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Crikey, that's a fantastic recipe for bending and breaking unobtanium parts... please PLEASE don't raid the lumberyard to get your carbs back in, people.
I use a versatile power tool found in my wallet. It's a plastic rectangle with an assortment of magic numbers I use to order up a fresh set of boots.
Some shortcuts and money-saving measures are worth taking. This one is not.
For some bikes, new carb boot sets are available from https://www.cruzinimage.net/ at a much friendlier price. By all accounts thus far, and from what I've seen personally, they appear to be high quality parts from Japan.
It's also important to replace the rubbers from the airbox to the carbs. If yours are old, shrunken, and hardened, you will be amazed at how much larger and more flexible they are. Many people have been convinced they received the wrong parts because old ones shrink so much.
But sometimes you're really stuck in a situation where the Visa trick won't work because you can't get the boots any more. If the boots are just hardened and shrunken, but not separated or cracked you can often get usable results by soaking the rubber in a solution of wintergreen oil and xylene. This replaces the plasticizers in the rubber and can often get these parts usable again.
There's a commercial product called Rubber Renue, but it's very spendy, and some folks have purchased the ingredients and mixed up their own. Xylene can be found in any paint department, but wintergreen oil (AKA methyl salicylate) is a little harder to find. I've done this with good results. You do have to start with intact parts; if they're separated or cracked, they're not recoverable.
I use a versatile power tool found in my wallet. It's a plastic rectangle with an assortment of magic numbers I use to order up a fresh set of boots.
Some shortcuts and money-saving measures are worth taking. This one is not.
For some bikes, new carb boot sets are available from https://www.cruzinimage.net/ at a much friendlier price. By all accounts thus far, and from what I've seen personally, they appear to be high quality parts from Japan.
It's also important to replace the rubbers from the airbox to the carbs. If yours are old, shrunken, and hardened, you will be amazed at how much larger and more flexible they are. Many people have been convinced they received the wrong parts because old ones shrink so much.
But sometimes you're really stuck in a situation where the Visa trick won't work because you can't get the boots any more. If the boots are just hardened and shrunken, but not separated or cracked you can often get usable results by soaking the rubber in a solution of wintergreen oil and xylene. This replaces the plasticizers in the rubber and can often get these parts usable again.
There's a commercial product called Rubber Renue, but it's very spendy, and some folks have purchased the ingredients and mixed up their own. Xylene can be found in any paint department, but wintergreen oil (AKA methyl salicylate) is a little harder to find. I've done this with good results. You do have to start with intact parts; if they're separated or cracked, they're not recoverable.
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