm that they will call you to approve anything they will charge you to do. Otherwise... Like Polock and ROCS said... GET YOUR BIKE NOW!

 

YES ^^^^+++1 Pulling carbs is not hard. Once off bike if you are careful pulling boots should not be difficult( UNLESS you brake an allen bolt) put new gaskets and boots back on, reinstall cleaned(internally) carbs ...This place saw you coming put their 2 best guys on it!!! $$$$$ Money you could have saved and parts you could have spent on new parts and beer .

 

+1...
Prime example--my xj900rk.

Super-long story short... I bought it from PO as he was tired of not being able to ride- wouldn't pass Maryland emissions inspection. Over the course of two yes or so, he was charged over $3k, and it STILL wouldn't pass. I have all the receipts from him to prove it, too. I told him he had a cut/dried lawsuit to bring, but he just wanted it gone by this point. ( example--$65 for an motorcycle inspection .... And really, does an '83 XJ motorcycle have to pass an emissions test!?!). Bend over, they have rubber gloves....

I bought the bike and fixed it for $125.

 

I've worked for a handful of shops, motorcycle and auto alike. Some honest, some less so. And I know I have, as a tech, been encouraged to find things to charge for to cover unexpected labor costs. Generally, it just ends up being "add a 1/4 hour to that, and a half hour there, and 1/8 hour here..." and that covers it. And of course I see both sides of the argument- sure its not honest, but those unexpected issues that the shop is expected to just eat are often by no fault of the shop at all. One shop I worked at, after being burned working on old bikes multiple times, initiated a ten year rule- we had the right to refuse service to any bike over ten years old.

A perfect example- an early 80s Suzuki GS came in for a "get it running and roadworthy" job- it was an older gentleman's, had been sitting for over a decade. So I had close to 20 hours into the bike doing brakes, carbs, tires, lights, controls, suspension, etc. The bill came to probably 3 times the cost/value of the machine. We called them when it was finished, they balked, and when I left that shop 2 years later it was still parked in the back with an unpaid balance on the bill.

 

DrewUth, I hear you. When I take my car (and it's rare) someplace, I always say "call me to keep me informed". I know stuff happens, and I just want to be involved in that. Of course, that does take more time, but people will often go along if they feel included.

 

On mine, he'd bring it in, fail, get charged, pay, come back again.... Repeat----each time they ramp up what needed to be done.... Only to fail again.... Lather/rinse

 

Agree many shops won't work on anything considered old ( read 80's vintage) or if it doesn't say HD keep going . I'm luck I have an old Yamaha Dealer they sold these bikes when new , the owner has went out of his way to help if I need things. They have a big case of shims I needed 3 shims charged 9.00$ a shim so can't complain,
they have my business now if I could just convince the "bank" ( read WIFE) I need a new Yamaha Bolt

 

In other words, he wanted a "mild restoration"....well of course that's going to be in the 4-digits range. People who don't work on vehicles themselves DON'T KNOW, and one of the purposes (in my mind) of the service writer is to educate the customer as to what to expect, up front. The shops that use the 10-year-old rule is run by people with a 10-year-old's mentality. They have almost zero understanding of people/customers, and thus "throw a tantrum" by refusing service simply because, in essence, THEY BURNED THEMSELVES. Why is it such a taboo to not tell people, up front, that it's going to cost an arm-and-a-leg to do the type of work that they want done?

http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/tech-topic-the-real-costs-of-maintenance.14581/

Full stop. OF COURSE IT'S NOT HONEST. What kind of business (or person, etc.) thinks that they can get away with that for an extended period of time? And won't that attitude "filter down" to all employees, in every aspect of their work? And, as an employee, won't I eventually "catch the management's drift" and soon figure out that they are going to "cut corners" and not be real honest with their employees, too? With their suppliers? With any and everyone they come into contact with? Who wants to be in a relationship with a habitual, opportunistic liar....i.e. a spoiled 10-year-old?

I'm reminded of the story that Ross Perot told about the buyout of his computer systems firm (EDS) by General Motors. GM was a large user of EDS's services, and came up with the bright idea that since they were spending so much money with EDS, that they should just buy them. Perot told them that it was a bad idea, "you don't have to buy a cow if all you want is a glass of milk". But no, they made him "an offer he couldn't refuse". But as part of the deal Perot got himself a seat of GM's board of directors, and the first thing he did was announce to the rest of the board that he was going to spent 6 months investigating the state of GM's business. So he went into the shops, the assembly lines, the manager's offices, the suppliers, the dealerships, the lawyer's offices, etc. and talked to people. When he finally finished, he wrote a report and made a presentation to the rest of the board on the state of the GM business:

Paraphrase/Executive Summary: "What I've found is this: You hate your customers, you hate your employees, you hate your suppliers, and you hate the business that you're in. Good luck to you gentlemen, you're going to need it."

