Is there a way to remove the air box without draining the cooling system? I pulled the tank, and the ears on my way to getting the carbs out but now I'm stuck.

thx,
R

Hacksaw blade.....

That's what I thought.

The carbs can be R&R'd with the airbox there, if that's the only reason you're looking at pulling it....

how do you pull the carbs on these? ive got a guy thats good with carbs and i plan to get the cleaned, rebuilt and re jetted...

I'ts kind of a pain in the butt. If you have a clymers manual it is pretty good at pointing out what is needed to remove them. It will tell you to drain the coolant, remove the coolant fill housing both of the tubes that connect the airbox to the carbs. Of course the tank has to come off. Once you get all of this stuff removed you still have to manuver the carbs out which is a challenge since they are connected by a common float bowl housing. I forget exactly what it said about the rubber manifold (head to carb). It said to leave one connected to the head and one to the carb but I forget which. This would have been helpfull if I had followed their advice since it took me a while to line up the manifold correctly when reinstalling.
It isn't that bad to do but it isn't real easy either.
I'm sure it can be done without draining the coolant but I tried and gave up on that after a while and just drained it.