How many idiots does it take to install an airbox?

[Guest]

Went to put everything back together on the bike as far as the carb and airbox go....

got the carbs seated just fine with a touch of wd-40

BUT could not for the life of me and the help of my 3 friends get the gd dang airbox onto the carbs! Why is this so difficult? It seems to be partially because when you are pressing, its a plastic box so there is no real force you can give it past the threshold of the plastic.

Am I doing something wrong? should the airbox be seated onto the carbs before the carbs get seated on the intake manifold? Any tricks? Already covered the connections in wd-40 and that only seems to help marginally.

[Sebastian24]

There should be some dots imprinted on the airbox as well as on the boots. Make sure that they are pointing at each other. I wanted to set it on fire myself because I was having a hard time as well.
Also, if the boots are old and stiff you'll have a hard time. If so, do like I did and get new ones, the sooner the better because it takes a while to get them.
Good luck

[DimitriT]

One trick I use on the 550 is to get a long dowel or screw driver and push the airbox onto the carbs from inside the airbox. You need to remove the filter for this of course. It helps if the airbox rubbers are a bit soft and new-ish.

[Nessism]

The airbox boots get hard and shrink with age which increases the difficulty factor. Purchasing new boots, and clamps, will greatly improve your chance at success and reduce frustration.

Regarding the assembly process, best method I've found is to first install the airbox boots around the carbs (before installing the carbs into the boots on the engine) and then clamp them tight. Do not use any lubricant on the boots or they will tend to slip off thereafter. After you've got everything snugged down move both the carbs and airbox together and stick them into the carb holders in front.

[chuck hahn]

Another problem is that the center boots seem to push the plastic back and after years of heating, the plastic boxes tend to get dished in instead of being flat across. I heat the boxes up and take a hammer handle and push the walls flat again and hold till they cool and hold the set. This makes them slide furhter over the carb throats and you get a better seal from the clamps also.

[bwringer]

When you get new boots, you'll wonder if you've gotten the right parts. It's amazing how much the old ones shrink.

But yeah, as mentioned above -- you need to come up with a way to push from the inside with a stick.

I've also used a heat gun VERY VERY VERY CAREFULLY to heat up the plastic so I can EXTREMELY CAREFULLY reshape the air box to get rid of that "dish" in the middle on the carb side.

[seanarthurmachado]

The answer is 5.

One to hold the airbox steady and 4 others to lift up the bike under it and pull back to mate the two sides.

Then the one holds the screwdriver steady while the other 4 rotate the bike to tighten the clamps.

(Consider new boots if the lube doesn't Work)

[hannibal]

^ You win!

[Grimly]

Nobody's mentioned wintergreen yet.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?169370-Wintergreen-oil-for-revitalising-rubber-parts