| Author | Message | ||
     Cobraman |
My front exhaust hanger (the shoe) for my Buell race header vibrated in half about a week ago. Since I was pulling everything apart I went ahead and got the updated Y hanger and a new race header shoe ( http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-p rodshow/17095.html ). Well there is a clamp that holds the header to the shoe ( http://www.americansportbike.com/shoponline/ccp0-p rodshow/6183.html ). My old one seemed fine so i am reusing it. My question is should there be a gap between the header and the race header shoe? On the previous setup (the one that broke) I was able to get to lock nuts onto the end of the T-bolt in the clamp. Now I can barely get one lock nut on there, and I think there is a lot of force being put on the header (i.e. I am scared I am binding the header up). When I reinstalled the header I tightened top to bottom front to back. Really because I was more worried about the header seating properly in the new gaskets I positioned the header correctly in the heads and tightened down the stud nuts onto the header flanges. I figured since the rest was just support, and I really don't want an exhaust leak, the best would be to seat the headers properly then worry about the supports next. So, did I screw up my installation or should the clamp really be putting force onto the header? I know it is supposed to be supporting the header, but seems like I am having to really work to just get the clamp tight enough to just hold the nut onto the T-bolt. Thanks for the help. | ||
| Cobraman |
P.S.- anyone know the torque value for the nut on the tbolt clamp? | ||
| Cobraman |
anyone have any ideas? | ||
| Sportyeric |
You definitely don't want to be exerting force on the pipe. Consider also that the pipe expands when hot so the force, if any, will be amplified. I would suggest that the stock gaskets have lots of spare meat for movement. I would re-gasket, put the header flange nuts on finger tight, then ensure that the hanger bolts up without any force. I put an eBay header on my bike and had to slot the bracket that attaches to the hanger because of a bad fit. (Possibly the pipe was slightly bent, or just made on a Friday.) | ||
| Bhillberg |
I had the same thing happen on my header. I don't know if it was a good idea or not but I wrapped header tape around the header at the shoe. That took up the slack. I had about a quarter inch gap (maybe a little less) so I had to wrap it around quite a few times. It has held for a few thousand miles so far. | ||
| Cobraman |
interesting, will have to look into the header tape idea. I have tried to re-seat the headers, but didn't see any improvement. | ||
| Blake |
I agree with SportyEric. He'd not lead your wrong. I might, but he won't. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Cobraman |
OK finally got a new tbolt clamp (threads were stripped on the old one). I looked at the mounting of the header. Everything is sitting nice and against each other as I would expect. However, I still have a bit of uncertainty if I have everything mounted correctly. I put the clamp on, tightened it down as much as I dared, and went for a two mile test ride. Sure enough when I got back the clamp was sliding off. I noticed the two ridges on the "shoe" to help prevent this, but when I slide the clamp back far enough past those ridges the clamp seems to be crooked (not straight up and down as I expect) because of the angle on the bottom of the header. Does this mean I have the header positioned in such a way that it is farther back (the end of the header is closer to the rear tire) than before or do I need to just stop being cautious and do what is necessary to tighten the thing down? Thanks again. P.S.- If someone has a good picture of this area of their bike I think my questions could be answered very easily. I looked around a little but didn't see any pics that had a good shot of the area where the shoe is clamped onto the header. (Message edited by cobraman on August 26, 2009) |
