Awesome Alt. to Airbox to Carb Boots

How did I never hear of this?

This is, indeed, a miracle. I used the black RTV and bicycle tube method on my XJ, and no one ever notified me that there was an alternative that was so much more elegant.

Will definitely try this on my project 89 GPX 750. The carb boots on that make me want to shoot myself in the face every time I deal with them--which has been a lot, as it came as a non-running project bike. Cut my hands many times.

Such a beautiful solution.

 

Works great, and is flexible enough to put in with the carbs secured to the intake manifolds.
Reccomended removing the screw for the airbox, sliding it back, installing the boots, and then pushing the airbox forward, securing the boots, then securing the airbox.
-Chris

 

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble finding these couplings (relatively cheaply) in the UK but I have found This with a couple of clamps, do you think it will be ok?

 

I'd be wary of the silicon hoses to be honest, might be worth a try but I don't know how well they'd respond to being used near petrol, and there's no lips on them... How bad are your original ones? Ive read in a magazine about hard airbox rubbers being "rehabbed" by boiling in a solution of wintergreen oil :?

 

They're bad, 2 of them, split clean through when I took the carb off & the other 2 have splits & cracks all over them

I was going to solve the lip issue by scoring around the outside, doesn't need to be to deep or maybe a thin bead of sealant to make it air tight.

 

I think the main issue will still be how they react to being near petrol/fumes, looking at the American solution I think the lip just stopped the clamp coming off the end anyway & the pipe was the right size to seal against the airbox holes without a groove.

One thing the silicone hoses have going for them is how soft they are, so they'd probably seal really well against the airbox if they're the right O/D, but I'd still worry about them dissolving. I didn't see how much they were but maybe worth a try if they're really cheap, but I'd probably search places like Plumb Centre, Wickes, B&Q and Homebase for the rubber couplers first.

Or what about American Ebay? Maybe shipping wouldn't be all that bad for them especially if you requested them to be shipped without the clamps which you don't need anyway

 

Managed to find them for £6ish on Ebay

Thought I'd link them for any UK user looking

 

You won't have a problem as long as your using them for the airbox boots. Did this mod on son in laws bike, worked great.
You can use fuel filler hose(fuel door to tank on a car) to cover old intake(carb to head) boots or to replace said boots as long as they are stiff enough to support the weight of the carb.

 

That's a great idea Orange, but how do you deal with getting over the bolt hole, or making bolt holes if you replace the intake manifolds?

 

They're perished to, I might add.

 

You push the hose up to the bolt holes and use a band clamp and another band clamp to seal the hose around the carb throat.
Or you can use these if they are the same bolt pattern: http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/xs650-cho ... folds.html
If they don't match up, you might be able to slot the bolt holes. However at that price, you might find some originals for the same or cheaper. At least you get the idea. There's more than one way to skin a cat, but it probably doesn't taste like chicken.

 

Ah so something like this might do the trick, if i can adapt it for the bolt holes etc.

Thanks for the help on this, those carb manifolds are pretty expensive for what they are, I am going to get the right part, but at the minute want to just get the engine running before spending big bucks on it.

 

Just looked at the link for the XS ones, I can make something similar, I have a friend who's pretty handy at fabricating so those shouldn't be to hard, if they haven't got a similar set up on my bike

 

If you got someone to fab up something, should workout great. Show us some pics when it's done.

 

Just a note if you're going to remove the "manifolds", be VERY careful of the bolts as they might as well be chocolate & will be a pig to sort out if you snap them in the head. When you've carefully extracted them, find some matching ones in quality hi-tensile steel and send the originals to hell (in a handcart, if you so wish ) before installing the new ones with copaslip...

 

Yeah if I go the fab route I will. I will be updating my rebuild post as regularly as possible, but at this time of year, with money the way it is, it's going to be a slow process!

Yeah 750, I've heard that about these bolts, I found these carb replacement bolts on eBay, which I believe to have the replacement manifold bolts, but I can't read German lol. If not, I'm sure I can get a matched set to replace them.

 

Cheers Ref. What was your opinion on those two disallowed goals yesterday?

 

Back to the original discussion, and just for the record and for those of you new to the XJ series:

The original carb-to-airbox boots are NOT just simple tubes. The inside shape is not just "straight through" look closely at one.

They are, in fact, velocity stacks. If you replace them with simple straight-section tubing it will affect how well the carbs work.

 

Try it out fitz
Ive done it to 2 XJ700s. Before and after were exactly the same