T500M air box to carb rubber

[Willsy69]

Hi
Can anyone tell me if the rubber boot that connects the air box to the carb intakes should have tubes / trumpets that go into the rubber?
Mine hasn’t got any and I’m wondering if I’ve lost them during the rebuild
Cheers
Colin

[jabcb]

No inserts go into rubber connector.

[joolstacho]

I don't know if this will help anyone but... I had such trouble fitting my airbox carbs and rubbers together on my GT500.
I've found the only way to get the rubbers fitted properly is to unscrew the airbox so it's free to move a bit, then fit the rubbers securely, finally re-align and refit the airbox screws.

[jabcb]

Similarly…

With the intake tubes attached to the air box, and the air box in position but not attached:
I use an auto drum brake spring hook tool & run it around the circumference of the carb to tube joint.
This aligns the two & makes it easy to slip the tube on to the carb.

One of the joints is easy & the other tends to be a PITA to keep in position.
Do the PITA joint first — that keeps the other in position.
Do both carb to tube joints & then fasten the air box to the frame.

[grumpy56]

I had a heck of a time with my GT380 trying all sorts of combinations to get things sorted. Could not get the boot to stay on all 3 cabs without slipping off. Ended up attaching carbs to boot off of the bike and then attaching the whole mess to the cylinders with the intake rubber boots. Then pushed the aurbox in and me and another guy working from both sides were able to secure the boot to the air box. Quite the pain made even worse with a boot that was not as flexible as you would like.

[Willsy69]

Got a NOS intake boot which had the tubes inside. Had to do the same as Grumpy56 and assemble everything first then push it onto the intake rubbers. It was a struggle on my own and only a couple of scratches on my hand a few choice words and a trapped pinky Had to take the battery and battery box as well which meant taking the seat off. Running better and ticking over
Don’t think I could have managed three carbs.

[joolstacho]

I think one of the problems is that due to the weird shape of the big rubber moulding, it distorts as it hardens with age.
My experience is that the FIRST thing to do when assembling is to attach the rubber to the underside of the airbox and tighten up that big circlip.

[grumpy56]

The rear boot seems is such a poor design. Just had to re-do my 380 last night and me and the helpful neighbor guy had quite the struggle (AGAIN) to get everything attached, I have to attach the carbs to the rear boot off the bike and tighten the bee jeez us out of the clamps for it to not pull away during subsequent assembly. Big clamp on airbox was again the last thing to go on for me (with loose airbox mounting bolts). That rear boot needs a re-design although it would probably be a challenge getting anyone at Suzuki to look into that 50+ years later eh???

[KipperW]

My 2-cents:
A small observation that might be Germain here. Has anyone noticed that since Suzuki has discovered its 'legacy' and produced new parts for the T500 - the parts are often updated?

To the point of the OP's first post; The new replacement carb-to-airbox rubber boots DO have venturi tubes molded-in, whereas the originals did not, and they are notably more flexible, so easier to fit.

Similarly, the new version of the late air box assembly (known to be restrictive - as it is identical to the 250 twins, on a motor of twice the displacement) now has 10 small holes in the top, above the two snorkels - which the originals did not have.

I'm no tuner, but it seems to me that these two items (thankfully available AGAIN) used in conjunction, would amount to a notable performance improvement over the original items, and be vastly preferable to pod filters. FWIW, I intend to find out.