Airbox hose?

The carb-to-airbox boots on the KZ400 are shot. Ron Ayers has 'em in stock for $15 apiece, but that seems a bit excessive to me, especially when the '77 boots are $6 a pop.

So, I've been going over my options... Pods are a possibility. The bike's not mine, & it's not gonna get ridden in bad weather.

Then I started thinkin'... :ohmy:

Basically, the '76 boots are a chunk of 2" i.d. hose. If I could find some hose that size, I could make a set of boots.

So, a few questions for the KZ gurus here:

How hard is it to put pods on a '76 KZ400 Standard? Will Emgo pods do, or is it worth it to go Uni?

Will '77 boots fit '76 carbs?

Where can I find 2" i.d. hose?

Thanks for any tips,
-Kit

Kit:
Do you have McMaster Carr in NY?
They are an industrial supply distributor, not really automotive. But they have just about everything. Kind of like a Home Depot on steroids.
Here's the link:
www.mcmaster.com/
Type 'rubber hose' into the search engine.

Hey Kit,
Nice to hear from you. How is the triumph?

Here are 2 links from the archives.

kzrider.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=22048

kzrider.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=5050

Henry used hose from Home Depot, the reinforced type. IIRC i've seen this stuff at any good hardware store. He just force fit it on the carbs and made the airbox hole a bit bigger.

Thanks, y'all. Kent, the Trumpet's treatin' me nice, but I struck out at HD. LTDRider, thanks for the link! Took me quite a while, but I found some 2" ID PVC tubing that should work. I'll update after I try it.

Cheers,
-Kit

sounds like your in the same boat as me.

boots are shot and for a quick fix i used rubber sealer.

im also thinking of pod filters.
my only problem is the worry of extended use.
how well the carb to head rubbers hold up over years, seems like an awful lot of wieght to to hold up on two peices of rubber.

i did however notice that the bac brackets that hold the airbox in could be turned around and bent to hold up the pods.

take a look and tell me what you think

Just followin' up here: the hose project is off; I just snagged a set of Uni pods (the fancy ones with the chrome, even!) for $8 on eBay. They should do nicely, assuming I can get the carbs back to gether...

Mykznme: I haven't had a chance to look at the whole setup. I'll probably have a look after the pods arrive & I'm ready to put it all back together & follow up again then.

Cheers,
-Kit