| Author | Message | ||
     Dwhite13 |
Hey everyone, Im about to buy my second bike, but my first bull. I've always wanted a bull and I finally found one I can somewhat afford. Its an 04 xb9r that has a 1203 engine swapped in. The Guy is gonna give it to me for $1500. He said the only problem was a 1" crack in the header. This will be my DD for a while till I can get a car. Im not gonna hurt anything riding around with a cracked header am I? If I get it TIG'd is it just gonna crack again? I saw the American Motorcycles headers, but thats going to be a bit out of my price range for a while. Is there anything else I need to look out for when I go to look at the bike? | ||
| Desertfox |
exhaust headers are basically just tubes that carry air. I would assume welding would be fine as long as it's not a crack in the mounting flanges. The exhaust may have cracked from being installed incorrectly, so you may want to find out the proper installation procedure and re-do it if you get the bike. I'm still pretty new to buells, but I thought I would add my two cents. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Thin stainless is hard to weld, FWIW. I just tried it for fun on a buddies destroyed CRF-450x header to see how it would go. I used normal steel rods and Oxy Act, and had an awful time. The bead was porous, and the result would crack easily, and it looked pretty bad even after grinding. Maybe stainless rod would work better. If I was going to do it again, I might have tried brazing. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Tig welder and stainless rod is the way to go. Any good welding shop should have a guy (or gal) that can handle thin stainless. I used to be able to tig a butt seam in 18 gauge with no filler rod. Been WAY too long though, I don't think I could do it again without LOTS of practice. I'd like to get a tig welder just to mess with again. Back in 2001 IAMike an I were out in Colorado. His old style Supertrapp had problems that needed fixing right away. We stopped at a welding shop in Silver City. they had a young Mexican guy that couldn't speak English but boy could he tig weld! Brad |
