Carb/Airbox Boots

[Anonymous]

The original rubber boots that connect the carbs to the airbox hardened to the point that they were no longer pliable enough to attach to the carbs. Called the closest dealer and he said sorry, parts no longer available. Yankee ingenuity always prevails! I went to the local auto parts store and bought some 2 inch i.d. radiator hose that fits perfectly on the carb inlets. Next, the original boots o.d. were smaller than the o.d. of the radiator hose. No problem, just draw a circle around the radiator hose covering the original hole in the air box. Since the airbox is thin plastic it's easy to use a dremel tool with grinder to match the o.d. of the larger radiator hose. Then cut a piece of the hose long enough to attach to the carb and fit thru the hole to the airbox. You are now ready to ride!

Regards, Lou Broering

Hope, IN

[Anonymous]

Re: Carb/Airbox Boots

The original rubber boots that connect the carbs to the airbox hardened to the point that they were no longer pliable enough to attach to the carbs. Called the closest dealer and he said sorry, parts no longer available. Yankee ingenuity always prevails! I went to the local auto parts store and bought some 2 inch i.d. radiator hose that fits perfectly on the carb inlets. Next, the original boots o.d. were smaller than the o.d. of the radiator hose. No problem, just draw a circle around the radiator hose covering the original hole in the air box. Since the airbox is thin plastic it's easy to use a dremel tool with grinder to match the o.d. of the larger radiator hose. Then cut a piece of the hose long enough to attach to the carb and fit thru the hole to the airbox. You are now ready to ride!

Regards, Lou Broering

Hope, IN

Lou
you are answering a question that i havent asked yet 8O --i have some 36 mm carbs with oval shaped inlets--i want to use the stock air box with a k&N filter from some sports car mounted in place of the stock air filter box so that the modification is not obvious. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE.
SCOTTY

[Anonymous]

My repair job was a quickie as my son trailered his Suzuki GSXR1100 (that means fast) to ride over the holiday. I don't know for sure but I think you could find a thin wall silicone based hose that you could cut and trim with good clamps to mate up with your carbs. I can't go in to details but a guy I work with told me that in several applications the K&N filters resulted in "dusting" the engine. His reasoning sounds logical. If you think about what causes pressure drop (or as we say, delta P) across the filter it's obvious. As I understand it, the reason that K@N has less restriction is that the filter has a larger pore diameter filter. That means more air flow but it means that it allows more small diameter particles entering the combustion chamber. As they say, performance is never free. I'll check around to see if I can help you with your question. Regards, Lou

[Anonymous]

My repair job was a quickie as my son trailered his Suzuki GSXR1100 (that means fast) to ride over the holiday. I don't know for sure but I think you could find a thin wall silicone based hose that you could cut and trim with good clamps to mate up with your carbs. I can't go in to details but a guy I work with told me that in several applications the K&N filters resulted in "dusting" the engine. His reasoning sounds logical. If you think about what causes pressure drop (or as we say, delta P) across the filter it's obvious. As I understand it, the reason that K@N has less restriction is that the filter has a larger pore diameter filter. That means more air flow but it means that it allows more small diameter particles entering the combustion chamber. As they say, performance is never free. I'll check around to see if I can help you with your question. Regards, Lou

I dont know the term dusting the engine--please explain--as far as a K&N filter i have gin place of the filter box with straight radiator hose and plastic ties--as far as the mixture goes it didnt effect it a bit--but after i switched to a star pro stock spyder exhaust then i had to fool with the jetting--i was running a 4 into one something when i made the original change--the original exhaust was one of those((brand???) that only made noise and did nothing else--with the baffel in or out the plug color never changed. I like the idea of coated hoses for the intake mods--its another good suggestion

[Anonymous]

After reading your post again i see that you have already explained the dusting the engine term--My velocette thruxton and many of my bikes in the sixties were run without air cleaners and although i know that dust will definitely take it toll, i think that the value of the filter in comparison to the K&N is not a problem--in fact i think that the k&N filter thing saying that just changing to it wil give improvements in performance is a farce((excption being pod type filters)

[Anonymous]

Lou,
thats exactly what i did too to my GS. the old carb boots wouldn't go on for anything. no amount of heat or oil or anything would help. so i got the radiator hose, cut it to lenght or a bit longer, dremeled the air box out, (carefully i wanted a very tight fit) and put clamps on the carb end. then when installing i gradually pushed the air box back relying on the tight clamp fit on the carbs to set the box and hose back in its postion and screwed it to the frame. a cheap fix and works great!

[Anonymous]

Wish you had said something. I have 4 extra boots sitting on a shelf at home you could have had for the price of shipping. Oh well.... :roll: