Hey Guys,

Hope everyone enjoy the weekend with some great fall riding. I'm having to replace the exhaust header studs as over half of them came out of the head with the nuts frozen solid. Didn't find anything on this in the Clymer? Are these just finger tight with something like Loctite 262 to hold them in place? Thanks for the assistance.

J

I replaced most of the exhaust studs on my RT last year. I just put them in finger tight and they haven't moved yet. I would not Loctite them in case they need to be taken out again. I have a friend's K75RT here at the moment, and i had to cut the rusty remains of all six nuts off the studs with a nut splitter and chisel. I will have to change all six studs, if I can get them out of the head.

Wouldn't you use anti-seize on the treads so they would be easier to remove next time?

My two cents worth.

Wouldn't you use anti-seize on the treads so they would be easier to remove next time?

Actually I did, forgot to mention it, takes the old brain cells a while to get going on Mondays.

Thanks for the input Avenger. Got her running this weekend after being in bits all summer. Just waiting for FD seals and than its time to hit the road!

The best thing one can do for the future ease of disassembly any new(ish) bike, or car for that matter, is to take the exhaust nuts off one by one and treat the thread with either copper or nickel high temp grease and put the nut back on because when the time comes to take the manifold of it is soooo much easier many thousands of K's later if you have done that.
Regards,
K-BIKE

Maybe of some help - Loctite Nickel Anti-sieze is good for high temps, as is Rocol anti-sieze compound, which contains copper. It is also possible to obtain copper plated M8 nuts, these used to be standard on VW type 1 engine exhaust studs and could always be undone.
If the studs are extremely tight in the alloy head, heat the stud to dull red without getting close to the head (as you may quickly have a little pile of aluminium on the floor !). Allow the heat to travel down the stud and then to cool. Lock 2 (M8) nuts together and it should be possible to unscrew the stud from the head.
Hope this helps, Dennis

Thanks for the excellent info guys. Looks like I've got to pull the exhaust tonight to do a little tweaking on the heat shield so I can pull the studs and apply some copper I've got in the goop drawer somewhere although I really like the sound of the copper plated M8's.