pod filter from amazon

[mr72]

Hey guys-

Will this pod filter fit?

https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Motorcycle-Scooter-raceUniversal-Filter/dp/B00NFANUEK/ref=pd_lutyp_wish_2_1?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00NFANUEK&pd_rd_r=7SZQXP1Q7EA2H0XYRAYD&pd_rd_w=9W5GU&pd_rd_wg=XRrLQ&psc=1&refRID=7SZQXP1Q7EA2H0XYRAYD

[crazydred]

That would cause a lean condition, you should first repair your idle problems

[mr72]

Well, that's the plan.

But I am already jetted up. 127.5 mains and 40 pilots. Probably rich with the factory airbox.

[Bluesmudge]

If you must get rid of the air box, get the K&N lunchbox filter talked about on this forum. People have had much more success getting the jetting correct with the "lunchbox" than any cheap pod filter.

Of course, I recommend keeping the stock air box and paper filter. The paper filters better and the bike will run great at all RPM ranges w/o tons of trial and error.

Don't do the lunchbox or the pods if you have the stock exhaust.

[mr72]

If you must get rid of the air box, get the K&N lunchbox filter

I must get rid of the airbox. I must also not spend $45 on a K&N filter. I'll see how it goes with the pods. I can always go back to the stock airbox and 127.5 jets.

Of course, I recommend keeping the stock air box and paper filter. The paper filters better and the bike will run great at all RPM ranges w/o tons of trial and error.

I don't disagree for a bike that is already running, but during the season where I may be pulling the carbs off to get everything working correctly, that stock airbox is just way, way too much of a PITA. I literally spent AN HOUR trying to get it installed when I put the carbs back last time. JUST on the airbox. Finally had to remove the carbs and attach them to the airbox first then install the whole lot, which was not easy, but was at least possible. And there's no way to inspect the thing for leaks once it's installed because there's literally NO space.

Anyway, I don't disagree with you, and likely the stock airbox is a good design for a new motorcycle. But for a 25 year old bike that might require moderately frequent carb tinkering, it's just way too much of a repair hindrance.

Don't do the lunchbox or the pods if you have the stock exhaust.

I have a yoshimura from a GSXR with the stock headpipe. Going to 142.5 main jets with the pods. BTW I didn't order these Amazon pods, but some likely identical from a different seller.

I always have the stock airbox etc. to return to if this can't be made to work. But running on main was not my problem, getting it to idle is the problem and considering the fact that I may have to pull the carbs again and again I am not putting that stock airbox back on there until at least I have removed the carbs for the very last time for a long time. Once it's running reliably on pilot then if the pods and jetting are giving me trouble I'll pull it all one last time, put the 127.5s back and the stock airbox and call it done.

[rscottlow]

I don't understand the difficulty that some report in putting the airbox back in place. I've never had much of an issue. Sure, it takes a little bit of wiggling and stuff to get it into place, but I've had my carbs out close to a dozen times this summer and have never had much trouble. Is it a result of the different carbs on the older models?

[mr72]

Maybe it's the old carbs, maybe it's fuel hose routing, etc. I think a lot of it has to do with aging of the parts where some of the plastic is deformed due to heat. I am not sure it would have been possible to get the airbox on with the carbs in place. And to put the airbox on the carbs first and then put the both on together puts a lot of pressure on the intake boots, and they are 25-year-old rubber parts that really won't benefit from all of that stretching and cramming.

I'm fighting vacuum leaks here and anything I can do to minimize the chances of creating new ones and eliminate places for it to leak will be a benefit.

[The Buddha]

On an 89-00 bike with those amazon pods and slip on you need 40/150.
127.5 is for the K&N style air filter in the air box.

The K&N lasts longer and you can see it getting dirty easier, and it looks a lot better. This thing looks awful, and can fall apart (losing its end cap is a common failure for these). Else, knock yourself out.

And Bluesmudge is right. The paper is cleaner for your motor.

Cool.
Buddha.

[mr72]

Thanks for the input. I have 142.5s on the way. You think those jets are too small?

Like I say, I can always go back to the 127.5s and the stock airbox if I can't make it run right with the pods. And I can also go get a lunchbox filter. I only have $15 invested in the pods. Worth my $15 to save time putting it together and make it easier to work on until it's sorted.

[HPP8140]

the older models had the petcock mount point sticking of the frame and made it more challenging to fit the airbox.

