Broken exhaust bracket advice

[adeejaysdelight]

I am preparing the bike for a euro tour next month. I noticed the other day that the 3rd exhaust bracket (sitting on the bike) that holds the down pipe to the cylinder head has snapped in two! Now both sections of the bracket are held onto the bike with their bolts, and the exhaust is securely fixed by the other three down pipes. Now I am wondering, do I take the whole system off and get the bracket welded before I go, or do I leave it as it is and keep my money for my holiday? I have a full Leo Vince 4-2-1 system with a carbon fibre can, so I have no intention of replacing any of it. It will be a repair. I won't be using the bike for another week or two anyway, so no worries there. It just whether its worth the hassle or not... Oh, and I can't get a decent picture of it as a result of its location.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Are the 2 parts of the broken clamp sitting fairly snugly together? If so, you may be able to use something like chemical metal to effect a temporary repair to the clamp. If everything is sitting firmly with no movement, I would have thought that you could get away with it for a while, the worst you're likely to experience is a bit of a blowing exhaust, and probably not even that.

[Fazerider]

Do you have a set of old downpipes with the clamps still on hanging around? If so you could try this bodge, it has held together OK for the last 4000 miles (also had to do the same to number 3 a couple of weeks after that).
Might be worth having a word with mobile mouse though... he bought 8 new clamps to effect the same repair on all 4 of his and I don't know how he got on.

[Stooby2]

Or is there room to get a tack weld on each break just to hold them until you get back?

[Pat]

Do you have a set of old downpipes with the clamps still on hanging around? If so you could try this bodge, it has held together OK for the last 4000 miles (also had to do the same to number 3 a couple of weeks after that).
Might be worth having a word with mobile mouse though... he bought 8 new clamps to effect the same repair on all 4 of his and I don't know how he got on.

Nice bit of lateral thinking & good metalworking skills there!

Wouldn't call it a bodge though, it's the standard mounting method on some Kawasakis, certainly was on my GPZ900R.

[Fazerider]

... it's the standard mounting method on some Kawasakis, certainly was on my GPZ900R.

  So it was! I had totally forgotten.
Talk about reinventing the wheel, I even had a GPZ500 which used the same system.


I wonder how the header stud spacing compares? The OP might feel it's worth a punt on ebay item 321170573477 to find out.

[lds1973]

When you say snapped in two do you have two cracks or just one? If its just one is leave it as it won't go anywhere. If it has cracked in two places so the clamp is no longer complete I'd just unbolt it the clamp only and weld it back together. I've welded one back together before and as long as it can be rotated on the bike there's enough room. Its not like your gonna ruin your lovely paint.

[adeejaysdelight]

Some good ideas here. I can't weld, but I have a place down the road that can do it for a fee. There is two cracks on the clamps, or it is in two pieces if you prefer. Fazerider, that is a nice wee bit of engineering. I have a scrap yard 5 miles away with a Fazer sat there in bits. I might buy one (or two) of the clamps off him and give that a go first. I would prefer to do the repair myself, or at least as much of it as I can myself. Nick, How strong is that chemical metal stuff?

[adeejaysdelight]

I was just reading about chemical metal. Would Araldite do the same job? It also states on the chemical metal website that it will only work to 160 degrees. What is the running temp of exhaust headers? Its over 160 anyway 

[Hedgetrimmer]

TBH, I hadn't realised there was a temperature limitation on chemical metal. There might be a better equivalent, don't know. I'm not sure that the clamp itself would get to over 160 deg anyway. If you use Araldite, be sure to get the high temp version, again don't know what the limit is. I believe the chemical metal is pretty strong stuff. It's not like you have major movement on the pipes to strain it, probably a combination of corrosion/vibration caused it to go in the first place? Check that the headers are seated correctly with no strain on any particular clamp if you can. Also, if there's a lot of corrosion on the clamp, I'm not sure any bonding agent will hold anyway.

[adeejaysdelight]

I think I might just get a little weld done on it then, for the peace of mind alone. I don't imagine it will cost much. Thanks everyone