Replacing / Cleaning the Air Filter

[Mustang]

1. Remove the carburetors from the engine ( yes you read it  right !)

2.   Remove the gas tank(I usually leave the fairing panels on ) , seat and side panels as well as the battery . You will see why the battery needs to come out in next step. Also you might want to remove the coils from the frame tube as it provides a little more of an open area to get at the carbs  

3. Unscrew the band clamps on the carbs both engine and airbox side
They come out the right side easier and go back in easier from the right side

4. Unbolt the two bolts on each side of the snorkels that are attached to the actual air box , the rearmost bolt on each side has a locknut on it which can be accessed with a 10 mm wrench or socket in the battery compartment  ( now you know why the battery came out .

5 . take the snokels off and push the air box back as far as it will go . This should give you a little bit of wiggle room to get the carbs out of their boots .

6. when removing the carbs unhook the choke cable at the carbs themselves and unhook the throttle cable from the twist grip , trust me it's much easier that way .

7. Pull the carbs straight back and then wiggle , shove cuss , cuss a little more and pull the carbs out the right side , without damaging the rubber boots  .

8. while you have the carbs out look and see if the original filter is still inserted in the 'T' where the fuel line connects , if it is pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers and clean it and reinstall .

9. Now with the carbs sitting safely on the workbench and and not left hanging by the throttle cable off the right side which tends to damage the throttle cable .

10. Finally you can pull the air box out .........you can at this point install a brand new airbox , which by the way is the only way triumph sells you a new airfilter is to buy the whole airbox already assembled with a new filter in it .

Or if you are a cheap SOB like me go to step 12 . (You might need the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous after you deal with the air filter   )  

11. Transfer your rubber boots and boot clips and drain hose to the new box and then install everything back the reverse order of above .

12 .
The triumph airbox can be separated and remove the filter for cleaning . when you put the clean filter back in use silicone sealer on the filter flange or they like to suck dust .

You can also buy a K&N element to fit into the triumph air box
Personally I prefer the triumph filter over a K&N. everyone has their own opinions on these , but if it can flow 50% more air as claimed it can flow more dust too .

13. Use soapy water to clean the element and you can use air filter oil on it if you want but OEM is dry .

14 . If you were successful at splitting open the airbox with out any captive nuts spinning or finding that your air box is cracked and all broken to shit . They usually are . You can reuse the box ,  or pony up the money for a new one .

before you stick the filter back in the bike ..have a look see if the plug is in the end of the drain hose if it is pull it out and drain any liquid that is there (water , gas , oil ) put the plug back in the drain hose .

15 Time to re install everything . in reverse order of the way you removed it .
 Don't forget to hook the oil breather pipe back to the airbox before you shove the carbs back in .  Otherwise it is an incredible pain to get the hose back on with the carbs in the way .

TIP***** When you get the carbs back in place shove them into the boots on the engine first and leave the band clamps loose for now ..........tip the carbs towards the engine which will raise the air bells up and the air box boots will slide right on . While holding the carbs up still tighten the boot clamps on the airbox side (at least get the two outer ones done . Now you can go ahead and tighten up all the band clamps *****


Easy now wasn't it  

Over on the triumph trophy yahoo group site they have a mod in the file section where you split the rear half of the airbox into two pieces and I can see where this would make it a whole lot easier to remove the air box front half  to replace the element without having to pull the carbs

I have never done it myself though cuz when I do an air filter in the tiggers I like to check the fuel filter and clean it as well as give the carbs the once over and general cleaning .

Next time I do a filter change
I will upload some photos to this thread  / how to .

[Colonel Nikolai]

I just did this one on my 96 Sprint and it took me three hours to fit it back again. It was hard and yet it was the second time I've done it. The first time was easier. I think the difference was that I had a lot more light the first time. Get an array of work lights or do it on a sunny, sunny day. My trouble was I couldn't get the carbs to seat back into the engine boots. I had to push so hard I thought I was going to break my hands. Then suddenly THOCK!, they popped in.

[Birdy68]

:shock:

This is something I was thinking of 'quickly' doing....  :roll:

Think I'll leave it for now and have a new one fitted at the 40k KM service - they have to check the valve clearances so they are already stripped down enough!

*thinking very hard*
Or maybe I should take it upon myself to get to know Tiger better - and do it all myself!?

Will need that tool you offer Mustag, for pulling the shims out.

Heck - this whole mission might even be fun!

btw - Pictures would have been nice - but I understand.
Thanks for the write up.

[Mustang]

btw - Pictures would have been nice - but I understand.
Thanks for the write up.

I'll add pictures next time I yank an airfilter for service .I have already done 5 of them this spring (all tigers) and seem to always forget the camera

next time I will take my time and photo the whole procedure ............but it may be a while cuz my three tiggers are good for the rest of the season

[retrogeordy]

But surely the filter goes in from the top so why the need to take the carbs off ?

[Mustang]

cuz it's nothing like your tiger , the filter is sandwiched between two plastic halves of the airbox and the only way to get the airbox out is to remove the carbs

you need to own one to understand

[Birdy68]

OK - half way through the 40'000 km service - fingers are still crossed and so far things have gone somewhat to plan!
The oil & filter were quickly changed early this morning before I started the air filter exchange!!!

The point you made about swearing a lot was rather true! Removal of the carbs' is a MUST...  
There is simply NO ROOM to pull the STOOOPID shaped filter out to the side!

