Fixed exhaust leak, now there's a ticking sound

[Guest]

Found a couple of small holes (little under 1/4 square each) in my #2 & #3 manifold pipes, right where the pipes join the crossover. Today, I fixed the holes, unmounting the exhaust, inspecting and cleaning things up while I was at it.

Got everything back together, and the repairs look solid. But when I started it back up I noticed a kind of ticking sound. Seemed like it was coming from the top end on the left side, most noticable at idle.

Any ideas? Could this be caused by the repair I just did?

[chuck hahn]

exhaust leak at the head..look at all the flanges and see if they are all paralell with the fins..Each side of the flange should be about the same amount..follow me? If theres a bit of a difference on the force the flange is putting on the header, then there can be a little area thats not seating against the exhaust gaskets correctly. Recheck and draw each side in evenly..

[Roostabunny]

exhaust leak at the head..look at all the flanges and see if they are all paralell with the fins..Each side of the flange should be about the same amount..follow me? If theres a bit of a difference on the force the flange is putting on the header, then there can be a little area thats not seating against the exhaust gaskets correctly. Recheck and draw each side in evenly..

Exhaust noise was the first thing I thought of when I heard it. I'll check that tomorrow and post back.

[chuck hahn]

loosen all the bolts and be sure the headers seated against the head as well...wiggle and push in at the same time and be sure they arent hanging up anywhere.. then tighten them back down evenly from side to side.

[Roostabunny]

Thanks again, fellas. Pretty sure that was the issue.

I loosened, jiggled, re-tightened evenly on my three good flanges, and that helped a lot. Definitely changed the noise. Meanwhile, my number 3 flange has been cockeyed since I owned the bike, as apparently the PO broke off a bolt in the head.

The day that flange rattled loose, I bought two new bolts, that's when I discovered that on the lower hole I had no threads for the first 3/4" and then I hit a hard stop. PO bolt leftovers!

I think this is still giving me a slight leak - maybe the "perfect" fit is gone now that I've disassembled and re-assembled - and I don't see any way around getting some help to get a helicoil in there. Too scared to try it on my own the first time.

I'm going to do a GSR forum search on installing studs while I'm at it.

[bwringer]

You may simply need new exhaust gaskets. You can usually get away with re-using these, but they're cheap enough to replace every time you remove the exhaust.

[Roostabunny]

You may simply need new exhaust gaskets. You can usually get away with re-using these, but they're cheap enough to replace every time you remove the exhaust.

Great, thanks, man!

I needed to replace the disintigrated rubber mounts for the crossover (and one of the metal spacers that was just missing) so I threw those on as well.