The Pod People

I've mentioned many, many times that getting parts for the VX is a colossal pain in the ass. Not only are they comparatively rare, but everything on them is expensive as well. Case in point: the air filters. There are two of them, and they are $40 each. Worse, they aren't compatible with any other bike, so there isn't an aftermarket airfilter available. Nope, us VXers just get to shell out $80 for air filters, or else rig something up.

Naturally, I chose the route of rigging something up. There is an air filter made by UNI (part number UP4152) that fits the bill fairly well, though it isn't a pop-in replacement. This isn't my idea, by the way, but the info on the web about this is woefully lacking in witty commentary and pictures. So, on to the description!

Step one is pulling the entire bike apart. There is one air filter under the seat, just in front of the battery. The other is at the front of the bike, under the gas tank. Here's what the VX looks like in this wholly undignified state:
Please note my handy tank-stand.

Now that I've got the air filter out, I get to rip that sucker apart to separate the base from the paper filter element. That would be a lot easier if there wasn't a wire mesh screen protecting the paper. Noodles and I found that the easiest method was to use a wire snip to cut the mesh at the base all the way around. There is piece of thin metal holding the screen together, we used the snips to grab on and kind of tear that thing apart. Next, cut the mesh up to the metal plate at the "top" of the filter. Peel back the screen (carefully, there are lots of sharp little bits) and then use snips to cut through the filter element. Ignore the scissors on the floor by the way, they were pretty useless.

Once you've got that crap off, you have a base that looks like this:

After that, just oil up the UNI filter, slip it on the base and tighten the clamp.

Piece of cake.

Speaking of pieces of cake, I have a small rant. I've read a lot of stuff about how hard it is getting to the sparkplug for the rear cylinder on the VX. I'd just like to state for any future VX800 wrenches out there: it's not that tough. If you want tough, try changing the sparkplugs in an 1986 Nissan 200sx. THAT is a hard job. Changing the plugs on the VX? Total cake.