Airbox boot repair?

I think I've finally hit on a solution... sorta.

The problem everyone has eventually:



The idea:



The application:



The solution:



Time will tell whether it will hold up, but for now, it's pliable and holds fast. The one on the left just had a minor crack, but the first pic showed the damage the gauze and liquid electrical tape sealed, hopefully forever. It's supposed to be solvent-safe, we'll see.

I think it's time for you to just buy some new boots, when they get old & brittle & start cracking, you'll repair one crack & just crack in a different spot while trying to install
Pete

If new boots are not available I would highly recommend reenforcing the repair using F4 Self-fusing Silicone Tape. This stuff is great. It looks much like electrical tape, but that's where the resemblance ends. When you use it you stretch it as you wrap things (wires, sink drains, tubing, you name it). Stretching it activates some magic molecules in it and makes it bond to itself. It also insulates electrical connections. What's so great about it is that it doesn't have any gummy adhesive and it doesn't stick or bond to anything except itself. So if you ever need to remove it there is no sticky residue, plus heat doesn't make any gooey stuff seep out like electrical tape. A 36' roll goes a long way because you stretch it to use it. Here are a couple links about it. Ed

www.f4tape.com/

www.amazon.com/F4-Tape-Self-fusing-Silic...8-1&keywords=f4+tape

Pete: If I could, I would. It seems the CSR750 parts are made out of unobtainium, and the B models aren't guaranteed to work, because they were originally fitted a) to a different style airbox, and b) to a completely different set of carbs. It'd be a crapshoot to try just about anything else. I know others have made their own out of rubber tubing from radiator hoses or whatnot, I was just searching for a way to preserve what I had. If I'd had this idea ten or twelve years ago, I never would have put pods on my CB550! :blush:

Ed: THAT'S what it's called! I remember seeing the hucksters showcasing that stuff back in the day when I frequented hamfests all over the state of IL. Never could remember what it was called, but it's amazing stuff. And REUSABLE, _IF_ you can get it unstuck from itself. Most often, it was a permanent bond, and you'd just have to cut it off.

A good product to repair them with is called Neoprene and it is made by Dupont.

I am well aware of neoprene, been wearing it for decades now in various forms. Neoprene airbox boots? Never seen them, nor have I seen a neoprene repair kit. Got a link?

I've been thinking of all the kitchen gadgets they're making out of 'silicone' nowadays. I wonder what it takes to fabricate with that, and if a person could make a plaster cast of an airbox boot, and then injection-mold a silicone replacement. Not sure if this is within the bounds of the average garage builder, but when one's stock is simply not available, any option (such as mine) is worthy of consideration.

When I worked at the chemical plant, Neoprene (synthetic rubber) could be bought in gallon pails and 5 gal. pails, it comes in liquid form and dries like rubber, it can stand temperatures of _50 C to 120C. I am sure if you look for it you can find some in the area you live.

There was no way to use my stock Z1 air box with my 33 mm carbs so I used a KZ 900 box and made my own boots out of radiator hose. It worked for years but they shrank leaving a space where it entered the box. I switched to silicon hose and I like the color too.
Steve

Now THAT I might be able to lay my hands on, at the local Oreilly Auto. How did you seal around the silicone hose to the airbox? The stock boots have a flange that fits on either side of the plastic of the box, and a plastic ring tightens it up to the box.

I had to open up the holes in the air box to fit the larger boots I made. If you buy the right size to fit over the carb, it will be snug fitting into the box. You don't need to do anything. $22 on ebay for a 24' stick or less.
Steve

n9viw wrote: Ed: THAT'S what it's called! I remember seeing the hucksters showcasing that stuff back in the day when I frequented hamfests all over the state of IL. Never could remember what it was called, but it's amazing stuff. And REUSABLE, _IF_ you can get it unstuck from itself. Most often, it was a permanent bond, and you'd just have to cut it off.

We used to use it to make a watertight seal on outside wire splices. Basically it bonds (vulcanizes) to itself and will not let loose. Good stuff!!! 3M made the stuff we used.

Sorry n9viw, don't know that I trust a fix like that, when new boots are still readily available.

Resurrecting the dead... because I'm creepy like that:

Seymore: New boots are NOT "still readily available", hence my problem. As I noted above, if new ones WERE available, at ANY price, I wouldn't be monkeying around with goofy stuff like this.

As it is, the point is moot, for two reasons:
1) As Pete the Greek mentioned, in reinstallation, one would likely just make a new crack while installing the old boots. That's exactly what I did, put my thumb right thru the left one (the worse of the two).
2) No tears shed over the previous issue, as, during my reinstallation ministrations, I discovered the boots are both a) too long and b) the wrong angle. I have deduced that these must be the outer boots of a FOUR-CYLINDER KZ750, or something similar. Someone must have broken the old ones and gotten these to 'make do', and they never did quite 'do'.

On to ebay to look for silicone turbo hose!