| Author | Message | ||
     P0p0k0pf |
I had an exhaust stud nut back off on my S1W, causing an exhaust leak. Rather than just re-torque the nut, I pulled the pipes away and replaced the gaskets. I saw some talk in the archives regarding the flat SE gaskets versus the tapered buell gaskets. The dealer gave me SE gaskets yesterday, and I noticed upon removing the old ones that SE gaskets were in there already. The front pipe gasket looked a bit mangled with evidence of blowby. I was surprised to see that the pipe end just butts up against the gasket. I installed the new gaskets, slid the retaining rings into the flanges, and assembled everything with a little finesse and wiggling (the pipes...not me). Both leak. I tightened both ends down little by little until I knew they were considerably tighter than 6-8 ft-lbs. Still leaking. The leak isn't extremely hot, but I didn't rev the bike- it was cold. Should I wait a few heat cycles for them to seal properly after a couple of torque checks, or do I pull these gaskets out and put buell gaskets in? The retaining rings were loose enough to freely slide on the pipes, but stopped securely at the bead on the end of the pipe. Josh_- Any difficulties with this problem when you had the bike? Thanks in advance fellas! Jason | ||
| Tripp  |
i've read some of those posts too and it seems that there are an equal amount of proponents on either side of the fence. i've never tried the SE gaskets but the standard beveled jobbies i put in a few months ago socked up nice and easy and never leaked. | ||
| Josh_  |
The exhaust is an art not a science. It will take several tries to get it on right and just the right sequence of tightning (all my Buells are like that). You don't want to go much over 10-ft/lbs as you'll destroy the washers and cause a leak. I'd use the "new" gaskets. I switched to the SE as I thought my fancy custom front mount would cure all exhaust issues. Make sure to periodically check the nuts for tightness with new gaskets - they'll crush and loosen. The one thing I never did was install "aaron's fix" which is a tiebar from an S2 that bolts to the front of the pipe and then to the upper shock mount giving you an additional point of stability. tie bar is 65947-96ya. | ||
| Henrik  |
Aaron's tie bar fix works well. Keep in mind though, that if you're running the race header, the standard tie bar will not reach, and you'll have to make your own. Not hard, using SS strap, a bench vise and a large adjustable wrench. It takes a few tries and some adjusting to get the twist just right. Henrik | ||
| Azbueller  |
If the flanges in the exhaust header are tapered you need the stock tapered seals, on my Force pipe the flanges are flat and not tapered so the S.E. gaskets work best to seal it. |
