Who wants to play, whats wrong with the 550?

[Guest]

I suspected I was due for new intake boots, and after a progressively annoying and finally non-existent idle I pulled the carbs. Two of these separated while pulling the carbs, the other two popped with a screw driver.



The rubber is very soft at the intake, but the mating end is as hard as glass.

I was hoping to throw new o-rings on and head to work, as this is my daily rider. Looks like I'm in for another $120 in parts.

[Dogma]

$120/20 years is only about $6/year for how long the new ones should last. Does that feel any better?

[smagnusen]

$120/20 years is only about $6/year for how long the new ones should last. Does that feel any better?

Perfect! They'll probably outlast the rest of the bike by 18-19 years

[first timer]

I have found the 550's intake boots to be very seseptable to this type of seperation. I had new set last me 5 years then they split on me.

[salty_monk]

Can you change over to the Kawasaki Z1 ones on that model? Probably not... but they are a lot cheaper

[Tom MLC]

I was gonna recommend the Kawi boots as well. Did it to my red hotrod. The Kawi boots don't need the o-ring. And they have the sync port built in, with a rubber cap to close it off.

I don't know if they would fit the 550.

edit* I just did some research. Your boots have a different part number than the GS1000. Probably b'cuz of the size of the carbs. This makes it even more likely that the Z1 boots won't work for you. Sorry.

[smagnusen]

I have found the 550's intake boots to be very seseptable to this type of seperation. I had new set last me 5 years then they split on me.

Interesting. I had checked these two years ago and they were in half decent shape. I was suprised how fast they degraded - either bad materials or bad design.

Unfortunately, Kaw boots will not fit. You can't tell by these destroyed examples, but the 550 boots are not straight. They are offset from the carb bodies to make up for the differences in spacing.

I'm sure it doesn't help that in designing this offset the engineers chose to make the rubber walls much thinner on one side. That you can see in the picture (it's where most of the cracks are).

[elevatorman71]

that sucks man i feel your pain!

[klarowe]

sorry to hear. I just pulled off my 83 550 boots and they actually still seem to be in pretty good shape... but all of the clamps are missing *dogh*. If you do end up getting new boots and they happen to come with clamps (long shot, i know) I'll buy your old clamps off ya if they are still good.
Let me know

Kenny