Hi guys,

Had my bike in at a workshop to have the carbs serviced, new carb rubbers installed, new chain fitted as well as new fork seals. Unfortunately this guy had my bike for two weeks and all he did was service the carbs and change the fork seals for R2000 (+- 200 GBP).

So now I need to install the carbs myself. Trick is the old carb rubbers are a bit hard and I cannot source new ones unless I use David Silver Spares and I simply do not have another R2000 to spend on parts right now.

My issue is that I cannot get the carbs to line up at all. I am assuming there is something to doing it that I am not seeing. Is there any guide or video that shows how to do it? I have searched this site, Google and Youtube dead with no luck.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Drop the rubbers into boiling water and leave them for a couple of mins to soften. Pop them back leaving all the clamps loose. Push the front bank of carbs into place first. Lower the rear bank and use a small flat bladed screwdriver to ease each rubber over the mouth of each carb. Use a rubber mallet GENTLY BUT FIRMLY to seat the carbs. Then do up all the clamps once seated properly.

I can usually get away without using a driver to slip the rubbers over the mouths. With the clamps loose, you can sometimes angle the rear rubbers slightly to square them up with the carb mouths.

I have tried this already but the rubbers don't stay very soft for long, especially as I'm making sure they're dry properly before putting them on, don't want water in the chambers lol... I'll give it another bash though thanks.

Don't worry about drying them completely. If you use boiling water, by the time you've fitted them it will have evaporated anyway

In the end I decided that a bit of water won't kill the motor haha

And thank you for the advice, after about 4 hours and several mishaps involving the back of an axe, my fingers and some very long four letter words the carb are finally on

Although I must admit, it did take slightly more than a 'gentle but firm' touch to get them in.