The bellows has a know design defect. It collapses a
bit under hard acceleration when the engine compartment is hot. This
mod is also available by purchasing a new and improved bellows made
of silicone compounds. Or by purchasing a similar insert from Mid
America (I think). What you are going to see here is a way of
bending up your own. The whole procedure took about 1.5 hrs. Not
including the time I waited while heating up the plastic bellow in
my oven at 175 deg for 20 min.
Up |
Well, you have to start by finding
a piece of aluminum sheet stock
of at least 9x20 and 3/16 in thick.
You also need to remove the bellows
and the air horn. The air horn is needed
to act as a template form factor to
bend the metal around. |
What is not shown here is the
metal wire form that I used to
know where to make the bends
in the sheet metal. Sorry about
that. I forgot to take a picture of it.
Using a piece of chain link fence
post I bent the initial form to match
the wire form. |
The metal form is shown here
roughed in and ready for fine
tuning. |
This is going to be hard to explain.
Note the vise grips. They are there
to hold the sheet metal as I drive
the base of the form with the big
vise head. This puts a bend in the
flat portion of the sheet metal.
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By forcing the pipe in after clamping
the metal form in the vise, I get closer
to the shape I want. Thing to do now
is pound down on the protruding metal
to shape the top. |
I ended up bending the center
down too far so I used the "big
pipe" to force it up.
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We're almost there. Now it is time
to get the form inside the bellow.
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Here you can see that the form is just
the right size.
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The plastic bellows was put in
my oven at 175 deg for 20 min.
then the form was slid into it.
Fits like a glove. Like it was
made for it. Oh, that's right, it
was made for it. |
Here I am tightening up the fit by
opening up the form inside a bit.
Nice tight fit.
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The strength of the form inside the
bellows needs all the leverage shown
her to get it to bend out a bit.
All done now just have to mount it in
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