bending an exhaust pipe  By  endru (Read 4,266 times)

get a different header

That is one option, but it's probably my last at this point. It's hard to find a performance header for less than $35, and who knows if that one would even fit any better.

I'm entertaining the idea of cutting it off midway down, rotating the cutoff end a bit to get the right angle, then reattaching it. Would JB Weld work for that, or does the pipe get too hot? I would work it so that the new joint wouldn't be load bearing, it would just need to seal the pipe back up.

The JB Weld will cost as much as having the shop do it. The exhaust patch even more. If $10-15 is too much just bend it yourself...

Hey, great suggestions from some of my favorite people on the forum. Thanks!

I think I'll try first heating and bending it by hand, though I'm not optimistic there. If that doesn't work I'll cut it and get it professionally welded back together, which is apparently not supposed to be as expensive as I thought it would be. I like your idea too, oldchopperguy. I'm really impressed with all the creative ways you manage to problem solve. I will go with that if all else fails.

I'll post an update when I get it worked out.

I was able to make the bend! ;D

You can see my handiwork in the picture. I first screwed down the flanged muffler end to a 4x6 board so that I would have something sturdy to grip. Then I traced the angle onto a box so that I could easily check if I was making progress. Then I heated the elbow in question on my stove's gas burner. I was hoping to get it visibly hot (maybe bluish or even red), but after 5 minutes it didn't look any different and I figured it wasn't getting any hotter. I took it out to the garage, laid down some newspaper to protect the garage floor and the pipe... held the board with the pipe attached in both hands, with the very first angle at the beginning of the head pointing down at the ground, then proceeded to simply pound it onto the ground jackhammer-style. I don't know if my description is clear enough, but in any case it worked. It took a lot of force, but eventually I was able to angle it enough (which really wasn't much). It kinked a tiny bit, but I'm not bothered by that.

I would show a picture of the header and muffler re-attached to the scoot, but I now have the same problem as jeepsteve:



My muffler is hitting my rear fender, so I'll have to have the last angle straightened out. I think I'll have a shop do that though, since it's a pretty straightforward job.

Tomorrow I'm getting in my new big valve head, so if I can get the exhaust worked out, it'll be happy riding this weekend.

Well getting the exhaust pipe straightened was anything but a straightforward job. Jeepsteve - if and when you get your shop to do it, let me know how. I called about 8 different shops, half of which specialized in performance exhausts and none of them said they could do it, something about the pipe being too narrow for their machine. I finally took it in to a place, and begged them to do anything they could. He threw it sideways into a big wide vice and clamped down on the bend. It mostly succeeded in just putting crimps on either side of the bend. But it straightened it just enough that it clears the license plate and fender.

The mounting brackets were totally out of alignment at that point. I cut them off at about the midpoint so that I could use another piece of steel as a cripple and jb weld it all together. It didn't hold So now I'll drill through the cripple and clamp and just bolt them all together. It's not going to look great for now but I just need it to be functional until everything works satisfactorily.

So... exhaust pipe saga: done for now. Thanks again for everybody's help!!

I had a similar experience concerning the exhaust shops NOT having mandrels, or whatever the adapters are called that are small enough to fit the scooter pipes. I believe they COULD use their smallest one, and make a very slight bend without kinking the pipe, but only a small bend. Otherwise, with their Oxy/Acetylene torch, they could heat the entire circumference of the pipe for around a 6" length, and make a shallow bend without needing to fill the pipe with sand. It depends greatly on how much bend is needed.

You only needed a small amount of bend, and THAT should allow some "fudging" with the normal procedures. Your bolted-up system could be made to look fairly presentable if you grind all the rough edges clean, and then paint the whole thing with high-temp header paint... Flat-black is hard to beat, and "covers a multitude of cosmetic sins..." LOL! Really!

Please post pix when it's up and running.

Sincerely,

Leo in Texas