[Big Rich]

Mr72, I'm sure those pods will make messing with the carbs much easier..... which is good news! Because with those pods, you'll be messing with the carbs 10x more than you need to. Problem is, those pods can block off one of the intake tracks at the mouth of the carbs - so they will never run 100% with them.

Yes the chrome end cap can come apart. And yes, the entire chrome body can come off the rubber boot. And yes, they don't really filter anything from getting into your engine except for bugs. And yes again..... I'm saying they are a bad idea all around. Seriously: I guarantee you'll have nothing bit headaches with those Emgo pods!

Check the cost of a top end rebuild kit (rings, pistons, gaskets, etc, etc) and see how much you're saving with those pods.....

[mr72]

Man, some of you guys REALLY don't like pod filters!

So what's the trick to getting the airbox on? The big problem with it, besides the incredibly tight fit, is that the front face of the airbox where the boots to the air horns protrude is not flat... it's kind of concave, or bent in a very slight "V" shape so each of the boots does not go on to its carburetor straight on. Is this normal? Because the result is you cannot get the boots to fit onto the carbs, period. The outside edges slip over but the inside edge hangs up on the carb throat and won't fit over. It may be possible to get it on this far and then with the air filter removed from the airbox, push them on from the inside of the airbox, but when I tried that last time, the air horns popped out of the airbox body.

So maybe it's just my airbox is deformed and won't work anyway? Maybe I should pull the air horns out and see if I can straighten the airbox with some heat?

What I'm trying to avoid is putting the carbs back on, getting the throttle and choke cables hooked up, etc., and then not being able to get the airbox on and having to pull the carbs back off, take the bowls off and change the jets so I can then put it back together with pods. I know I can get it together the first time with pods. I'm done wrestling with the airbox.

Ideas? Because you are all close to talking me out of the pods but I'm seriously almost thinking the airbox is so much of a pain I'd rather leave the bike sitting in pieces until spring rather than have to force that ill-fitting part into a space it clearly wasn't designed to go into.

[Big Rich]

Don't get me wrong - certain pods have their applications. The Emgo pods in the first post are absolute garbage though. Nothing wrong with Uni pods or K&N.

I can't help ya with fitting the stock airbox - sorry.

[mr72]

Welp... I didn't order those pods. But I'm sure you'd dislike the ones I did order just as much, considering they are likely the identical product.

However, I'm not quite as much as a fool as some of you seem to think. I can tell whether the pods are going to block parts of the carb and either modify them or toss them if that is the case. I can also tell if the filters are likely to fall apart and either remedy or chunk them. For that matter, I can also fab my own filter housing. Wouldn't be the first time.

But the reality is that I have to balance the risk of running a maximum of a hundred miles on these pod filters against the difficulty of installing the OE airbox, which like I said, is pretty well impossible. If I can get the bike to run reasonably ok with the pod filters then later (like, in October...) I can swap the cheap pod filters for Uni filters without having to pull the carbs off again. Since I know I am not likely to ever use the airbox again I am going to jet for pods and move on from there.

I have 21K on this bike, of which only about 10 miles I put on myself due to running issues. I can assure all of you that running with cheap pod filters for a month, or six months, given the fact that I am likely to ride less than 50 miles per month, is not going to cause the dramatic wear on the top end of this engine beyond what it already has. Sticking with the stock airbox for a year is not going to prolong the need for a top end rebuild... it probably needs it right now.

There has to come a time when I am spending more time riding this bike than I am working on it... which will be like 1-2 hours a month. Burning an hour trying to cram that airbox in there each time is not an efficient use of my time.

SO. Point taken. I'll plan on getting some Uni pods eventually.

[Bluesmudge]

How are the pods going to help you get the bike running if you can't get the bike running right with pods?

I can't understand saving $30 by using those pods instead of the K&N lunchbox filter which is known to work. Do you think all the time you are going to spend changing jets around and possibly never having it run right is worth less than $30? Then after all that you are going to put the airbox back in?

I'm not actually a fan of the K&N filters, but lots of people have gotten their bike running well with that filter. So you could spend the extra $30, solve your airbox problem and when you have it all figure out you are actually done.

[mr72]

How are the pods going to help you get the bike running if you can't get the bike running right with pods?

