Is there any way to remove this screen without pulling the gas tank and removing the air box?
I'm in the process of sanding for paint and I slid card material under the grille, on top of the screen so I don't have to remove it now. But I'm really not comfortable with it for painting since the card material won't slide under as good side to side as it does front to rear. Since this is a pretty visable area I want it to come out right. If anyone has a slick way to easily remove it I'd appreciate knowing. If there's no easy way, I was considering cutting it out for paint and replacing it later - anyone done this?

I think that if you unscrew the two 10mm bolts on each side of the fresh air box, the whole assembly can be pulled down a bit so you can slide a bigger piece of cardboard. Putting it back may be hard since you will need to put a little pressure to align the holes for the bolts. I wouldn't cut it since those things are not as easy to come by as one thinks (stock ones of course). If you remove the gas tank though, you can paint that area also and there may be even some rust where the felt pads are.

I'd undo the bolts and slide the cardboard in as suggested above. The screen fits in a rubber seal that then stretches to fit on top of the airbox. If yo remove it without removing the airbox, you will have a really hard time to get itback on right.

I removed my airbox a few weeks ago to clean it out and lube up the fan bearings. In doing so, you have to remove the adjustment cable on the bottom of the box which opens/closes the baffles in the fresh air fan housing. Only problem is, you will never get it back on because of such little clearance to reattach it. As such, drop the box a little, and slide something up in there, even if it is paper. Otherwise you will either have a painted grill or be really frustrated with tryign to get that cable reattached.

Good Luck!

--Jason

why not pull the gas tank?

only takes 30 minutes max. and gives you *much* better access to the air-box.

what's 1/2 an hour compared to years of "i should have done this right" every time you look at your new paint and notice the crappy job around the screen?
Andy

well said...when it comes to paint- do it right the first time