regarding exhaust down pipes

[midd]

hi can any one help me to get this right.ive loosened the bollts on the exhaust down pipes taken them off and cleaned the studs.ive used copper slip on the threads and replaced the nuts.my question is ,is their a sequence to tightning them up and how tight.also i noticed that the flanges[my be wrong terminology] that mate up with the studs are slightly different in how they have been cast .is it possible to put these upside down.as when i took them off they spun around a little down the pipes.i should have studied the first one carefully.ive cleaned and copper slipped all exhaust bolts as i want to take the system off to clean it really well with polish.could i have some advice on this please. :

[pilgrim]

There's no sequence to tightening but assuming you've got the standard two pairs of pipes they should be tightened up evenly.

To do this I suggest fitting the first pair of pipes without the silencer attached, easier and lighter (you can mount the assembly together providing you loosely locate the silencer bolt and junction clamp, but I've found some resistance in free movement of the headers). Whilst supporting the pipes in one hand screw up the nuts to finger tight and then equally tighten half a turn each with a spanner or allen key depending on the type of nuts. When the pipes feel solid just tighten each a quarter turn to seat the headers onto the gaskets, but no more.

Do the same with the second pair then mount the silencers afterwards. There is no correct way to fit the flange brackets, they work fine either way.

HTH

[midd]

thank you pilgrim .ive noted what you have said.i will now fully procceed with taking the entire system off from silences backwards to the pipes.as i said i intend to polish them up as much as possible .my bike is a 2002n red.with 10000 on the clock.its in good nick.thanks to prior owners.i have not owned it too long so appreciate knowing i cannot get the flange brackets wrong.im learning about how to do jobs on the bike bit by bit to develop a working knowledge to keep it well maintained.cheers

[HRHpenfold]

Apr 13, 2010 19:08:16 GMT midd said:

thank you pilgrim .ive noted what you have said.i will now fully procceed with taking the entire system off from silences backwards to the pipes.as i said i intend to polish them up as much as possible .my bike is a 2002n red.with 10000 on the clock.its in good nick.thanks to prior owners.i have not owned it too long so appreciate knowing i cannot get the flange brackets wrong.im learning about how to do jobs on the bike bit by bit to develop a working knowledge to keep it well maintained.cheers

You might want to buy reapers maintainance DvD's they show a lot of the common maintainance tasks, and some not so common

diversionclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=forsale&action=display&thread=2908

[CD]

You could poke out the old header pipe washers in the cyl head and fit new ones. The nuts just compress the washers so its down to feeling for a sensible torque. IMHO apart from stuff like cylinder head bolts, torque wrenches are over-rated.

[midd]

yes ive seen the available dvds that are on this site and will consider them at some point when it comes to doing service work that will save me garage money.at moment im doing cleaning work on the bike ,over the last couple of days ive spent 18 hours on it. i took the exhaust system off and fully polished the pipes and silences with degreaser and then applied high temperature paint where the collector box is to give double protection.they came up a treat.i am never going to use wd40 on the pipes again as it marks them and takes much rubbing with polish to get the baked marks off cheers .il post some photos soon.

[midd]

thanks. i know what you mean about a sensible torque.its a mind to hand type of meditation where you feel the tension [or the tightness] that is bearing on the nut and bolt .ive tryed to feel each nut onto the studs using a allen key after hand tightning each one hopefully reaching the same level of feel. i aint got a torque wrench and the nuts and bolts im dealing with in my cleaning campaign or not critical ones.cheers

[CD]

If he original socket nuts are ok, it would be wise to fit domed stainless nuts. IMHO they look better and they protect the threads. You will need a socket set to fit them.