| Author | Message | ||
     Tf1175 |
I am getting my headers ceramic coated and was going to have my dealer swap out my ceramic header with my current stock header when I get my bike serviced next week but FORGET that. The guy told me first it was an hour and a half but then realized it was a buell and asked the service tech guy. He said it would take 6 hours to do which would cost me about 500 bucks Needless to say I will just try it on my own. I have a service manual and I will get some friends to help me! How long has it taken anyone on here to take off their headers and put it back together? I thought 6 hours was way too long. I think I could do it in way less time and I don't even do this for a living. If anyone has any tips on how to do this aside from the service manual then let me know. any advice is appreciated. THANKS BW | ||
| Ducbsa |
I haven't done it, but I would check the Knowledge Vault if I was going to do it. | ||
| Slaughter |
It is pretty trivial. Go for it, you will have NO regrets. Get all your replacement exhaust gaskets in your hands before re-installing EVEN IF the old ones "look OK" FORTUNATELY they're in stock at EVERY Hardley dealer since they're common to the Sportster. | ||
| Froggy |
Replacing the header involves rotating the motor. Not hard to do, but it is a little involved. 6 hours seems a bit high, I would of guessed book rate was 4 hours. | ||
| Nillaice |
header removal - the cheatin' easy way first off: days in advance, soak down your header stud nuts with PBlaster, or your preferred penetrating oil. snapping a stud is no-fun. 1. Remove the chin fairing and muffler. 2. Remove the left and right side air scoops 3. Remove the engine cradle bolts so you can move it to the side (this is the sub-frame in front that holds onto the engine and oil cooler). Don't take it off -just let it hang there. 4. Remove the seat. 5. Loosen -but do not remove- the rear shock upper and lower bolts. Use a small diameter pipe on the hex key end to gain leverage. Loosen only at this time. 6. Loosen -but do not remove- the front header tube-to-cylinder head nuts. 7. stabilize the bike. (if you don't have a lift, improvise but keep the bike from falling over). 8. Remove the rear shock upper and lower bolts. Remove the shock but just lay it on the 'seat' area, out of the way. 9. Remove the fan and front screen -unplug the connector by pushing the little tab(s) in so the lock won't bind when removing it. 10. Pull the fan back, you might have to tilt and rock it but it comes out thru the back. 11. Using a 7/8" wrench, remove the O2 sensor -remember to unplug the wire connector. 12. Remove the rear header tube-to-cylinder head nuts. a universal socket or joint would come in handy on this one. 13. Remove the front header tube nuts (you loosened them previously). 14. Now comes the fun part. Pull the front tube outwards -slowly- and carefully rotate the header collector (big end) towards you and up. Rotate the whole thing to the rear of the bike and slowly pull it outwards. The trick is, the header won't just come straight down and out. You have to 'unscrew it' counter-clockwise so it should be upside down by the time it finally clears the engine and frame. 15. If you want to replace the exhaust gaskets, now is the time. Look at the ones on the motor. Then, decide if it's worth your time to try to remove them and install the new ones. Chances are, your old ones are fine. 16. Installation is the reverse of these steps. please don't Call me if you get stuck or have any questions. | ||
| Miami78 |
Nilla, when I get my headers ceramic coated, I'm coming over to see you! | ||
| Nillaice |
if you have a garage, i'll come over to your place and do it. | ||
| Ochoa0042 |
i wouldnt go as far as to removing the rear shock and fan....  you're going to have to take off the air box to get to the upper tie bar, from there you can unplug the O2 sensor's plug and take it off intact with the headers.. reinstall the O2 sensor on the new one, install headers and plug the O2 in | ||
| Miami78 |
I don't have one, but I can get us on base to use the self help garage. No idea when I'll actually get this done, maybe if the house sells quickly my wife will get off my back... | ||
| Ochoa0042 |
1. remove rear wheel, take off sprocket cover, take off belt tensioner 2. remove chin fairing, then the muffler, and the front tie bar 3. remove the airbox totally, remove upper tie bar, and unplug the O2 sensor 4. put a jack under engine and remove the front isolator bolt and get to the header When putting on my header I didnt need to take off the oil cooler brace; I lowered the engine enough for the head to touch the brace and it will give you enough room to do work (I wouldnt let the engine rest on it, the jack holds the weight) And Da Book will tell you to take off a bunch of other things that you dont really have to take off.. the book reads as if you're going to totally take apart the bike.... So there ARE steps you can skip | ||
| Tf1175 |
ya im probably going to follow it by the book but i knew that there were steps that could be skipped...just trying to educate myself as much as possible before i do it all. if anyone is in the MA area and wants to help then feel free...i got a garage to do it and free pizza and beer! | ||
| Bromanowski |
Crap! I didn't imagine removing the header being this much work!! Good thing I have all winter to do all the work I want to. | ||
| Froggy |
I would love to stop buy and watch, perhaps take photos and notes to throw up a guide on Badweb.  I can bring some grub | ||
| Rah7777777 |
