Started the day with adding some thermal paste to the regulator/rectifie. Then I decided it was time to attack the exhaust system. The UL installation manual calls for removing all 4 exhaust pipes and replacing the copper o-ring gaskets. Seemed like this would be an easy job and it would be if you have the right tools to do it. I thought I had every tool you could ever need but the exhaust system proved me wrong. There are 4 hex head bolts in the flange that holds the pipes in the cylinders. Yes I hve numerous allen wrenches and I even have some with hanldles. These worked great for 3 of the 4 hex bolts. However there is no way to loosen the 4 bolt with a straight allen wrench because there is very little room for the wrench and it will only go into the head at an angle. So after numerous attempts, I called Robert and he said I woiuld need some ball head allen wrenches. Ok. Never heard of them but Harbor Freighyt had a 13 piece metric set for $7. Once I was armed with these (only need the 5MM) I was oble to break lose the 4th bolt. Now everything was going like I had planned. Once I removed all the pipes,then you need to replace the gaskets. This proved to be soemwhat difficult since the copper gaskets are compressed into the cylinder hole making them hard to get out. Also puttig a little high temp grease on the gasket when installing will help hold it in place so you can get the pipe aligned for bolting. After all pipes were loosely bolted into place I installed the muffler. Brushed on anti-sieze where pipes go into muffler. Once muffler was in place, I attached 4 springs and added large hose clamps around muffler and muffler brackets. Will install exhaust pipe once lowrer cowling is in place.
