mine are permanently missing, but, the carbs are on super tight anyway. You probably just need to put a little more into popping them off.

 

Once you get the entire air cleaner cover off you will be able to access the top screws. Or use a long screwdriver and the ones on the left are tightend from the left side and the ones on the right are tightend from the right side.

As far as any screws go make sure you go to harbor frieght and get a impact screwdriver to loosen all of the float screws. I wound up stripping 3 out the first time.
I replaced all of the phillips head bolts everywhere with allen head bolts.
It cost about 30 bucks for the bolts, but tear downs are a breeze now.

 

yeah i'll try it after christmas.. thanks...merry christmas

 

I don't know if you figured it out but you only need to loosen the 4 bottom screws (one on each carb). You need to wiggle the carbs loose and the boots will come out with the carbs. It takes a bit of work to get them to come off and it is easier if you are pulling and wiggling (front to back) on one side and an assistant on the other.

 

1 screw holds the boot onto the carb, the other holds the boot onto the engine. Just loosen up the bottom screws and pop the carbs off. You don't need to loosen the top screws.

Those boots are tight as all hell. you are going to need to keep working them back and forth to loosen them. I even got a pry bar on mine the first time, just be careful. I am not sure how strong the carbs are, pry bars can do serious damage.

 

oh ok. i thought u had to loosen all 8. ok... well there in there... i tried to pry it out... not really working though. cant find a point where to pry..... been wiggling also\.

 

Try squirting wd40 in the cracks above the boots. let it sit for a few hours, maybe it will work its way in there and help loosen and lube things up.

First time taking my carbs off was a pain in the butt... theres no way around it. lube and wiggle :P

 

i've been wiggling.....i t mwiggles just a little.... butnot enough to spray wd40.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggg ggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

seriously - you have to man up on em. I did the same thing you're describing for a day, afraid I was about to break something. I'm a mechanical guy, and my internal torque-wrench was telling me I was pulling too hard - there had to be something I missed. This time, the internal wrench was wrong. Finally I had enough and grabbed under #1 and #4 and really pulled, trying to rotate the aft end of the carbs upward toward the front of the bike and pulled hard - real hard. They popped off. Every other time I now know how much is required to get em off.

 

thanks adrenalnjunky i just got them off............lol