Yamaha 1300 Tourer - Yamaha 1300 Tourer Fansite

temp re-post until I can get the official how-to fixed!
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Everyone who has installed a ThunderAir kit has said how easy it is, so I thought I would try my hand at it. And once again, I’ve succeeded in turning a simple task into a Rube Goldberg, but they were right, it’s so simple, even programmer can do it. :)

What you’ll need:
4mm hex tool.
5mm hex tool.
11mm wrench.
NOTE: I suggest using a hex driver if you have one. It will make this a lot easier.
Flat-blade screwdriver.

Recommended:
Torque wrench.

CAVEAT:
If you are installing the VERTICAL Teardrop airfilter, read my comments at the bottom before you start!

So let’s begin!

What you’ll get from Thunder Air:
An adapter kit for the 1300 (Type B), and the filter style of your choice. I selected the teardrop shape, mainly because I’m tired of the round filter that’s always been on my old bikes!

I will make note here that the adapter kit I received and the kit pictured on the thundermfg.com site look different. I’ll comment on this after the install. And if you’re wondering why the filter looks odd, I put the rain guard on it and forgot to take it off for the pic. :()

Remove the four 4mm hex screws holding on the outer cover:

Remove the cover, exposing the stock air filter:

Gaze fondly upon the old air filter, remembering the good times, then toss it aside like it’s your Ex:

Remove the three 4mm hex screws that surround the throttle body opening. They are holding on the stock air box:

A hex driver really helps out here:

The stock airbox has a “spike” at the bottom sticking into a grommet. Angle the airbox out and lift up. You’ll have to wiggle it around a bit, but don’t try to pull it completely off yet:

Now that you have the airbox away from the engine a bit, the crankcase breather hose is attached to the back with a compression hose clamp. Don’t worry if you can’t get your fingers around it to squeeze it open, just carefully wiggle the hose off:

I’m lifting off the airbox from the bottom grommet here. The left side of the pic is the bottom of the airbox with the “spike”:

Here’s the throttle body with the airbox now removed from it:

The bottom bracket that was holding the stock airbox can be discarded. Remove the two 5mm hex screws:

Re-install the screws and re-torque to spec(7.2 ft-lbs):

There are two gaskets on the back of the stock airbox you will be re-using, so carefully remove them:

Place the gaskets into the adapter:

Screw the L-Barb (the plastic elbow) into the bottom of the adapter:

NOTE: If your adapter has the external filter instead of the L-Barb, others have reported installing that behind the fake cover on the left side(where some have relocated the horn).

All screwed in. I suggest snugging it up and then backing it off one turn at first. I’ll explain why in just a moment:

Attach the 3/4" hose (supplied with adapter) to the other end of the L-Barb:

Slide the 3/4" hose into the crankcase breather hose. The adapter comes with a screw-type hose clamp, but I re-used the stock compression clamp. Make sure the breather hose does not kink! If you left the L-Barb a little loose, it should turn easily towards least resistance. If you left the L-Barb snug, then you may have to over-tighten it a bit to get a good angle:

Bolt the adapter to the throttle body, re-using two of the 4mm factory hex screws and using the one from the adapter kit. Re-torque to spec (2.9 ft-lbs):

All installed:

Close-up of the L-Barb and crankcase breather hose. Make sure the hose is not kinked:

Time to install the filter itself. Take off the filter back-plate by removing the two 11mm hex nuts:

Lifted away exposing the filter:

Attach the back-plate to the adapter using the two 4mm hex screws supplied in the adapter kit:

Air filter back-plate in place. I originally was going to put on the vertical teardrop, but switched to the hortizontal:

Align the filter and front-plate onto the back-plate:

Re-attach the filter and front-plate to the back-plate with the two 11mm nuts. It goes without saying, don’t over-tighten! You’ll crush the filter.

Stand back and admire your work:

You’re done. Go riding!

Afterwards:
OK, if you here, then:
A) You are incredibly bored, or
B) You want to install a Vertical Teardrop air filter.

I mentioned at the beginning that the adapter kit I received was different from the one pictured on the thundermfg.com site. Mine contains the L-Barb to supply air to the breather hose from the adapter, whereas the kit on the site shows a filter that would connect to the breather hose instead.

