Motorbike Exhaust

[andyF]

Just noticed I've got a hole on my 4 into 1 part of the exhaust on my daily commute Fazer 600, Now am i gonna spend £200 on a new pipe? No chance, Has anybody welded a bike exhaust? any tips ?
Using a Clarke 135te with an argon mix bottle and 0.6 wire. I'm guessing a lower'sh power setting !

Andy

 

[aero]

Yes done one or two in my time.

Never MIG'd one though, gas torch and work quick!

I suggest you have a real good dig round the area to find the full extent of the problem. Nothing worse then chasing rust hole round as you weld.

Make a patch that covers the area and weld it on. If its at the low point in the system, drill a 1/8 th hole in it to let any water that will collect there drain out.

If its on a very visable part of the exhaust, preheating it with a blow lamp will make the welds flatter and slightly better looking.

Pull the torch rather then push it on very thin stuff like jap exhausts.

 

[rockjock620]

clear away all the rust and bronze weld/braze a patch on using oxy-acetylene gear. best bet all round. if you're near enough I could do it for you.

 

[busastars]

Done my Thunderace exhaust recently, with tig though, mig will be better for this as I bet that small hole will turn out to be a big one. If your not worried about apperance and the hole does spread then patch it with a bit of mild sheet.

Had about 5 pin holes on my pipe and each one was about an inch big after I cleaned it up and tried welding it.

 

[hotrodder]

clear away all the rust and bronze weld/braze a patch on using oxy-acetylene gear. best bet all round. if you're near enough I could do it for you.

I suspect it got fixed a while ago as the thread is nearly 4 years old!

 

[Pete.]

Gotta love the search function

I've mig welded quite a few of my bike exhaust, it's usually just a stop-gap but you can make a lasting repair if you take care. I clean up all rust around the hole (usually making it much bigger) and then test the surrounding material thickness using a small ball pein hammer - if it doesn't 'bounce' the metal is dead - then I make a patch up to fit over the hole and up to good bits of metal, rough-shape it coz it's going to have a lot of bends and curves, trim to fit then tack it where it touches and tap alongside the tacks to bring the next bit in touching, tack & tap until it's all tacked into place with no gaps then weld. Usually lasts a good long while unless your exhaust is so rotten it can't be welded without constantly holing.

 

[pedrobedro]

Is it mild steel? I've done a few for the bike shop and some of the Japanese bikes seem to use a mixture of mild and stainless pipe welded with whatever wire they had in at the time. There is usually a small drain hole in them at the lowest point in the collector which gets blocked and then promotes more rust. Clean it up and patch it if the hole is big enough. Another problem I've seen a few times is where a bracket is tightened up and the metal eventually tears where it is fastened under strain.