How do you reinstall the exhaust?

[Budweiser]

I just changed out the exhaust donuts on my Attak. Out of 4 I had 3 and the Y-pipes look good. With 6000 miles, I think I got lucky. So heres where my luck changes.... I also changed the ones from the muffler pipe to the Y-pipes. They looked fine but I had bought them so why not?

Well, I cannot get the muffler pipe to slide into the Y-pipes. I'm ready to scream. The steel gasket material catches on the pipe and peels back. I already drilled out the rivets holding the Y-pipes so I would have more play and that is not working either.

Any suggestions???



***Update!!! See below!!***

 

[Iceman57]

The original gaskets were compressed from being clamped. The new gaskets will be thicker and will take up more space in the pipe opening. Can you reuse the originals? If not try to put the gaskets on the end of the y pipe instead of in the pipe opening, pry open up the ends of the pipe that has the 3 or 4 cuts in it and try to slip the pipe over the gasket that is on the header. If that doesn’t work put the clamp on the gasket without the pipe and tighten the clamp on the gasket to compress it.

 

[Budweiser]

Destroyed old gaskets getting them out. Would do that to new ones also if I tried to remove them. I never should have replaced them.

I think I'll have to remove the y pipes, connect them to the muffler pipe and then reattach them to the flex pipes. Hopefully that will work but I'm open to more suggestions!!

 

[SharkAttak]

i knew this would be a nightmare to do

 

[apex yooper]

My mechanic lubed the pipe, got the pipe started, and pushed the pipe back and forth to spread the slotted part. This was done with pipes out of sled.

Isn't there spreaders that do that? don't muffler shops have them?

 

[SharkAttak]

when i go to do it over the summer, i'll be spending the money of the excell stainless steel one, don't want to deal with this again

 

[Budweiser]

Its all together. Only took about another 2 hours.

A little background info...I work nights and when I started reinstalling this, I was past my bedtime and the brain was a little slower.

So, I took the y-pipes off, which normally would be no big deal but I had used that high temp gasket stuff that Rockerdan reccommended. The donuts stayed on the flex pipe tightly due to the gasket maker so I didn't try to hard to remove them. I cleaned all the gasket maker off the y-pipes and the ends of the flex pipes. On the bench, I put the exhaust together. The y-pipes went in tight and then I cranked them down with the clamps. I could hear the steel webbing getting compacted. Which is a good thing. Then I left it for 1/2 hour. Then I took it apart again, added some grease and then worked them in and out. By the time I was done, they went in smoothly, but still had to use pressure to get them in. Then I installed the y-pipes so they were just hanging. (remember I said earlier I had unriveted the hanger that holds the y-pipes) Then I put the muffler pipe in and worked it into the y-pipes. It went together pretty smoothly. Then I tightened the clamps around the flex pipes (after adding more gasket maker), bolted the muffler down and then tightened the clamps that join the y-pipes and the muffler pipe. Of course I had to rerivet the y-pipe hanger.

I just put everything back together, put gas tank back in and started her up. No rattle!!!!

It was really not hard to change all these gaskets out. I think the key is unriveting the y-pipe hanger. I did not take the flex pipes off. If you do that, I don't believe you have to unrivet the hanger.

After all this, I would not change the y-pipe to muffler gasket unless it needs it. Mine were fine, I would not do that again.

Hope this is understandable!