Exhaust Donuts & Y Pipes....Step by step

[favarcat]

My left y-pipe is welded but it still has a very small crack in it. Welding titanium makes it brittle. I used the ultra rtv on that one. I can't believe Yamaha will not have parts until the end of Feb.. If I were going to trade next year, it would not be another Yamaha, unless they come up with a fix for this exhaust problem. I would consider the Cat Z1 4-stroke or maybe the new DI Doo. Will have to see if these new XP's will hold up. I know the new twin-spar chassis for Cat rides great and is very strong including the suspension. It's heavy, but I think that's what makes it stronger. I hope Yamaha is reading this site.

 

[AIRWOLF]

Exhuast donuts are on back order

are there any dealers that have them in stock?

send me a PM

 

[favarcat]

The donuts are back-ordered now also?

Now it's the donuts, clamps, and y-pipes all back-ordered.

If guys can't change the donuts, there will be many more y-pipes needed.

 

[ArchSledder]

Re: Y pipe

Just came back from a trip. I have an 06 Apex ER with 5,000 miles. Pulled up to a stop sign, it started backfiring. Tore it apart, found exhaust leak.

Looking for Y-pipes, mine on the right side has a hole in it about the size of a quarter. Does anybody have a clue where we can find this part which is on backorder from Yamaha?

Please call Bob 314-750-5760. Thanks!!!

Where do you get the holes?? where the donut was and now wore threw??

Here are pictures of my Y-pipe and donuts. All of the donuts are worn and the top of the Y-pipe is blown. One donut is worn more than the others of coarse.

 

[Randy J Beyer]

Picture of your pipe looks like its cracked from from rough landings rather than wore thur from normal wear and tear ?

Your exhaust donuts dont appear to be blown out ?

Are these problems structual or are all sleds going
to have problems at say 5000 miles ?

 

[ArchSledder]

I do ride hard and it took place in studder bumps. This occurred right after that. The donuts aren't blown but there is wear on them. The worst donut was on the cracked pipe and has wear on the inside. Don't know what causes it.

Did the donut deteriorate first and cause the pipe to crack? Or did the pipe crack causing the donut to deteriorate?

To my knowledge, I don't think all sleds are having this problem. It could be a rare occurrance.

 

[ROCKERDAN]

Most the pic of worn donuts ive seen here are much worse then yours....Mine were alittle worse then yours but Y pipes are fine....

Im wonding exactly what the similarities are with all the people who are cracking Y pipes?....is it simply running rough trails really hard?...

i really hope yammie rethinks these Y pipes and makes them out of stainless or some other material that is tougher...

its obvious this titanium was to save weight and is horribly brittle and not tough at all....i guess the design was that the FLEX pipe would take the flexing and remainder of exahaust from there back would be rigid and not need to worry about cracks....but the tunnel must flex too,and the Y pipes are obviously rubbing hard against donuts and making them crack...

man,i really hope some exhaust guys can come up with a fix.....has anyone taken the Y pipes to a exhaust guy and maybe they can make up new flanges to fit onto the Y pipes,that are tougher?....gotta be a better solution then just putting new Y pipes on which will eventually BREAK AGAIN!...

damn i hate when big companies KNOW SOMETHING IS BAD(IE:handlebars heaters,Y Pipes ect ect) and dont fix it!....a new design Y pipe would help down the road!....what good is it if our motors last thousands of miles but everything connected to it wears out faster then the 2 stroke sleds!....

sorry had to rant abit!

Dan

 

[ReX]

I can't see rough riding breaking the pipes.

I ride my 07 RTX ER about as hard as anyone out there and my donuts burned through at about 4000 miles. My pipes, other than wearing a little and making the clamps loose, are still fine (so far).

It might be possible that shock thermal cycling might help to crack them. I've seen mid section pipes crack with these sleds after hitting some water. Possibly the y-pipes might in certain rare occasions have issues with water also (I haven't seen it though).

With all of our y-pipes (mine and the guys I ride with who used to ride Apex's), the way they have failed is first the donuts start to break down, then the clamps start to loosen, rattle and rotate and then the pipes get damaged.

I don't believe we should be blaming failed y-pipes on aggressive riding. I do suspect for some, lake racing is helping to burn the donuts out (but I don't consider that the guys lake racing are abusing their sleds at all - many of you purchase your sled specifically to do this and Yamaha both knows and designs the sleds for the lake running culture).

There is very clearly a weakness in the design that is affecting a large number of Apex sleds once they get in the 4000-6000 mile range. To blame the owners is wrong (unless you consider just riding the sled the reason they break...).

 

[stretch]

Just wondering if you could use y pipes off a 2004 Rx1 Part numbers are the same except on the 04 there is a 02 added on the end which would be different matrial i"m thinking

 

[blue er]

Well I did my donuts Friday night after work, was amazed how easy the sled came apart, but all the bolts in the tunnel were seized solid and took me an extra 2 hours to get them loosened up, all in all started on the sled at 5:30, changed donuts (1&2 were blown right out at 4300 km) starting to thing its more of a motor mount issue. changed plugs serviced clutch, check and adjusted track greased all fittings and went home at 10:30pm now it's all ready to go.
Thinking the donuts might be a preventative maintenance issue and will add it to the summer schedule when i can work in the sun and drink a couple cold ones.

 

[ArchSledder]

Y-pipes

I found out that some of the rivets that hold the y-pipe bracket in place were loose and that is what could have caused the y-pipe to break/crack. The rivets moved about 1/8".

 

[sledheadgeorge]

I would like to add my $.02 to this topic. Since my turbo build of 04 I have had to change exaust donuts every year, execpt this year. There is a lot of chassis flex with the added power, and hard trail riding. Last year I added a flex joint to the exaust system.................No more donut problem. This is the second year riding with these donuts. I think this should be a factory added item to the exaust system from Yamaha and all aftermarket turbo kit suppliers. Cost of a good flex joint.....$50.00-$60.00. How much are exaust donuts now?

 

[apltx08]

Can you post a few pic's of your set-up, this sounds REALLY interesting, I have a buddy that does CUSTOM exhaust which I think he could set me up...

 

[sledheadgeorge]

Here is a link to the thread from last year were I added the flex joint. You can see it on the pipe just before the bend for the turbo mount. http://www.ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php? ... ht=#341989
For the stock sled you would have to locate it near the mufler and add a shield to it under neath so the studs won't touch it. Lots of pics for stock ideas. I am thinking of doing this to my son's Apex GT, but he has no issues yet with the donuts and Y-pipe. "If it an't broke, don't fix it" Hope this helps.

 

[ben apexgt]

hi guy's i heard those exhaust clamp has to be slightly modified to raise pressure around the exhaust otherwise the problem with the donut will comeback very soon did somebody tried that ?