Topic: Another Wintergreen oil post, and disaster

[68grandprix]

I decided to try oil of Wintergreen and xylol to soften my carb boots. It worked well. Although the boots swelled, they are nice and supple now that they shrank back to normal size. Unfortunately, I treated the airbox velocity stacks for the same amount of time (overnight), and this picture is what I have left. I guess I've gotta figure out a new filter setup, which sucks because I like my stock airbox with a K&N. Jim

[seanbarney41]

I think the xylol was a little too much for the airbox rubbers.  You didn't say what bike, but new airbox rubbers are available and affordable from Honda for all cb750's

[jamesw]

I think the xylol was a little too much for the airbox rubbers.  You didn't say what bike, but new airbox rubbers are available and affordable from Honda for all cb750's

+1

I did the wintergreen/xylol mix. Never again. For the price of new ones, it's just a better idea.

[Ujeni]

It has worked for me, but I have never left it soaking that long. I usually soak for about 30 minutes to an hour.

[68grandprix]

They're CB750s(2.5 bikes and almost 5 engines, hence why I'm trying to save money on rebuild parts). I'll have to check out the price on some airbox stacks. Thanks for the heads-up.

[scottly]

Let them sit out in the sun a few days; they may shrink back down as the solvents evaporate.

[AwesomeCB]

You can buy a set of repro air box boots for about $30 on eBay.

I tried the wintergreen thing and it did nothing for my old carb boots. I think for what I paid for wintergreen oil, I could have bought repros for less.

[Bailgang]

I had the same results with the wintergreen/xylol. It worked fine on the intake boots but the airbox boots didn't fare too well for me either.

[2wheels]

I did wintergreen oil mixed with alcolol (methel hydrate). It took a few days to soften them.  But there was no swelling.

[The Lone Builder]

I have just used ordinary cooking oil and acetone to achieve the same thing. The boots were like rocks and after a few hours were supple as could be. I left them for a couple of months and they had hardened again so I repearted the process.

However, when I tried to fit them, I couldn't get them to stretch over the carbs. I tried heating them in the sun and this worked to a degree; got one on after a struggle. But even then the fit didn't look good.

I reckoned this was just going to cause me trouble down the line, so I bit the bullet and ordered new ones on EBay for £40.

[przjohn]

Just buy the repros for $30. You need to know what battles you can fight on these bikes. The whole Wintergreen thing is a waste of time IMO when you can buy repro parts. Put your time and effort into things that show real rsults with elbow grease like polishing cases, cleaning up wheels, painting engines, etc. If someone sells a repro of something you need for a resto buy it.

[68grandprix]

The problem (for me) with buying repros is that it would cost me $300 for three sets of intake boots. I just can't afford that. The Wintergreen cost $30 and seems to have worked (at least the boots are better than they have ever been, while I've ridden the bike for thirteen years). But, the Wintergreen is also going to cost me $50 for the air box rubbers... But they really needed replaced anyway. If I bought a repro for everything this bike ever needed, I wouldn't get the enjoyment or sense of accomplishment of fixing or restoring original parts, and the bike wouldn't be Japanese anymore, it would be Chinese, given where most of these repros come from. Oh, I'd also be broke...