Need to rant about Yamaha exhaust

[DelgatyXTX]

I'm in the process of trying to replace my exhaust donuts. I thought there would be enough room to slide the header back and squeeze the old donuts out and new ones in. No such luck. Get under the sled and notice how the header sits in the bracket. If the bracket were installed backward the header would slide right out. But the way they're positioned the header will only slide forward. Bad design Yamaha. So now I have to drill out 10 rivets holding the bracket in place. They're the rediculous "acorn style" stainless rivets that don't drill out easy and I snap my best bit - a cobalt one I got at a specialty tool store. IMO if you can't drill out a rivet in 30 seconds, it's needlessly strong. I remember this style of rivet from my XP which held on my running board edges. Took me 4 hours and an air chisel to get out 16 of them. Now I'm actually going to try to bend the bracket just to get the exhaust off. These things sure are designed so you have to take it into a dealer and spend $100/hr to get them replaced.

Sorry for b!tching, I just had to let it be known how frustratingly hard it is to replace 3 friggen donuts.

End rant.

 

[natedawgedog]

I'm in the process of trying to replace my exhaust donuts. I thought there would be enough room to slide the header back and squeeze the old donuts out and new ones in. No such luck. Get under the sled and notice how the header sits in the bracket. If the bracket were installed backward the header would slide right out. But the way they're positioned the header will only slide forward. Bad design Yamaha. So now I have to drill out 10 rivets holding the bracket in place. They're the rediculous "acorn style" stainless rivets that don't drill out easy and I snap my best bit - a cobalt one I got at a specialty tool store. IMO if you can't drill out a rivet in 30 seconds, it's needlessly strong. I remember this style of rivet from my XP which held on my running board edges. Took me 4 hours and an air chisel to get out 16 of them. Now I'm actually going to try to bend the bracket just to get the exhaust off. These things sure are designed so you have to take it into a dealer and spend $100/hr to get them replaced.

Sorry for b!tching, I just had to let it be known how frustratingly hard it is to replace 3 friggen donuts.

End rant.

i feel your pain on that one, heres what i did... when your re-installing them, cut off the angled sides of the steel support bracket, bend the hangers up a little bit then re-install it backwards, makes them alot easier to get in and out. or get copper donuts and be done with it for a few years.

 

[Alatalo]

Man, you are doing something seriously wrong...

Before attempting to drill the rivet, use an automatic center punch to knock the pin out of the center of the rivet. In fact, only knocking it down a millimeter or two will help. After this, even a cheap and worn drill bit will drill out any OEM Yamaha rivet in less than ten seconds.

When using the automatic center punch, make sure you support the back side of the rivet as you do not want to dent your tunnel.

 

[LJ 452]

Remove the header pipes, good to inspect them anyway. You loosen everything you have already, slide it as far back as possible, then remove each header/flex pipe. Keep the, in order and orientation so that the metal gasket can be reused. Carefully inspect the flex pipes, look for cracks between the corrigations. I use a bright light and flex them back and forth. This is how I did it on my Apex, Nytro and Phazer, unfortunately you can't just remove the flex pipes, not enough room, so you still need to loosen everything to the rear. Gotta love it, certainly one of the things I don't miss about my Nytro.

 

[BADSLED]

I can understand your impatience until I read "air chisel" are you serious? I would never even consider using it on my sled. You must be using really dull drill bits.. Never had an issue removing rivits on any of my Yamahas.

 

[bholmlate]

You need to make sure that the rivet itself is not spining or you will be there for days drilling them out. If they start to spin grab the other end with a pair of vice grips while you dril them out from the other side. I had quite a few that instantly started to spin once the drill bit got a good bite into the rivet

 

[Boston RX1]

At what mileage are you needing the change the donuts out? I will have both of my skids out this week, each having under 1500 miles and was wondering if I should make the change to copper now?

 

[revster]

I'm running donuts free!

 

[zeke66]

At what mileage are you needing the change the donuts out? I will have both of my skids out this week, each having under 1500 miles and was wondering if I should make the change to copper now?

Put the copper ones in mine last year. Had @1600 miles on the factory ones as I recall. They were shot.

 

[DelgatyXTX]

Well I'm not sure why it worked this time but I went into the garage this morning and had the exhaust off in 5 minutes. Must have been the bit because I used a brand new one and they bit easily. Also I used a slower speed.

Still I don't think it's a good idea to have to take those rivets out just to put new donuts in. The sled has 2400 miles and the stock donuts were actually in really good shape. One showed some deterioration but that was it.

 

[shadow44]

Look at my avatar...you'll never replace the darn things again lol.

 

[Dimebag]

I just finished this job in the garage.. One of the oem donuts was shot, and two of the exhaust clamps were loose. This sled has 4000 kms, and it has never been opened up and inspected before.

I installed the copper donuts from my turbo sled which has about 5000 kms on them. They still look like new.

It was a real pita to get the used copper donuts installed on the other sled..
Seems like they shrink..

 

[all_4_stroke]

I can have exhaust out in 25 mins on a nytro (I've been timed) and not once did I drill rivets. You pull the seat, gas tank, muffler, header clamps, header flange tubes, then slide the header forward and it drops out of the brackets and simply pull out. Now if I can do that all in 25 mins, how long did it take you drill those rivets? It's a dumb set up but work with it, not against it.

 

[YammyRX1]

I just finished this job in the garage.. One of the oem donuts was shot, and two of the exhaust clamps were loose. This sled has 4000 kms, and it has never been opened up and inspected before..

My sled has the same mileage and I just took it apart to find the exact same thing- two clamps were rotated (loose) and one donut shot.

 

[Dimebag]

Was that on your RX1?

My father picked up a 2005 RX1 with about the same mileage a week ago, so it might be worth checking on his sled too?