Replacing the Carburetor Intake Boot on my URAL

I spent my lunchtime period working on the Russian today. The rubber carburetor intake boots are dry rotted and coming apart. Maybe I should have replaced both ? But at $40 each plus shipping I think I’ll wait until the other one rots off before replacing it.

If you’re going to roll around on Comerade URAL’s machines, you just about have to be a gearhead. Parts are nearly nonexistent, so I have to hunt and peck for whatever items I can scrounge. From what I understand, most owners of URAL motorcycles end up buying a second one that’s a junker to cannibalize, just to be able to get parts.

But I really like this thing because I can drag it around in the woods with my dog. I think before summer is over I’m going to mount an electric winch on this thing to be able to get into some really rough terrain with it. I’m ALSO looking to see if I can find a suitable mount to bolt onto the sidecar body so I can strap my chainsaw on it. Turn it into a serious woods buggy.

You can’t get anywhere very fast on pavement, but you sure can put it in 2WD and roll around the backwoods trails with all your gear.

The old carburetor intake had dry rotted and basically fell apart.

The new rubber intake boot is installed. It’s pretty straightforward. I got the replacement part from Heindalengineering.com. That company has a lot of good replacements and if you don’t see what you need on their website, give them a call and ask for it by name.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/afb12c_433957b2175c44b896775ef2b55c389d/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

I spent hours chasing the gremlins in the wiring harness for the headlight. There’s only about half a dozen colored wires in the harness behind the headlight bucket, but it’s a spaghetti mess. I don’t always have headlight problems, but when I do, I just jam my fingers in and wiggle the harness. Something in there has a loose connection that I’m not able to find, short of simply rewiring the entire mess. I checked for corrosion in the connectors and cleaned them.

I simply chalk it up to the fact that it’s Russian and it’s just a quirk that I can live with. I’m not expecting perfection from a 19 year old bike made in Siberia. The primary reason I own this thing is so I can haul my dog and my camping gear with a folding 16 foot kayak into places that are harder to access. Not to mention that I’m an old man too lazy to carry that much crap on foot. When the wiring for the headlight craps out completely, I’ll deal with it later.