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M1combat
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 01:02 am: | 
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Mine keeps breaking. I've gone through three or four of the originals and one from Napa (that only lasted a few days...).
It's a big problem because I've had to ride the bike with nothing but the muffler to header clamp for probably a total of 100 miles now. I know this is tempting fate.
Right now I'm using zip strips...
I bought a bag of 100 of them that are I think 14" long. I run one through the exhaust bracket on the motor, and run another under the muffler. There's enough room to run four of these straps so I figure if I keep an eye on it I'll be able to catch it before they ALL break... I've also clamped the muffler/header clamp down "very" tight. This seems to be working at least better than the Napa "T-Bolt", but I've not used this solution long enough to know if it's a viable fix.
A couple things to note...
The bracket on the engine (the front one) is easily movable when tightened and with no muffler strapped to it. I seem to remember that it used to clamp tight enough to the engine that it wouldn't move, but after taking it off and looking at it I really can't see how it could have, so I'm probably remembering in-correctly.
I don't use a torque wrench to tighten the strap, but I've tried it somewhat loose and pretty tight.
It breaks where the metal wraps around the female side of the t-bolt. The metal to either side of where the bolt goes through the female side break and releases the female fitting. Then of course the nut rattles off and Buell doesn't send the straps with a damn nut...
The header is bolted tight to the engine. It doesn't wiggle even a little at the exhaust ports when I yank on the collector.
The rear straps never break. The rear bracket does not move at all.
I'm not running the chin spoiler.
It started eating straps at about 20K miles. It has just under 30K now.
'04 12R.
It ate one strap with a Force exhaust installed, and has eaten three more since I put the Drummer back on. That first one was re-used at least 20 times as the Force "muffler" kept breaking so for a while I had it off just about every weekend welding bits of re-inforcement to it (I finally got the brackets to stop breaking, but then the pipe itself cracked... Go figure...). Threw the whole damn thing in the trash, header and all, and put on an '06 header.
Something tells me that the "loose" bracket is the culprit. The bolt that runs through it and through the engine is certainly tight, but it doesn't seem to cause the bracket to clamp to the engine. I'm imagining it being able to slide right and left as the engine vibrates up and down, eventually fatiguing the metal of the t-bolt enough to where it breaks. The problem with that theory is that the strap, bracket and muffler would all move as one... so they shouldn't theoretically be moving relative to each other, just relative to the engine...
So anyway  ... Can anyone confirm that with a muffler removed and nothing strapped to that front bracket that it either does or does not have any play in it when tightened?
In any case... I've used some zip strips that appear to be of high quality so I'm ok with that solution for now. To be honest I trust it more than the metal strap at this point. |
Alessio66xb12r
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 04:17 am: |
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hi Donald
i broke 2 original and half dozen of other brands. i think the problem is that's no way to fix and tight the front bracket.
maybe the best solution is to put the bracket in the trash and fix the muffler in the engine front hole . i did it with an home made muffler and it works fine.its not so difficult and you'll find the right way to do it . i think you need a mig machine , or similar ( i don't know exactly the english word), to make an attachment to fix the muffler in that hole , remember to put in the hole some rubber or high temperature silicon to absorb engine vibration. i know that some aftermarket muffler don't use front fixing but only the rear one and the header-muffler clamp....i don't like this solution because there is too much forces on the headers-cylinders heads attachments.
i hope i explained you correctly.
bye Alessio |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 10:15 am: |
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Something is up... most XB's don't eat straps like that.
Some random thoughts that might be helpful...
1) The Buell instructions on putting on that strap are very involved and very specific. They are probably that way for a reason, so I would not be putting one on without following them to the letter (including torque wrench). Though I do confess to re-using a strap once (which turned out fine so far, though I now now kick that strap before every ride to make sure it's still there and still solid).
2) I don't recall if there was play or not when things are loose, it's been a while since I had the pipe off. The whole system seems pretty dang tight to me though, especially once bolted up. I don't have any play anywhere.
3) If you have play and have it apart again, I would be tempted to take some exhaust RTV and put a big bead along involved brackets before bolting everything back together, then let it cure overnight before starting the engine. Seems like that would remove a lot of play from possibly worn parts, I am thinking that some of your earlier issues were cumulative, and created wear that gives things play, that now makes it a chronic problem. This might help, and surely would not hurt.
4) Most bikes don't do this, so there really is something wrong that can be found and fixed. Working around might be cheaper and more effective, but you have already done a lot of working around without success, so that seems unlikely at this point. And I don't have to tell you that a failure of that part while riding could be catastrophic... aren't you the one with the the x-rays to prove it? Or was that somebody else...
Just some random thoughts... |
M1combat
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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That was Mikel (Wyckedflesh). that incident happened not long after he, Kobie (Warp2) and Carey (CareyJ) were up at my place. He was using an aftermarket pipe but yeah... he certainly has scars, metal, pins, x-rays and a lot of pain caused by a dropped muffler. Not to mention the loss of riding time...
You're point about there being a likely solution is well taken. I re-used that first strap numerous times and it only broke once, and not until after about two and a half years . So far the zip strips are working well. I'm pretty confident that four sets of zipstrips running the same path that the strap does will hold. It seems to allow the muffler to move just a tad (no more than the strap did) and the strips seem to be OK with it where the metal wasn't. I'd rather use the factory solution if I can find what's wrong, but going through testing to find whats wrong could put me on the ground in an ugly way...
I'll be getting a CF Drummer when Kevin finally gets them to market so that'll solve the problem. Maybe I'll use the zip strips until then. |
Rsh
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 11:38 pm: |
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you mentioned your front exhaust mount is loose, maybe the bushings are worn out where the exhaust mount mounting bolt goes through the the motor and allowing everything to vibrate and fatiguing the strap. |
M1combat
| | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 04:34 pm: |
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Well... It's certainly not a "tight" fit with the mounting bracket. I can remove the muffler and make sure that the bolt that runs through s tight and it can wiggle around a decent bit...
Can anyone confirm that it's supposed to be mounted hard? Maybe there's a rubber sleeve that's gone? Maybe a spacer on one or both sides? Maybe something else? |
Rsh
| | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 05:01 pm: |
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As I had posted, there are bushings that the front exhaust mounting bracket bolt goes through. The bushings are attached to the motor, maybe they are worn out, but the only way to tell is to remove the front exhaust mount and check them. |
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Anyone else having trouble with the front exhaust strap on an XB?