Air cleaner lid missing

[J-Dog]

I recently bought a 1981 GS550TX that had some really crappy "mechanics" in the past. Took every shortcut in the book...but it runs okay.

I was looking on PartsFish for an air filter and saw that there is supposed to be a lid on the air cleaner box (circled in blue below). Mine is missing.
Suzuki airbox.jpg
How important is this lid? I can't seem to find one for sale by itself, and only one ebay listing that includes the lid.

Are there any alternatives (other than the pod air filters)? I'm trying to do as little as possible until after my son learns to ride on this bike. Next year I'll do the carburetors, boots, and o-rings.

[steveb922]

It's important. It's not clear from that drawing, but there is a vent on the rear of the lid that regulates air flow into the filter. You could try to fabricate something, but it would be difficult without an original to copy. If it helps, the lid from any 1977-82 550 lid will do.

[cowboyup3371]

Let me look through my parts bin tonight as I had a spare air box at one time.

[rphillips]

I'd think not that important. Bike should run slightly leaner without the lid. If you can't tell it's running lean, it's not hurting anything. Air has got to go thru the filter with or without the lid. No doubt I'd rather have the lid, but would not be in a big rush to find one, It ain't hurting anything. Just my opinion. Oh yeah, Welcome to the site.

[J-Dog]

cowboyup, that would be great, thank you. I'd be happy to pay you for it.

[J-Dog]

I saw in another forum post that the lid restricted the air flow and if the air flow is not restricted then the carburetor would need to be re-jetted.

I'm thinking that it was running okay because the air filter was so clogged with dirt. Now that I've cleaned it, the engine might not run so well!

[cowboyup3371]

I couldn't find it in the one bin I looked in but ran out of time to look through the other one. I'll let you know tomorrow night

[bwringer]

Yes, it's important.

An awful lot of doofs in the '80s removed their airbox lids and tossed them into the trash.

[Rob S.]

An awful lot of doofs in the '80s removed their airbox lids and tossed them into the trash.

An awful lot of 4-into-1 instruction sheets said to (remove, not trash).

[cowboyup3371]

So I know I posted this earlier but it's gone so I have no clue what happened. I only found a spare airbox itself not the lid. I think my daughter's 550 had the same issue and I just bought an entire set up to replace it.

[hank2]

I did an ebay search for Suzuki GS550 airbox and came up with a number on them. Many were missing the lid, or perhaps not the right year. There were at least a couple with lid intact. Here's one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Suzuki-GS550-S474-1-rear-air-box-filter-housing/353154177568?hash=item5239a11a20:g:0YsAAOSwf~dfFxOV

I'm sure it would be nicer to get one from a member here.

[bwringer]

An awful lot of 4-into-1 instruction sheets said to (remove, not trash).

True. But I've seen lots of bikes with stock exhausts and missing airbox lids.

Cutting large holes into airboxes was a popular pastime as well. I guess you got bonus speed points if the holes were drilled in the post-filter part of the airbox...

An awful lot of riders with completely stock exhausts heard about the legend of the airbox lid from their buddies, ignored all that expensive hard stuff about rejetting and installing a new exhaust, pulled the large comb out of their stone washed jeans, smoothed their mullet, cranked up the Loverboy tape in the boom box, and figured they'd get more power for free by chucking the airbox lid into the trash. Then they proceeded to wonder privately why the bike ran like crap, while passing on the misinformation to any other riders they met.

Pre-internet, people would pass around the most idiotic urban legends about motorcycling as if it were gospel. Nowadays, they can spread it even faster to people all over the planet. But at least good information is available too.

If you dug into a landfill, I'm betting the 1980s layers would contain lots of motorcycle airbox lids along with all the worn-out Pink Floyd and Kenny Loggins cassette tapes.

[rphillips]

Same as with the car guys, back in the day, If you had the $$$ you would go to "Big-K" or "Western Auto" buy a chrome air breather, they were open all the way around & you could see the exposed filter all the way around. If you didn't have the $$$ for the chrome you would buy a filter appx. 1/2" taller than OEM. this would create a 1/2" gap between the top & bottom allowing air to flow thru this new opening. All either ever accomplished was when pushing hard on the gas pedal the carb. would make a loud moaning sound (oooooh it sounded fast) & the chrome looked really cool. Neither ever hurt anything. Doing this today would probably light up a check eng. light from the mass air flow sensor & computer, something we didn't have to worry about back then.

[bwringer]

Kids today are stuffing bright pink "cold air intakes" into their Mom's old Honda Civic or rusty Ford Focus. More noise, more dirt... just tape over that check engine light when the MAF sludges up. Some things never really change.

[J-Dog]

Thanks for looking, cowboyup.