 

No doubt the service writer dropped the ball here, if I recall he was not experienced with working on street bikes (neither was I at the time as a tech) so he was unable to accurately predict the labor. I'm sure he wrote up an estimate of $1000-1200 bucks for the job, and I think the final bill came out closer to $2k. The bike ran and rode well after all the work, but it had serious cosmetic shortcomings. I estimate that after all the work was done, it was still only a $8-900 bike. But it had sentimental value....you know how that goes.

Apparently we/I struck a nerve here. By no means was/am I supporting dishonesty. In this particular case, I don't think anyone was dishonest specifically. The estimate may have been inaccurate, but phone calls were always made to the customer asking for permission to go ahead. So they were kept in the loop. But when they came to pick up a bike that still had faded paint, a cracked rear plastic "fairing", a shredded seat cover, a splattering of surface rust, etc. - it was hard to focus on how nicely it actually ran when it looked like it had been leaned out back against the shed for a decade. Time was spent explaining the hours that went into it and the new parts, but there was no way around the sticker shock.

While this is a nice story, I struggle to find the relevance here.

 

Update: Shop called and said starter solenoid relay is bad. I replaced it myself 2 weeks ago ($12 part off Amazon). They said its $50 for the part and no charge for labor. I said I'll bring them the park Saturday AM and wait for the install and take my bike home.

No my thought is this: is it possible that:

A: it was a bum solenoid or
B: burning through another solenoid is part of a larger issue with the starter?

 

Oh, I wasn't directing it at you. But even you noted how, in that type of environment, that even honest people are "encouraged" to find ways to "bend the rules" to make up for errors on the part of the business. Better practice, IMO, is to find out why such errors occur (that cause under-estimates, i.e. non-profitable jobs to be taken on) and correct that up-front.

Businesses that are not compotent (or interested) in running their operations properly de-volve into all sorts of crappy practices, such as "encouraging otherwise honest employees to find things to charge for to cover unexpected labor costs". in other words, cheating and lying to customers (indirectly, in this example, but all the same). Just like feces, that gets the whole ball rolling downhill. Unless, like Jetfixer, you run into this:

But most people deal with, what amounts to, faceless management (whether in business or in government), and the bigger the organization, the worse it gets once a bad attitude takes hold. GM and the Perot example might be considered an aberration, but I don't think so. It's just that an insider had the guts, and sense, and power to speak out (he was then immediately invited, via even more $$, to resign from the board). Name a business that you actually trust and enjoy doing business with. The cable company? The cellular phone service provider? The electric company? The gas station? Your bank? Paypal? My experience is that for most companies, large and small, the BEST you can hope for among customers is a grudging acceptance of being treated like just another head of cattle (in other words, something to be milked before being sent to the slaughterhouse). My brother worked for one of the very largest computer hardware/software companies in the world.....it's former CEO briefly (thank God!) ran for president earlier this season.....and their inside "motto" --- amongst themselves --- in regards to customers (and he dealt with large, corporate customers in the health-care field, i.e. hospitals and the like) was: Keep them sullen but not rebellious.

When you order parts from us, your invoice gets printed out on a HP Deskjet 895Cse desktop printer, purchased 18 years ago and with almost 1.5 million pages printed off it. If I recall, it was around $150 back then (no longer made). I've had about 4 HP printers since then (for other workstations), most of them their larger, much-more-expensive copier/scanner/fax machine types. They cost almost 10 times as much and typically drop dead after 2 years or so.

Do you think that the managerial ATTITUDE and the product PERFORMANCE (and thus customer satisfaction) might somehow be related? I think that is the relevant point.....

 

You could have corrosion on terminal ends at solenoid or at the starter lead, corrosion or looseness of wires at the starter switch. might be able to jumper across the terminal leads at solenoid . In addition how old is the battery? is it filled to proper level ? has it been run down several times and charged over and over again and not fully charged? . Has your fuse block been replaced with a blade fuse block ? All things to consider

 

@Jetfixer Can you elaborate on how those items would affect or make the solenoid bad? Thank you!

 

I did trust them initially, and still kinda do. It cost me $120 for a diag (they picked bike up for free and worst case they'll deliver it for free to destination of my choice). Which is when they told me the only thing causing it to stall is the intake boots. $390 in labor and $340 for boots. They said everything else on the bike looks great and told me I did a good job on the work that I did on it so far.

 

....vs. how little a bicycle inner tube and a tube of rtv would cost--_

 

... or less than half what you were charged for reproduction boots that you install yourself...

I get having other people do the work if you hae no time, or patience, or ability, but you seem to have all three.

