These carb boots are driving me crazy! HELP PLEASE!

Is it just me, or is the carb really hard to put back in?

I have a 1981 xj650 MAXIM. I removed the carb for a good cleaning then tried to reinstall it. I can not for the life of me get the boots on either side of it mounted though. If the carb-to-manifold boots are properly on, the air-box-to-carb boots are short by about 1/4 inch. Vice Versa if I get the airbox side boots on all the way. I have been fighting with this thing for hours.

the two outside boots seem to go on perfectly, but the inside boots just do not seem long enough, they are either all the way on the carbs and on falling out of the airbox, or all the way in the air box and not mounted properly on the carbs(do not cover the carb more than 1 mm on the bottom...)

I am beginning to think that maybe the PO replaced the boots with shorter boots from a different bike. The throat sizes match up though and so do the airbox hole sizes...

I am now contemplating pods just to avoid this fight every time I install the carbs. I am in NO WAY going to fight for 5 hours EVERY TIME i remove the damn things.

Any ideas?

Duane

 

Inquiring minds want to know...I feel your pain!

 

check to see that your airbox didnt move away from the carbs. Seems to me I seen a post similar to this awhile back and that is what was reccommended then. I could be wrong but at least it's something you could check. Hope that helped!

 

Check out Rick's tips for taking off and putting on those carb to airbox boots in search. He is a big fan of your stock airbox. Because i'm a big fan of my pods. And i can take off and put on my carbs in about 5 minutes on a lazy day. Which means more time for riding and less time for cursing.

 

Make sure they're seated correctly in the airbox. There's a groove in the boot that you need to make sure has the airbox hole is seated in. Then loosen the screws holding the airbox to the frame and pull the airbox forward. I hate those boots too, but it only takes me about half an hour to wrestle them on. When you're done, don't forget to retighten the screws holding the airbox on.

 

The rubber does shrink over time (especially 25+ years) and this could be part of your pain. I had to sort of "split hairs" when I put mine on in order for both sides to be connected. So far so good... I'll be buying new intake rubbers next year to alleviate the problem altogether.

 

They do shrink mine were the same as yours to short and to narrow, bought new from main dealer less than £15 (about $30) that showed they had shrunk alot. You could try adjusting the airbox to see if you can get it a bit closer, but it never worked for me.
Tip for getting the old rubbers mounted nice and easy is to soak in hot water for a min, they go nice and pliable and are real easy to fit.

 

Another two hours invested. The airbox is as far forward as possible and the boots are not old by any stretch of the imagination. I'm done. Pods are on the way.

Thanks for the help guys.

Duane