It's covered over and over again. The airbox, oiled filter, and tightly fitting airbox lid are designed to greatly restrict air flow through the carb and motor. If you derestrict it, you are allowing air to flow much easier. That may sound like a good thing, but it actually causes the gas/air mixture to be too lean (too much air, not enough gas) for the design of the motor. Running these motors lean is a very good and fast way to seizing (permanently or semi-permanently destroying) the motor.
Scooterspal wrote:OK... I see. Mine came with the filter bone dry. I have since soaked it in 30 weight oil and replaced it.
Does the oil do anything other than attract dirt? Does it affect the operation in some other way.... the oil fumes I mean?
Hmm... my filter was dry when I popped off the airbox lid. The seller said he put a new airbox (and filter i guess, it looked new) so I guess he didn't know to soak it. Will have to do that soon I guess.
1985 Honda Gyro S (project bike, work in progress!)
1984 Honda Spree - Bought May 30, 2008 with 810.8 miles on it. (Sold with ~1600mi)
Others owned/rode/sold: '86 Helix trike, '07 Vino 125, '88 Elite 250
It's just a sponge. You pour some oil on it (the manual actually says to use 80/90 gear oil), then you squeeze the oil all around so it's not all in one spot, then you squeeze out the excess that would otherwise just drip out, then you put the filter in and seal the box. That's all there is to it.