Couple of questions re coolant hoses and airbox

[thomp1983]

hi first post from me on here and unsurprisingly it's because my bike has problems. after stripping the bike down today to fit a new set of plugs and leads i found a few things that concern me, firstly my bike has the carb cooling circuit on it but im not sure it was fitted as stock on my bike being it's an l3, where the left hand carb coolant pipe drops down towards the water pump and should t into radiator to water pump hose the pipes seem to have been bodged together and there has been coolant leaking from there, on bikes that had the carb cooling circuit from factory how are the three pipes connected together i assume there would be a proper plastic t piece the correct size for the hoses, if so are they still available from the dealers or anywhere else?

secondly when removing my airbox ive noticed the plastic edge that's supposed to locate along the edges of the carbs only seats in at one end the other end doesn't fit neatly is this a common occurrence and will it fitting poorly be an issue? and also the smaller hose that goes to the left hand side of the airbox is blanked off on my bike is this right or should the pipe be connected to somewhere?

and lastly ive found someone has removed the sidestand switch from my bike and just soldered the wires together has anyone got a picture of the sidestand switch in place and are they easy to get hold of as id rather it was fitted to the bike as intended

cheers
chris

[RedexRobB]

hello and welcome to the forum.

There should be a proper connecting piece that connects just under the generator cover, see picture. You can leave the heater circuit out if you really want, as its only any real good in winter to prevent carb icing, mso depends weather your going to use in winter and if its even prone to icing up, just blank the connection you currently have and it should be fine. If you really want it in then you can try getting it from a dealer but i suspect this will be £££'s to buy, so you could keep an eye out on ebay or give AMS (http://www.ams-motorsport.co.uk/) a shout, or one of our forum members baz aka 'falloffslowly', 07727943464.

The airbox i believe has happened before to some people on here, i think back firing and heat can cause the box to deform, at least that what sounds like has happened. All i can suggest is getting another. Yes it will affect how your bike runs too, if theres a gap it sucking air right through at and not through the filter. The hose on the left is meant to be blanked off, it collects moisture and oil (oil from the filter) in that pipe and regularly taking the blanking off will allow any condensed water to come out, just remember to put it back.

Some poeple take thiers out because they have had issues with the switch, you can of course try and get another from a dealer or try one of the three mentioned above, dont have a piccie im afraid.

[thomp1983]

thanks for the reply, i will test the airbox fit using carb cleaner at some point the fit isn't as bad as my post makes it sound but it's still not ideal but i can't guarantee a second hand one would fit any better. there's a couple of side stands on ebay complete with switch so ill probably get one at some point. there's also one of the coolant hose connectors on ebay so ill grab that aswell and hopefully the bike will be leak free

chris

[cargo]

Ask me very nicely and I'll go look in my junk box and see if I have a side stand switch.....................yours for a donation to the site if I do.

[thomp1983]

yes please mr cargo, also whilst in your box of bits you wouldn't happen to have a working thermo switch the one that screws into the rad again mine doesn't work and the fans rigged up to a manual switch currently

cheers
chris

[cargo]

I might have a rad switch too............I'm watching the TDF just now but before the day is over I will go to the box of junk for you

[cargo]

sorry mate...............I'm sure I had a side stand switch but I'm damned if i can find it

[thomp1983]

no problem buddy ill just get them from ebay, it was a very kind offer from you

chris