I don’t mind the L-Bard design, but unfortunately this design is incompatible with the vertical teardrop filter I selected! The top bolt to connect the front-plate & filter to the back-plate is in the exact position as the L-Barb that exits from the bottom of the adapter. In this photo, you can see the L-Barb screwed into the adapter and I’ve connected the filter back-plate. You can see the white of the L-Barb easily showing through the back-plate bolt hole:

You can also see in this photo just how much the back-plate and adapter are from being able to bolt together, due to the L-Barb being in the way:

I talked to Travis at Thunder Mfg, (a very nice guy, BTW) who confirmed you can’t use the L-Barb with the vertical teardrop, BUT they can provide a plug for the L-Barb hole and an external filter(as depicted in their adapter kit photo) for the breather hose, which will then allow you to install the vertical air filter. Some people have reported installing the external breather filter behind the fake cover on the left side of the engine( where others have re-located the horn).

So, the lesson here is – don’t order off the website, call and talk to them so they can send all the parts you will need.

Also in this photo, I see what I think is a flaw in the design. Look at the throttle body opening and the top edge of the back-plate. Notice that the top portion of the back-plate is blocking the air flow into the throttle body. While not a large blockage, this is going to cause turbulence into the opening - I expected better from a kit that is supposed to maximize airflow!

You can see how much it is blocked a bit better in this photo. I have removed the adapter and laid it on top of the back-plate:

Travis at Thunder swapped out my vertical back-plate with a horizontal one, which solved the L-Barb problem(I didn’t want the external breather filter), but I still see the throttle intake being a bit blocked:

I marked the back-plate as how it fits from the back of the adapter:

This may look like a fair bit, but if you look at it from the point of view as seen from the front, there’s not a whole lot that can be removed:

Anyone know of a good way to grind out aluminum?

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Installing External Filter for Crankcase Breather:

OK, for those that want to use the external filter for the breather instead of the L-Barb, there’s not much more that needs to be done.

What Thunder will send you is a plug for the hole in the adapter and the filter:

Screw the red plug into the hole in bottom of the adapter. It seemed to fit a little loose for me, so I used a bit of thread tape:

If you are installing a vertical air filter, you may have to install it from the inside so that the plug will not block the air filter screw:

Remove the fake cover from the left side of the engine. There is a single 5mm hex screw in the front that is holding it on:

Then pull at the top of the cover. There are two “spikes” stuck into grommets the need to be pulled out. They’re pretty snug, so don’t be afraid to use a little force:

Here’s looking through the engine from the left side. You can see the breather hose in the middle in its original position:

Attach the 3/4” hose (supplied with adapter) to the other end of the external filter, just as you would the L-Barb:
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Attach the external filter to the breather hose. I used the hose clamp that came with the adapter instead of re-using the compression clamp. I did this because where the hose connects to the external filter is smooth, while the L-Barb has expansion ridges to grip the hose:
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All together:
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I was going to fabricate some kind of mount to hold the filter behind the fake cover, but the end of filter is covered in rubber, so I don’t mind it hanging loose behind the cover. Here’s everything together and putting the cover back on:

Bolt the adapter to the throttle body, re-using two of the 4mm factory hex screws and using the one from the adapter kit. Re-torque to spec (2.9 ft-lbs):

Continue on with the directions above to install the air filter and finish the install.

Addendum:
While putting the fake cover back on, It looked to me that the breather hose is too long to comfortably fit behind the fake cover. I pondered it a while and was afraid that the line would kink and restrict airflow, so decided to do something about it. I could either replace the breather line with something shorter, or cut the existing line. I didn’t want to cut the original line at first, in case I ever wanted to put the stock airbox back, but in the end this is what I did. Otherwise, I would have had to perhaps remove the gas tank to run another one. Yuk. I cut about 2” off the breather hose so that the external filter would rest behind the fake cover and just barely touch it, instead of being smashed into it. If I ever put the stock airbox back, I’ll leave the external filter in place and just plug the airbox where the breather hose used to go.

Boomer Sooner
Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis