KDXRIDER.NET

I took the airbox apart on my new '89 to clean out all the grunge and I noticed that the rubber boot isn't sealing up properly when I reinstall it. The rubber boot is sandwiched to the plastic airbox between the plastic cage that the filter attaches to on the inside of the box and the aluminum trim ring on the outside.
The plastic cage is bowed out in between the mounting bolts, and the aluminum trim ring on the outside of the box is too flimsy to really exert much clamping pressure. Since the rubber boot is sandwiched between these two parts, there are areas between the mounting bolts that have deflected enough to allow air and water into the airbox.
Has anyone else noticed this problem? The last thing in the world that I want to do is allow some grit into my just-replated cylinder. I'm thinking about making two rings out of 3/16" or so aluminum to reinforce everything. One will go against the plastic cage and the other will replace the trim ring on the outside. I'll have to remove the molded-in bolts from the plastic ring and use thru bolts to sandwich everything together.

......Or am I overthinking this whole thing?

that's the way I would do it
unless you can get a second piece of rubber or maybe neoprene or something to seal in between the box and the cage so you can keep the molded in nuts I don't see a better solution

I had trouble with that too!

Serious bugger and also found mine was missing a screw or a nut. In the really hard to reach area where it's impossible to get a wrench on it. From what i can remember, you have to work the outer race of the rubber carb boot into the air box until it's sealed.

Then install the cage inside the box, which has the the bolted studs. Install the nuts on the outside and tighten everything down. Was frickin hard though that's all I remember.

I noticed that as well when I switched to the KDX air filter for my hybrid. If you scroll down a little in this post, you can see how I tackled this.

http://haroldbawlzangya.com/2013/06/02/ ... park-ride/

Man, that's a slick solution. It's similar to what I was picturing, just a whole lot more refined than my idea. Well done. I'm going to talk to my machinist on Monday hopefully and see what we can do.

Just need to apply waterproof atv gasket all around.

I thought about the RTV fix, but it just seems like kind of a band-aid fix for the problem. I'm sure that it could be made to work but I'd rather address the faults in the design. I'm pretty sold on the aluminum plates to reinforce everything. I'll post up some pictures when I get them made up. I might even have a few extra sets made if they work well and anyone else is interested.

even if you diy on the aluminium plate, you should also put some rtv sealant onto it.

I used this instead of RTV:

I noticed the same problem on my '89. The rubber boot had actually started to tear a little in areas and didn't make a solid seal all the way around, letting in a little bit of dust/dirt that I noticed in my carb.
I ended up just putting black duct tape all around the edge. Barely noticeable, took 2 minutes, and perfectly sealed.

Tedh98 wrote:I used this instead of RTV:

Yep! Don't use silicone. Look on the bottom left of the package, everyone....."resists gasoline"

Teh98, great job on getting the right stuff.