tips on reinstalling the carbs?

[Cadapult]

I've given the carbs a cleaning on my '82 Maxim, and wondered if there are any tips on the easiest way to put them back in. It took a bit of wrestling and prying with a wooden lever to pop them back into the rubber intakes, and I had to push the air cleaner joint tubes all the way into the air box to have enough room. Now the ridges on the tubes are catching on the holes in the air box at the same time the ends of the tubes catch on the carb intakes. It looks like you need three hands to fit in an area two of mine won't squeeze into.
Am I going about this the hard way? Is there a technique to pop these things in without the cussing and high blood pressure? Especially since I will undoubtedly have to pull/re-clean/install them about a dozen times before everything is running right.
Thanks,
Cadapult

 

[OliverB]

Easier to remove air filter boxes and air filter tubes. Gives more room to work.

 

[wedge98]

OliverB is spot on. Remove the intake tubes and then you have a lot of room to work with.

 

[thlillyr]

What worked for me is attach the intake tubes to the carbs befor putting them back in the bike. Mine were a little chewed up and I wasn't able to get them to seat when they were in the air box. Put the carbs with the intak tubes in the air box and pus it way back. Note the smaller output tubes are not attached to the carbs at this point. Once the carbs and intake tubes are inmand seated nicely cram in the output tubes on at a time. Once it's all on bolt it down.

 

[Cadapult]

The main issue I had was getting the intake tubes back on the carb, not getting the carbs into the rubber intake manifolds.

thlillyr, I'll try putting the plastic intake tubes on the carb intakes first as you suggest, not sure about getting the intake manifolds on the carbs that way though, but I'll give it a go.
Thanks for any and all suggestions folks
Cadapult

 

[drewpy]

use a hairdryer on those rubbers, keeps 'em soft

 

[trippel]

Yep, I install the boots from carb to intake manifold second, put the carb into the air box boots first. Then you get to test your dexterity with an allen key between the carb and engine.

feels like this either way though

 

[Sub Zero]

+1 on the hairdryer. used one reinstalling carbs on my seca. took all of 3 minutes to have them back on including the clamps on the airhorn and intake boots.

 

[leedutcher]

a little patrolium around the ridge on the carb holders got mine on in a jiff

 

[Cadapult]

I'm still doing battle installing the two tubes from my Maxim's air box to the carb intakes. I wrestled the tubes out of the air box and tried fitting them on the carb off the bike; they won't slide onto the carb intakes, no matter how much cursing I applied. "Well there's yer problem..." So on to Plan B to get those bastidges installed. I'm going to wrap a layer of masking tape around the carb inlets to increase their OD a couple thousandths, boil the intake tubes to soften them up, then force the tubes over the taped intakes. Once they're cool they should be a tad loose on the carbs, enough to install them but not so loose a hose clamp won't secure them. If the molded ridges that hold them centered in the air box openings give me grief I'm cutting the outer ones off. To seal and secure the tube I'll use a ring cut from some inner tube, slid tight to the air box after the tube is in place.
Does this sound feasible?

 

[thlillyr]

you could just ditch the air box all together and go with some pod filters. In case you do know that removing the air box all together and putting an airfilter directly to the back of each carb.

 

[Cadapult]

If I just can't get this mess together I may go with pods, but I was hoping to get the bike running and adjusted first to have a base line to work from. I'm still trying to find out if the carbs are good to go or still need more work/cleaning.

 

[Cadapult]

Got pissed at trying to get the tubes from the air box to the carbs in place, so I went with 'Plan B' (described above), except I ground off both middle ridges/rings from the tubes. Without them catching on everything in sight I was able to slide them on the carbs easy-peasy. I had also filed & polished a small bevel on the carb outlets so sliding them into the rubber manifolds would be easier.
The final process was:
1) Manifolds bolted to head
2) Install air tubes and push them fully into the air box, just the flanges showing
3) Position carbs and use a small wooden lever & some wiggling to pop them into the manifolds
4) Pull the tubes out of the box and fit over inlets of carbs
5) Position & tighten 4 hose clamps
An additional step will be sealing the hoses at the air box with some closed cell foam, but that will be cake compared to the PITA of trying to get them wrestled on with the ridges still on 'em.

 

[thlillyr]

Congratulations!! It took me forever to get my carbs back on. And I'm dreading taking them off again for further tuning for that exact reason.