Carb to Air filter plate Rubbers

Assuming you and I have the same set-up, I have the air box fitted with the gaiters, then fit the carburettors last. They slide down from above and can wriggle into the gaiter.

If yours has the later air filter then I also fitted the rubbers, new from AN, and then wiggled the carbs in place one at a time. Perhaps the picture will help. 

Use a hair dryer on the rubbers to warm & soften them when fitting, if you get one side started you can rotate the rubbers into place.

Mike

Peter

Whenever I do this job I undo the screw bolts from the manifold to head connection and remove the inlet insulators.

With the carbs hanging loose I fit the rubber connectors to the air filter 'ham can'.

I then connect the air filter rubbers to the sleeves on the carbs and refit the manifolds with the inlet insulators inserting the screw bolts hand tight.  Check the rubbers are fitted correctly and adjust if necessary. 

Tighten the manifold screw bolts. Check the rubbers are fitted correctly. If not undo screw bolts and repeat.

Job (usually) done first time.

Andy

Peter

Pleased you got it sorted.  I definitely don't have much use for a hair-dryer these days.

However, I almost wish I hadn't bothered to respond. It probably took me longer to type the response than it would have done to do the job my way.  Certainly many ways of skinning a cat!

I have looked up the routine maintenance in the Workshop Manual and I couldn't find any reference to a service interval for either cleaning or replacing the air filter.

The only reference I could find is in Section  E10,

I reckon that back in the day air filters were rarely inspected or changed. So much of the Commando implemented design is a 'bit of a kludge' and I reckon the carb to air filter connection is one of those.  Maintenance has definitely not been designed for.

Andy

Glad you got them on - for future reference I have found it best to mount carbs to intake runners first, then runners to head. Adjust throttle and air slide cables as you need to feel / see that they raise in unison, then fit rubbers to carbs. Next fit rubbers to air box front plate without filter and mesh in place - this will allow you to seat rubbers in their holes by reaching behind the plate with your fingers . Then pull plate forward and compress rubbers with cable ties run through plate bolt holes and around spark plugs. Insert filter and mesh , cut cable ties and fasten front plate . Job done.

… I found myself with the same problem today.

Unexpected, because

(a) I have always found that the procedure as illustrated in Andrew's excerpt from the Workshop Manual perfectly satisfactory (with the exception that it is surely easier to remove and refit the filter and "gauze band" from the other side, i.e. over the gearbox end-cover; the quotes are because a perforated metal sheet does not fit my notion of gauze)

(b) I thought I had done this successfully only a few days ago.

However, I was investigating possible weak mixture, and found that the r/h carb rubber had not properly engaged with the air cleaner cover and all my efforts to get it do so were failures.

Further inspection revealed that the seal of the air filter element was fouling the inner lip of the carb rubber, and that the reason for this was excess width of the seal compared to the previous filter element by about 1 mm: see attached picture — old seal is green, new is black.

The solution looks to be to trim the edge of the seal where it curves around the rubber. I'll report on success or otherwise in due course.

I really struggled to use an AN supplied Allen key as it was too short and the bend had enlarged and distorted the hex end. Of course I don’t own any imperial keys, so I carefully ground down a metric size to finally get the carbs off. 

once I knew what size the key was I searched on evilbay and purchased a pack of 5 extremely cheaply and proceeded to cut down a couple to the correct size, one is now kept on the bike, the other in my tool cabinet. And I still have more spares available. 

The factory article above is very lacking and not universal

The procedure I use is the same for all commandos. I've never done a SS so I can't comment there.

Consider the S commando blocking access from the LH side pipes.

Now consider the 74 air cleaners with the internal snorkel.

Also the air cleaner metal screen scratches the #### out of the primary and is additionally blocked by the LH ignition key  and switch on many versions of commando.

This is what I do.

1. Manifolds/carbs fully installed with boot adaptors with flange forward as original.

2. Air cleaner fully assembled and installed....

3. Always install from right side of bike. Use correct tool to work boots in.

About 8" long.  very thin screwdriver with sharp edged buffed off.

4. Always work on LH boot first. Silicone lube the air cleaner rubber end only. 

Install on carb flange first dry, make sure boot flat is toward center. using screwdriver to aid working  the air cleaner boot end in capturing the thin groove in the air cleaner sheet metal. Check again the flat is toward the center.

5. Only when full completed left side boot, follow similar for right side boot. Carb end first dry.

then do the air cleaner end silicone lubed putting the flat inward.

I have become fairly good at doing this and most of the time it takes under 5 minutes. I have been doing it this was since the mid 90's. The practice and skill is in using the screwdriver as a finger to manipulate the boot with minimum aid from a finge on your hand.

If the boots are hard ...change them

I realise this thread was 4 years ago, but I am now struggling with the same.  I can't help wondering why the air filter box could not have been made 1/2 cm thinner - then fitting the rubber boots would be so much easier!
 

I agree.  I've had mine off and on a few times; always a bit of a fiddle but warming them up to soft them and applying a bit of washing up liquid as a lube certainly helps.

My blue 69 750- very small gap between filter and carbs made it pretty much impossible to fit the rubbers so switched to the RGM slimmer unit and now not a problem and rubbers fit perfectly- not overstretched.

My yellow 69 750, gap seems to be a bit bigger and while still a faff, can get the rubbers on with a  normal depth filter.

I just bought the slimmer RGM filter and cut the original filter mesh to the smaller size.

Eddie

Since it doesn't seem to have been mentioned, I would note that there are two different types of intake rubber to suit the early metal plates airbox and the later black plastic airbox. My original intake rubbers for the metal airbox fit with adequate clearance for the air filter elements current sold by AN. The intake rubbers for the black plastic airbox have much larger flanges and would interfere with the early type air filter.