I welded up the end of my exhaust pipe yet again today, and I have been toying wi the idea of replacing the exhaust from the head back. Has anyone else had the head pipe crack, perforate, split, or fall apart in some way? Is my exhaust causing issues that I can fix with a jet change or adjustment? Or should I just make a new pipe al together with added strength in the head flange area? I am asking cause if im to lean or rich could this be something that will just keep happening?
These are all wonderful questions. I had to weld my exhaust 3 or 4 times on my 2005 Grandvista / grand dink. One night on the way home the exhaust just in front of the muffler crack in have totally and the weld broke going into the muffler. I would not have thought this was even possible. I ended up cutting open the muffler on the side near the front to perform emergency surgery and I removed the "hot dog" looking part for lack of a better word.
Full Disclaimer: I'm vegetarian. Other times I had really loud vibration noises coming from my exhaust.
Anyways, when I re-welded the pipe I adjusted the muffler position to help the three bolts line up better. However, the bottom bolt broke off twice. I'm getting ready to cut the bottom piece so it does not put so much of a strain on the rear bottom bolt.
Oddly, when I removed the exhaust to fix a flat in the rear tire - to my amazement one of the 3 bolt holes had trouble lining up with the hole! It is like the exhaust moved after getting hot. I'm not sure why Kymco designed the exhaust to be in constant tension but I think it may be the cause of the problem.
Remember, the guts can only be accessed by cutting into the side. Cutting the rear "cap" and exhaust tip off does nothing. Good luck and report your results. Also, another member that lives in Romania had to weld his exhaust for the same reason.
