| Author | Message | ||
     Corndogge |
Hey guys. I'm new to bikes and mechanics, but I want to do some basic work on my own. I recently bought a 2k m2, and I'm experiencing a few problems here and there. One day after riding on the highway for a few miles I noticed my header was cracked -out of the blue. Since then it's been popping a lot (and loud!)when decelerating. Also, my exhaust is smoking, and overall the bike isn't performing the way it should. I'm wondering if anyone has used exhaust wrap on their headers (figured it would be the cheapest way to hide the crack). And if smoking could be an indication of anything other than running too rich. Thanks. | ||
| Captainkirk |
You don't want to hide the crack. Fix it. It's probably popping due to excess fresh air (oxygen)and possibly a loss of back pressure. At any rate, it's not a good thing. I've seen used pipes on eBay really reasonable. I also bought my race header off eBay for a very reasonable price. Do this and see if your performance changes. | ||
| Road_thing |
Corndoggie, ditto what the Captain said. If the crack is small, just get it welded up. Make sure to have your welder use stainless rod. Then spend some time figuring out why it cracked, and fix that. There's lots of material in the Knowledge Vault concerning broken exhaust pipes. If the crack is up close to the head, it is almost certainly the cause of your backfiring. Good luck, let us know how it turns out. r-t | ||
| Corndogge |
Point taken. It just sucks cause I've only had the bike for a month. I've got some pics I decided to post. Like I said, these cracks came out of nowhere after a high speed (100mph tops) highway haul. If you see any cheap pipes for sale let me know    edited by corndogge on May 23, 2004 | ||
| Reepicheep |
Ahhh! Finally found the thread. Looks like you have the old front exhaust hanger. That thing chews through the ears of the rubber isolator in short order, and stresses the hell out of the whole system. Upgrade to the newer front mount, and be sure you keep everything unstressed on installation... Loosely assemble the whole exhaust front to back so that it can wiggle. Wiggle it. Tighten everything down just a little. Wiggle some more. Tighten some more. Wiggle some more... repeat until no more wiggle and all tightened. Either get a cheap new header, or weld the old one. I think with that old style mount, it's not a question of if it will break, but rather what part will break first. I had an exhaust header stud, you get the actual header. Of the two of us, your fix will be easier and cheaper... | ||
| Henrik |
Corey; in addition to the front hanger, I'd add Aaron's idea for additional header support: The older tubers had an additional support bracket from the front shock reservoir mounting bolt to an aircraft clamp on the collector pipe. That adds some extra support in that area. However, Bill is right. If you don't follow the mounting procedure to the letter, you *will* have trouble later, no matter how many extra mounts/brackets you add  Henrik (I might actually have a spare of that bracket - it's just some stainless strap with a 1/4 twist in the middle - I'll look) | ||
| Corndogge |
Thanks all. Bill do you have the part # for the newer front mount? I like the idea of additional support (although I can't figure out who Aaron is). Henrik do you have a picture of that? | ||
| Reepicheep |
Aaron is Aaron Wilson, who is with NHRS in Colorado, and he (and a lot of others) were a big help to me on a number of occasions. Here is a link to the Y mount information in the knowledge vault: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=3842&post=123341#POST 123341 The part number is: S1001.01A1 (I believe that is for the whole kit, which relocates the voltage regulator slightly). When I got mine, it should have been a dealer goodwill freebie, but I just bought it... long story. Now, I think the goodwill is pretty much gone, and they are just a upgraded part kit. I think it was like $100, which is a lot, but it is a nicely done part. | ||
| Peter |
That'd be NRHS ..... | ||
| Henrik |
Here ya' go;  The top arrow is pointing to the bracket itself. It's just a piece of stainless strap, that I twisted about 1/4 turn using a vise and large adjustable wrench. Drill holes for mounting bolts and elongate the hole that's going on the shock mount (visible in the picture). The other end is "nutted" to the stud of an aircraft clamp tightened around, in your case, the collector (the bottom arrow). Mine is strapped around the bottom header - it's a Buell race header where each header is a bit longer than stock. I'll at some point add another clamp + strap to support the top header as well. Henrik | ||
| Corndogge |
Well, yesterday I pulled the exhaust... yikes! That crack down by the support went all the way around and practically broke in half when I removed the pipe. Also the mounting plate was bent so that I couldn't remove the bolt without bending it back. AND I must have had a stud walk out at about the same time cause I was missing one (from the front cylinder). AND the can was welded on so it's no slip on/off deal. I posted a wanted classified -- we'll see if anything comes up. | ||
| Djkaplan |
Corey, What kind of header pipe is that on your M2? It's not the stock pipe or the one used in the Buell race kit. edited by djkaplan on May 27, 2004 | ||
| Devdawg |
Henrik, Thanks for the pic of that extra brace. I like the idea of it and will see about putting something like that on my '99 M2. | ||
