How to fit an aftermarket exhaust
Day 1
1) Preparation is vital if you want to make fitting your new exhaust a stress-free, pain-free experience. Give the bike a good hose down before you start, make sure you get right up under the bike, where you’ll be working later.
2) Once the bike is reasonably clean, you want to give the exhaust and surrounding engine casing a hefty douse with Gunk or similar. Finally, apply a heavy dose of WD40 to all studs, nuts and bolts that hold the standard exhaust in place and leave it overnight to soak.
Day 2
1) The following morning make sure you have the right tools available, nothing worse than getting halfway through the process only to find you’ve got to go to Halfords to replace a missing size 14 spanner. Specifically, the following will get you through:
- Socket set
- Open spanners
- Rubber mallet
- New exhaust gaskets
- Exhaust assembly paste
- Copper grease
- WD40
2) Work from the rear of the bike towards the front undoing the bolts that hold in the standard exhaust in place. If possible, remove the end can first. Finally you’ll need to get access to the header pipe collars. For 4 cylinder engines and parallel twins you may need to remove the radiator, if you’re lucky you will be able to leave the radiator attached at the top and remove the lower bolts so that you can tilt the radiator up to gain access to the exhaust manifolds. If you are forced to remove the radiator and therefore drain your coolant think of it of one less item to attend to at your next service.
3) Give the exhaust header bolts another dose of WD40 and try to see how stiff they are. The heat these are exposed to may mean they need a swift pass over with a blow torch, try to keep the heat local to the bolt without overheating it.
4) Remove the exhaust header bolts and see if the manifolds come free. They make need a 'jiggle' (technical term) or a whack with the rubber mallet to release the gaskets. Ensure when removing the header pipes that no debris gets into the exhaust port, having removed the headers I suggest putting a dry clean cloth in each port to prevent any other dust or debris finding its way in.
5) Work back down the bike loosening, but not completely removing all other bolts. Finally when all bolts are loose (you've avoided the dreaded seized bolt!) you can remove exhaust. Be careful with it, you might be dying to get the spanking new aftermarket exhaust fitted but you never know when you'll need the standard exhaust again (accident? MOT? Resale?).
6) Now your stock exhaust has been removed you're ready for stage 2, fitting the new exhaust.
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