 

I did this with the carbs initially, partly due to time and partly due to lack of experience. One thing I have found over the past year of owning the bike is that there is nothing too complicated that the owner can't do it. It just takes time, patience, and perhaps a few questions to folks here who have been there, done that.

 

My hope is I still get to ride it for a bit haha. Here in Wisconsin we have until end of September. Maybe even through October and into November provided weather holds up.

 

They don't have ice racing up there anymore?

 

@k-moe I'm not sure, I'm still a little new into the racing scene. For now this bike will test my patience. I'm a little to stubborn to give up (yet), so I'm keeping at it.

 

They do in Gleason.

On a side note, 100% agree with comments above about large 'faceless' corporations. To add, somewhere in the not too distant past Capitalism became Corruptionism and now here we are . . .

 

Xj4Ever.

Gary H.

 

I second that---
xj4Ever

 

The Liquor store here is pretty good.

 

Liquor stores here are all state run, so that's out the window.

Another +1 for XJ4ever, one of the few.

 

Passed through Easton PA a few years ago. I quickly came to realize that (at least parts of) PA is hiding their Liquor & Beer! No man should endure a full day at the Crayola Factory with all the screaming kids and not be able to ease the pain with libations afterwards.

 

We've got drive-up service at ours too.

 

Now you're just being mean.

 

Liquor and wine are all sold at state stores, beer is sold at distributors by the case only. You can only buy six packs at restaurants that have a liquor license.

My town is actually one of the first in the state to get permission to sell beer by the six pack last year at a grocery store, so things are (finally) looking to improve.

 

hey i was wondeing if the intake boots take gaskets to the block if they do do the usualy come with the set

 

Yes, there are gaskets that go between the intake boots and engine. When I took my old ones off I almost didn't see them, they were baked, brittle, black and thin.

I did the inner tube trick on my boots and got the gaskets separately from XJ4Ever, don't know if you can buy an intake "kit".

 

thanks stumplifter i have to take my engine out to get the frame welded in a cpl of months time so im thinking overhaul

 

Maybe a little late getting on the band wagon here- been riding with xj4ever aftermarket intake manis for about 800mi since taking care of valves, carbs, and old broken bolts. Oddly enough, manis started to crack while commuting during rush hour in Seattle (LOTS of dead-still idle.) Maybe a bad batch?

Told Len about it while ordering front end bits. Sure enough, then man delivers- free replacements or 200 for upgrade to OEM manis. Have my new OEM manis sitting here, if only I had time to replace them and send back the cracked aftermarkets. But riding when I've only got a few days around my bike seemed more important.

And, when rebuilding my carbs? Sure as hell wish I had spent the extra cheddar to order the correct and complete carb kits rather than skimping on an 11M kit from eBay that I didn't use a 85% of.

Amazing service, and all of the correct stuff. Thanks Len!

+1 to XJ4ever!

 

Yes, Chacal supplies intake mani kits- gaskets, manis, sync port caps and clamps, and even replacement bolts for those gnarly, rusty, ready to break ones. And second on those baked on gaskets- I spent more than a couple of hours scrubbing those off of the head.

 

if only i had xj100 the boots come with gaskets botls and new clamps for 100 bucks off ebay

 

as for scrubbing off old gasket paper if i can get to it i use an angle grinder with a strip disc lightltly and take it back to shiny metal in seconds http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-x-125m...134843?hash=item1c5b04f13b:g:SD8AAOSwZJlXNTWo

 

To remove the old gasket I used CRC Technician Grade Gasket remover and razor blades. You want to be careful with the blades as they can nick the aluminum cover if you are not careful. I spent hours, as you did, trying to remove the gaskets with plastic razor blades to try and eliminate the possibility of gouging the metal, but didn't make much progress. I bit the bullet and bought regular blades and that went much quicker, even with me taking my time to avoid any mishaps. I would spray the gaskets, let it sit for 15 minutes or so, then scrape what I could. I had to repeat that 3 times or so per cover, but it was fairly easy. It seems like it eats through the clear coat on the covers though, so if you don't plan on polishing them up afterwards you should probably be careful with where you let the spray sit.

 

Dayuuuum Ant... I wish I had known those existed. I, like TheCrazyGnat used a combination of spray solvent, a bunch of plastic scrubby pads from safeway, and was obsessively careful with a razor blade. You might need to pull the head to get that grinder in there. Do you really want to deal with the cams, timing chain, and tensioner? (Actually, it's not that bad... and you might need to if the manifold bolts break.)

Big issue on the careful/razorblade bit- you're removing baked on gunk (hard) from a very soft metal (ever so slightly harder.) If you score that metal, you could be causing vacuum leaks, which you're trying to remedy. But looks like you get the gist of it.