Just went to war trying to put my exhaust back on

gee.. I am so damned sore
I sanded and painted my pipes with high heat paint
wrapped my headers
and put in new O-rings
I never thought I would end up about in tears
after 4 hours I got them on.. that is something I do not
want to do for a long long time
ended up having to go to the hardware store to buy some smaller
nuts and lock washers to attach the exhausts on the back
sorry if I am whining.. but I never thought something so
simple would kick my butt so hard...

 

What was the issue? The pipes didn't want to go into the ports? Anti-seize is always your friend with exhaust...

 

Go to the auto parts next time. Think "automotive grade" when working on your bike; it's a motor vehicle not a lawn mower. You don't get Grade 8 bolts at the hardware store.

 

pretty sure we don't have any 10.9 bolts on our bikes

 

Nope. But we do have Grade 8 or equivalents, and the local hardware store doesn't. But there's a NAPA a whole block and a half away that does. And in my town, "Main Street" is only 3 blocks long (and our stoplight at the "4-corners" goes to blinking at 11:00pm.)

 

a grade 8 equivalent in metric is a 10.9

 

The issue is when I had my exhaust taken apart
to wrap the front headers I snugged them together
too tight, so that there was millimeters of space
with were the exhausts bolted onto the back place on the
bracket
with messing with exhaust wrap being super not fun to
play with.. I just said eff it
and bought smaller bolts.. they are super snug and not going anywhere
I just never thought a small job would turn into such a pain
ohh well live and learn

 

Everything has to go into position with very loose fits so that you can turn, twist, rotate, slide, etc.... everything til it's all in position. THEN you tight everything up.

Dave

 

mm of space? how? there s/b more than mm of space between the headers and the plant even when wrapped that would allow the rear bolts slop to align. what am I missing?

 

well lesson learned
loose first then tight.. like the reverse of the prom

 

Ours goes red blink at 9pm... :/ lol

 

What is that for?

 

Stop, look all ways to make sure it's clear, then safely proceed. Other times, you have to stop and wait til the solid red light turns green.

We have some around here that will go to yellow blinking at certain times....... that means you don't have to stop unless there is through-traffic from the side, just proceed with caution .

Dave

 

Oh, did you wrap the entire system pre-assembled? When I did mine, I wrapped the front four pipes individually, and then the H and baffles as a single unit. That way I could wiggle the front four into place, then snug up the H into place.

 

Since when ??

ACE hardware, and Tractor Supply both carry grade 8, and even chrome.
Grade 8 is not required for the muffler mount bolts. There is no need for structural strength hardware for that location.
Grade 5/8.8 will work fine. The muffler cans will give way before the hardware.

Ghost

 

that was my mistake..
oh well.. I got them on.. and I don't plan on taking them off for
a long long time