Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Airbox mod / water?

Before I go cutting the bottom of my box, I figured I would just check first.

Has anyone had problems with water coming into the airbox when the bottom is cut out? Anything else to be concerned about?

Thx

This was my initial concern until I took a closer look. The holes will end up above the swingarm and are pretty well protected. We also cut an oval shaped piece of stainless screen and stuck that in the bottom to keep any large stuff from coming into the filter. That was just for added safety though. I was thinking one could easily take two pieces of the screen and place an oiled piece of foam between them for added waterproofing. Just be sure nOT to cut outside of the little nipples in the bottom of the airbox, they hold the filter in place, cut the screen larger so it kind of snaps down and the filter secures it in place too.
If you do this and don't like it, simply buy a new paper filter and you are sealed back up again. You do have to cut the bottom center part out of the air filter too by the way, not the entire bottom though, just the center part.

Kewl.

Thanx Pat. Great idea with the screen. I new I would get some good advice here. Now where's my dremel and rags and shop vac? Oh; in the garage.

I'll follow up.

Let me add a bit more. We drilled three 1" holes first, (place a small piece of wood under the airbox so the drill doesn't hit the swingarm when it pops through the bottom of the airbox) then used the dremel to dress it up and make the hole an oval slightly smaller than the inside where the little teets are. Much easier than dremeling the whole thing out and stinking, smoking...blech. Also try to shove some rags into the airbox on the carbs sides to keep the plastic crap from getting in the carbs. then pull them out when all done and vacuum out really good.

Thanx Mister. Great words of advice. Yeah, I see those 'Lil tabs under the filter now. I'll be Staying inside those.

I will add that I got my stainless steel screen from a large Fram air filter.

Good luck..

Ryan

HEADS UP TO ALL ABOUT THIS MOD!

I ran through some rain. It was full blown rain.
My bike just lost power and died. I remember seeing a thread about this prob and after waiting like 5 minutes it starts right back up and runs. So I assumed that was the real problem. I decided (while waiting under a bridge with my brand new 06 dead TBA, this sux royally) that I would check my filter to see if it is taking on water. Sure enough, it is. The bottom half was wet. I took a plastic bag and put it under the filter and retightened the filter to hold down the bag, thus closing the bottom hole. Maybe this was my problem. Nope. It was definatly something electrical and I will be researching that right after I press the continue button.

I JUST WANTED TO LET ALL KNOW, YES YOU WILL TAKE ON WATER WITH THIS MOD. Beware
I am 1300 miles from home and am gonna see if Brent will rush me a K&N filter that I can spray down with oil. Does anyone see a problem with that? I think that should protect me.
As for the other problem. You Know, the little tiny BIKE DYING IN THE RAIN one. Thats a whole other issue. Really pisses me off though. Very dangerous time to break down in the rain in construction with no shoulder oh, and dark. It was a miracle I rolled into a emergency pull off. Thanks to the powers at be this one. I wanted to punch Mr. Triumph right in the face and kick his balls! It did not just die once either. About 10 times. One of those it took 20 minutes to get going. It seems if you try to start too early and it doesn't fully fire up that you reset your "try again" clock.

Can someone please help me out?
I am borrowing computers and cannot find info on that dying in the rain and restarting in 5 minutes problem.
Would someone please be so kind and dig up some info/links for me? I really appreciate it. I just can't seem to find it and this dial up is killing me.

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you


...and the search feature keeps not letting me search again???

Gday Reido113 had the same drama but not just in the rain ended up being constant stopping for no reason, let the bike cool and off she goes again. Took it to my dealer only to be told it was the ignition soleniod(i think) the bike was 3 months out of warranty but they did it and never charged me.
Told me it was very rare in the BA so thought that really sucked.
Regards Ron

The thing about adding filtering of some sort to the bottom hole is that it's cutting the flow to an extent and not doing anything more than the filter itself other than adding more filtering which also cuts down the air flow. In other words, nothing you do to that bottom hole is going to help w/o also eliminating the benefit it was done for in the first place. So if water is the issue, adding filtering isn't the fix because it will help, but also remove the benfits of drilling to a degree, and a degree which is probably linear as far as how much it keeps things out vs how much performance benefit. The way i see it, if water does find it's way in there, and i think it will, you should probably pass on that mod. i did it, but only because i don't ride when it's wet. And i can tell you that there IS a LOT more that gets in with the bottom drilled than w/o, water or whatever. Since i did the mod i have to clean the filter at least once every 6 weeks minimum or i begin to lose power, and i can see the debris thats stuck to the filer.. So if that much dirt/debris gets in thru the bottom you can imagine what happens in the rain.

I think some guys have added things like a piece of foam, or some sort of "pre filter" inder the filter for that mod. Like the little filter condoms for the K&N pods.

F.Y.I. The airbox mod did let some water in and I was in baddd rain and water filled roads doing 60mph, but I really do believe it was only a problem because of the paper filter. I think an oiled K&N or UNI filter would definatly repel that little bit of water. Too bad they don't make a water repellant bag for our filters like they make for the freak kit filters. or do they? Really, it was more like a mist than straight water. Also I will probably cut the bottom off the snorkel and stick the top part back on to prevent water (and dirt) from coming in the top.

I'll let all know how this works out. I still would not recommend this mod with a paper filter! It did ruin it and the bottom half is not as effective in the airflow department right now. My mixture did go rich after the filter dried. So for what it's worth. Oh, also, the foam bottom seal of the paper filter just acts like a sponge and passes the water to the inside of the box. Not good. It looks like the K&N has a rubber bottom from the picture, and that should form a seal.

Dude I would think there are a few different styles of the pre-filter baggie things. You could find one to slip over each end of the filter and you'd be fine.