Here you can see how the air filter box has to bee inserted:
(impossible if the carb's were still installed)





Upon removing the carbs' it was clear that I have to order new connection rubber collars - the original ones have finally seen the end of their days I think:






Another issue was the coil for cylinder #1... the connection lead was somewhat corroded:





The one thing that brought me to wonder if something was not right, was the snorkels!
- Is it correct that only one side of the snorkels has an input while the other is capped off!?





Anyway - I was pleased I replaced the filter.... I think it was LOOOOOOONG over due!




So - tomorrow I'll order those new collars and then start at the shims!

Question:
- Is it best to keep the carbs' removed to get the valve cover off?
or
- Can I reinstall the air filter and carbs' before I start the shim clearance & replacement exercise?


Well - at the end of the night the garage didn't have room for the wife's car :D

[Birdy68]

The one thing that brought me to wonder if something was not right, was the snorkels!
- Is it correct that only one side of the snorkels has an input while the other is capped off!?

OK - I saw in BikeBandit that this IS the correct set up!!! This is strange! Why have it if it doesn't act as a snorkel!?

[harre]

I have been thinkin' about this for a while: Wouldn't it be possible to remove the snorkel on the capped side and put some kind of cap directly on the airfilter box? Perhaps this will affect the airflow too much but I would sure like to try. The removal of one snorkel would save weight and space (or you could keep it and use it for tool storage). Another advantage would be that you could actually cut away the short piece that connect the airbox to the snorkel and by this allow for the sliding of the airbox to one side, without having to remove the carbs!

[Rocinante]

I too believed that could be done, but instead of removing it I stuffed it full of spare parts on a longer journey. After a while I figured out it was the reason the engine would stumble and run poorly. I removed the stuff and it ran smooth again.

The conclusion is that you need that reservoir of air. Don´t remove it.

[Mustang]

OK - I saw in BikeBandit that this IS the correct set up!!! This is strange! Why have it if it doesn't act as a snorkel!?

steamers like it that way ..............
unless you do lots of mods to the jetting ,and / or  pistons , cams etc. the airbox needs to be like it is

[harre]

Sounds possible then, but perhaps more difficult than I hoped for. Maybe there is a need for a smooth air delivery that is impossible without snorkels. I think I have seen foam pre-filters attached directly to the airbox somewhere on this site. I would like to fiddle as little as possible, going up slightly from stock jetting and then find the best airflow/restriction with snorkels replaced by foam pre-filters. I now that some have tried separate filters one each carb, but maybe this is easier. It would indeed be good to get rid of the snorkels altogether. Then just add a 3-1 exhaust and I don't need a Tiger 800....

[intotheabis]

I am absolutely amazed that on such a great bike designed for riding in the dust all day that you would have to dissassemble the entire bike to change a filter. Has anyone tried to install the individual K&N Filters on each carb?

[fishnbiker]

I am absolutely amazed that on such a great bike designed for riding in the dust all day that you would have to dissassemble the entire bike to change a filter. Has anyone tried to install the individual K&N Filters on each carb?

 I have seen a photo of a Tiger once with 3 K & N units, but no details. I went that way, but with only 1 filter.

As I see it, the size & shape of the snorkels has to do with meeting EPA requirements for noise control. If that requirement is ignored, then a whole lot of options suddenly appear. My route was to remove the snorkels and cut off the "horns" on the airbox. This allowed the remainder of the airbox to be removed for servicing without touching the carbs. The next step was to figure out the airflow changes & re-jet to match. After much experimenting, the final setting ended up going from #112 main jets up to #130. You could go that far without too much hassle. PM me if you want more details.

Rocinante mentioned trying to disconnect the snorkels, but had problems by not re-jetting. About 10 years ago, I showed him how mine were used for parts/spares storage. A good idea, but needs follow-up. Mine has been working great for 10 years now. Dyno'd at 101 hp is a nice extra. Slight loss of torque below 4,000 rpm & about 10% less fuel economy too. Another modification got my range back up to about 340 km / 225 miles per fill before going onto reserve.

I have posted more info on the K & N system at ...

http://tigertriple.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ght=filter (http://tigertriple.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980&highlight=filter)

Original modification is shown on the Yahoo groups Tiger site, cut & paste this link ...

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Tri ... 20et%20al/ (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/TriumphTiger/files/Pictures/Fuel%20Tank%20Carbs%20Airbox%20Frame%20et%20al/)

[Mito1]

Hi everyone,  I have a 94 Tiger with 121,000km on the clock.  Im sidelined with a broken shoulder at the moment due to a splat on my mx'er.  Lots of time on my hands so thought I would sort out the rough idling on the Tiger.  I determined that it was the l/h cylinder at fault and most likely the idle circuit as it would run if I squirted fuel into carb throat.  All pretty straight forward stuff.  Thanks to Mustang for the airbox service tips.  Yep,  it's a bloody tight fit and not really user friendly but in addition to Mustangs tips, I found the following helpful.
1) make lots of room,  the more service area the better
2) service and lube up the hose clamps so work freely,  alot easier to do up if free
3) grease up all of the rubber mounting stubs and air cleaner tubes,  both inside and out.  The carb assy is approx 1" wider than the clearence you can create so the carb assy has to deform the rubber stubs as it is offered back into place.  Being slippery really does make the difference.
4) I turned the clamps over so the screw was at the top,  alot easier to access.
I have just carried this task out with one arm,  believe me,  I needed everything going my way on this one.  

Cheers,  hopes this helps  Stu