I just swapped mine out. Dropping the motor and getting the header off was about 2 hours time. 100% by the book too! (which I know is odd, since I used to be an auto tech, haha) It did take about 2 months to rotate it back up.....but not the headers fault :-) replaced the TB, bunch of gaskets, oil gear, plugs, etc.... It was hard finding time to work on her :-( | ||
| Damnut |
plenty of folks in MA, how far are you from Taunton? You haven't checked out the  section yet? Should take you about 1-2 hours to do it for the first time. Pretty simple. | ||
| Damnut |
Oh what dealer was it? Sheldons? | ||
| Tf1175 |
It was manchester buell which is always really good. I have been to the nebo board. Not very often but I will check it out more! I plan on doing this in like 2 weeks because I need to have my header first from grandstand design. But if any of you guys want to help me out thatd be great. I live in chelnmsford ma so PM or just write on here if ya wanna help me out! Got my service manual in my hand today so I can read up on this! | ||
| Court |
>>>I would love to stop buy and watch, perhaps take photos and notes to throw up a guide on Badweb Could be a party. it would be nice to compose an illustrated "step by step" guide. I'd suggest sticking as close as possible to the service manual to facilitate folks doing it in the future. I am going to do something with my header and exhaust in the winter. I'd be interested. | ||
| Damnut |
Todd did you take your header off to send it to GSD or are they sending you one then you send your original back? Your about 1.5 hours away from me. If you need help let me know. We can work something out. | ||
| Tf1175 |
I haven't taken my header off yet. I'm going to orderr it from grandstand through their core exchange program. Buy one from them and then once I get the new one on ill send my stock one back for a refund. Damnut, ill keep you posted when ill do it. I got one guy from my shop that is gunna help me as well. Are saturdays good for you? | ||
| Damnut |
Saturdays are good. | ||
| Tpoppa |
Rotating the motor isn't difficult, but it does take some time. Some of the steps in the manual are not necessary. You do not need to disconnect the lines to the oil cooler, you do not need to remove or unplug the regulator (just unbolt the assembly). **Tip** Take a few pictures of the wiring under the airbox, before you disconnect anything. This will make it much easier to reconnect with everything routed properly. | ||
| Bromanowski |
Ah, Manchester is why the price is so high. In the future I would check with Manchester Harley of Nashua. Same owners and everything so they can get all the Buell parts and they are much better. A friend of mine got quoted $500 for the 10K service on his Dyna from Manchester and Nashua was only $325. Manchester wouldn't even explain why there was a difference in the price or match. They are the same company! Anyways there are numerous stories about Manchester. They do ok work but they rape enough for multiple life sentences. I only buy parts there cause I have a commercial account with them (10% discount). | ||
| Tf1175 |
Ya manchester has great service but prices are a bit high. Nashua harley does not service buells anymore. They used to but not anymore. I called up sheldons and got a price from them. They gave me 3.5 hours which is ALOT better than 6 hours at manchester. I called back manchester and told them about the time difference and they wouldnt give on their price or 6 hour time! They said that sheldons was going to lose money on it because there is no way you can do that in 3.5 hours they said. Looks like ill be doing this header swap on my own time. I got my service manual and badwebbers to help me. | ||
| Murraebueller |
My master tech here, who rides an 1125R, get them off in about an hour and a half. | ||
| Bromanowski |
Yeah Manchester is lying. They have a bad attitude there. Like all of their Harleys go for sticker price. It's like if you want the honor of being a harley owner you need to pay out the ass for it there. I was looking at an XB there and they guy wouldn't move off the price and it was easily $2k overpriced. He told me he wasn't worried about selling it and as far as I know it is still sitting there and that was like 6 months ago! The parts guys are nice so just do all the work yourself. As a side R&R cycles down the road towards Londonderry does top notch work. They are priced probably the same as Manch HD but their work is THE BEST. They are doing some of the work on my XB (repairing from a crash). Also check out the Bourgets and other customs they have. They also build awesome engines there. Great machine shop and they can do ANYTHING you could ever want. Last time I was there he showed me a 160CI engine they built for a European customer. Absolutely insane! | ||
| Bud |
header removal - the cheatin' easy way i used to do it like this ( in 2003 ) but it way more easy to drop the engine. where changing headers / dropping engines here all the time. headers in out in 2 hours is possible, but the exhaust on the 09 euro(with catalist converter ) can be a piata to remove with the sealer the used in the factory between the joint smal tips, remove the left footpeg ass. ( droping the engine can make the footpeg ass tough the primary cover) on 08 and up disconnect the cps ( crank position sensor ) at the top off the left side V-brace and the side stand wiring ( euro thingy i think ) the wiring is not ment to hold up the V-brace with oilcooler  gr, b next time, i try if it try to remember i take some pictures | ||
| Ferocity02 |
Took me about 4 hours with some BS'ing along the way. Make sure you have SPARE header gaskets. Those things are a PITA to get in and if you bend them they are trashed. |