It remains to be seen whether I can get the bike running with pods. However, the problem I have been chasing is vacuum leaks and so far it has required me to be able to 1) get to all parts of the carb while the bike is running and 2) pull the carbs on and off a few times to check/fix things. This is a 25 year old bike that I have owned for two weeks. I have one grand assumption that most maintenance and proper repair was not done, so I am chasing just getting it to idle and run on the pilot jet.

I can't understand saving $30 by using those pods instead of the K&N lunchbox filter which is known to work.

Oh it's not about $30. It is about me not liking K&N in general. I can see among this forum it is quite an unpopular opinion but different enthusiast groups have different opinions and my 25 years of experience with them in other applications has soured me against K&N.

If the stock airbox would FIT as if it were designed for THIS motorcycle then there would be no question. But it won't! I even went out this morning and tried for 20 minutes just to get the "boots" to even seat correctly into the airbox and they will not. For whatever reason, MY factory airbox is ruined, junk, doesn't fit, and is otherwise useless. So if you rule out the factory airbox due to inability to fit correctly and rule out K&N due to historical bias (admittedly, probably unreasonable and unfair), then you are left with pods.

I'm not actually a fan of the K&N filters, but lots of people have gotten their bike running well with that filter. So you could spend the extra $30, solve your airbox problem and when you have it all figure out you are actually done.

I very well might do this same thing. Although if I can make it work with Uni pods I'd far rather do that than a K&N filter. I may attempt to modify the stock airbox to make it work, but at present it is not even close.

Here's a picture of my airbox, you can clearly see how the boots are not parallel with one another and cannot possibly mate up with the carb throats which are parallel with one another.


To force the airbox boots onto the carbs results in the boots coming loose from the airbox body because it is shaped in a V-shaped plane and once the boots are made parallel to one another they come out of the airbox. Also it's pretty obvious that it was designed this way on purpose, it is not just bent or misshapen from years of use. But it's possible I could remove the boots, heat the plastic airbox on the front panel with a heat gun and then re-shape it so it's flat, find some way to clamp it and maybe when it cools it'll hold the flat shape. Then it MIGHT be possible to get it to fit onto the carbs correctly.

But even without the boots mounted to the carbs, they do not fit correctly into the holes in the airbox. It's as if the boots themselves are too small by some fraction for the holes, so once you get one edge fitted, the edge on the opposite side comes loose. I suppose the the rubber parts have shrunk with age. So even if I reshaped the front of the airbox so the boots would fit, I still would need to find a way to get the boots to stay put in the airbox. Only way I can think to do that is to seal it somehow such as RTV. I guarantee if I don't, it's going to leak, and I'll still be chasing the hanging idle and other problems with the factory airbox and never be able to know if I have fixed other air leaks.

This is not even to begin talking about getting the airbox to actually go into the frame of the bike while the carbs are on the bike. It's obvious Suzuki did not anticipate this as a maintenance procedure.

I mean, I'm quite happy to throw away my $15 worth of pod filters and stick with the way Suzuki designed it to work, but it just simply appears that it is not actually designed to work at all.

[The Buddha]

You'd not get the airbox on right without taking out the filter and sticking you hands into the manifold and massaging it around and onto the carb mouth.
Cool.
Buddha.

[mr72]

You'd not get the airbox on right without taking out the filter and sticking you hands into the manifold and massaging it around and onto the carb mouth.

That's absolutely true. But when you do that, the carb boots come loose from the airbox.

I'm going to stop talking about this problem. Beginning to be sorry I asked. I appreciate the input, but until one of you guys comes over and experiences the disaster of trying in vain to get the stock airbox on my specific motorcycle, you won't understand my problem, so you will continue to treat me as if I'm some sort of dufus who just wants some blingy looking hipster parts on my bike and won't listen to reason.

[The Buddha]

Nooo, well you have to not yank the boots out of the air box, what else can I say.
Or maybe yours are worse than the average due to getting hard and un flexible etc etc. Is it available new or try spraying armorall on it and let it soak in a day or 3.
Cool.
Buddha.

[Torstein]

So what's the trick to getting the airbox on? T

The trick is, pull the air filter out, then put your hand INSIDE the air box, then you can maneuver the rubber seals around the carbs and manipulate it much easier to fit around them. Mine look practically oval when I pull them off, and the carb is round, it took a lot of head scratching and trial and error. Now I can put the airbox on in just a minute or two. I agree, it's a shaZam! design.