| Henrik |
Carl, you're welcome. If you do go for an extra brace, make sure you use an aircraft clamp and not a welded on bracket. AFAIR a few people tried that, and it didn't work out well - bracket ripped out. The clamps are about $10 - 15 if you get them in high strength stainless. Look at the McMaster-Carr website and find page 212. Not sure what pull strength those are, and I can't remember where I got mine - sorry. Once I found the parts and the stainless strap, it was fairly straight forward to make. Henrik | ||
| Henrik |
More clamps than you can shake a stick at  Breeze Clamps a whole list Voss Clamps I think I got Clampco clamps for my bracket?? I've seen these somewhere as well - couldn't get the site to work though?? Henrik | ||
| Corndogge |
Here's how the exhaust turned out.  Dj, this might sound stupid, but I don't know what kind of exhaust it is. I just bought the bike used and the only marking is "Meg's" etched on the can. I didn't even know they made motorcycle exhausts. It looks a bit like a streetfighter when mounted (and not cracked in half). Anyway, a little off the exhaust subject, I just finished the primary tensioner install. Is this right?  I can't figure out the dents. Here's the cause of the horrible slappy grinding noise.  I'm jealous of you who are riding while I'm wrenching. Just waiting on an exhaust... | ||
| Reepicheep |
Good work Corndoggie! That exhaust is an odd looking one. Looks a little like the newer force exhausts for the XB (even more so now that it's broken  ). The second picture, the thing with the drilled divot / dent thing, is your rotor. Really big magnets are stuck to that metal "cup" like thing, that spins around some fixed coper coils, and generates your AC electric for the bike. You can see the power line coming out from behind it at the upper right. I think the drilled holes are just balancing. I am sure at the factory they have some jig to just place the magnets, and they glue them down, and the resulting setup is slightly off balance. They probably slap the thing into the equivelent of a tire balancer, and drill those holes to get the weight equal all around. Your primary tensioner shoe is the white plastic / teflon / whatever shoe that goes across a (possibly broken) metal backplate, with a big threaded stud that comes down through the primary cover you have off the bike. The tensioner comes off attached to the cover, it will be in the way when you put things back together. Don't sweat the grooves in the primary cover shown in your picture, I would bet that just about every tube frame Buell looks the same, especially all the ones built with the old style tensioners (which very frequently split). Get a shot of your tensioner, and we can tell you if it is old style or new style (the backplate thickness gives it away, pictures in the knowledge vault). Last time I was in there, F&S Harley Davidson / Buell in Dayton Ohio had what looked like a jet hot coated Buell exhaust sitting in the shop, I think it was for an X1 (had the O2 sensor hole) but might fit. Don't know if they still have it, or if they would give you a deal on it. Shouldn't be too hard to scare one of these things up. For exhaust cans, I really like my Super Trapp IDS (Internal Disk System), which is the same as the Buell Race IDS system. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Oh yeah, and you also probably want the new style front exhaust hanger ($100 more... ouch). | ||
| Loki |
Look at ebay, a couple "New Style" hangers just popped up. I think the start is $65, I saw two of them though. | ||
| Captainkirk |
Corny, See my pix of the tensioner (Yepper, they sure do split)The 'dents' are for balancing the assembly, as Reep said. Ditto on the new hanger; that's probably why your exhaust broke in the first place. The exhaust sure looks like a Streetfighter to me. I'll check my back issues of Battle2win and see if I recognize it. Watch eBay, search "Buell". I usually see a stock header once a week. Also, as long as you're in there, check your detent plate (see my post in the quick board) Good luck!  | ||
| Corndogge |
I had it all buttoned up last night, so no pics of the new vs. old tensioner. Anyway, I made sure to get the beefy one, and it definitely was bigger than stock. Thanks for the heads up Loki. I emailed that guy the other day to confirm the part #, and it is the right mount. Hopefully I didn't miss it. Am I looking at a huge performance difference between a stock header and an aftermarket part? I've got a forcewinder, cam, and a couple secret ingredients -- kept secret from me that is. I don't know how great the last exhaust was (great enough to fall apart), but it was setup by a performance shop. If it was indeed specially dyno tuned, will stock & a can be a big letdown? | ||
| Henrik |
Stock header with a quality slip-on will work fine. The Buell Race Headers supposedly gives a bit more oomph because of the equal length headers. But stock headers are not bad. Henrik | ||
| Captainkirk |
Stock header with the D&D can should do just fine. It would be my first alternative to the race pipe setup. Buell also makes a slip-on performance muffler for the stock header P/N 65012-01Y which fits 99 and later M2, X1 and S3 models. It may well be obsolete, the way things are going lately. I'm told D&D also now has a COMPLETE exhaust set up. Check their website.Post again if you can't find anything. Good luck! |
