New member here, but not new to old Hondas. Been messing around with these bikes for about thirty years now. Current project bike(at least the one that's "on-topic" here) is a 76 CB550Four. I was actually looking for an old 450/500 Twin to build into a 70's vintage chopper project, when I ran across this old 550. At first the plan was to chop it, but the bike is almost totally original (with the exception of a mile-high sissy-bar), and only shows 19k. Of course the chrome is nasty, and the aluminum is all corroded, but it still has the original pipes in very good condition yet, and the original seat with one very small split, as well as the sidecovers (even the keyswitch is in the original location)! It still has the original toolkit too. So I decided that even tho I know it really isn't worth all the much as a "collectable", I'd like to keep it all as original as possible, just because original 30 year old bikes aren't exactly common these days. Getting her running was a simple job of a soak and rebuild for the carbs, a points cleaning, adjusting the valves, and a battery. Front caliper rebuild and she's actually rideable! The problem is that in the process of removing the carb, the rubber boots between them and the airbox plenum pretty much fell apart. I've been searching for replacements to no avail, and these are not available seperately (according to the online parts fiches they only come with the plenum at a cost of well over $100!). So I'm wondering what other folks have done about this, as I'm sure I'm not the first to face this problem. Has anybody come up with a reasonable substitute? I know I can go with pod-type filters, but I'm not crazy about the way they cause turbulance to the incoming airflow into the carbs, and as I said before I'm trying to keep the bike as stock as I can.
Thanks for any assistance!
John
