Crooked exhaust clamp

[tplayer100]

So recently installed a new mrd exhaust and having a little trouble. Although i can tighten down the nut on the stud completely i can not tighten down the bolt enough to make the exhaust header clamp flat. It's now holding on the exhaust tight (with no leaks as far as i can tell ) but its crooked with one end (stud side) further down then the bolt side ( looks like this \() should look like this  |()  ). Is this normal or is the bolt hole possibly filled with junk? or maybe Something else is up. Any suggestions are welcome. 

Edited February 5, 2018 by tplayer100

[Shaun Small]

I had a little trouble with my MRD exhaust too. No troubles on the header side though. I just had trouble on the exhaust side. I actually had to re-thread it. But I caught is it as soon as it wouldn't screw in properly after a turn and a half. You need to send photos, looks like it didnt come through on your last post. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. Why cant you tighten the screw? Cant get to it? Its stripped? Need more info to help you 

[Erik Marquez]

The clamp should be tightened evenly on both sides.... and those nut / bolt are not required or even commonly tightened to the point the clamp is bottomed out.
Loosen both, re tighten evenly on both sides until the clamp is tight and even

[tplayer100]

2 minutes ago, Erik Marquez said:

The clamp should be tightened evenly on both sides.... and those nut / bolt are not required or even commonly tightened to the point the clamp is bottomed out.
Loosen both, re tighten evenly on both sides until the clamp is tight and even

Will do maybe i just over tightened one side to much and couldn't tighten the other side flat because of it. 

[tplayer100]

5 minutes ago, Shaun Small said:

I had a little trouble with my MRD exhaust too. No troubles on the header side though. I just had trouble on the exhaust side. I actually had to re-thread it. But I caught is it as soon as it wouldn't screw in properly after a turn and a half. You need to send photos, looks like it didnt come through on your last post. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. Why cant you tighten the screw? Cant get to it? Its stripped? Need more info to help you 

I can get to it and its not stripped but i tightened it down as far as i felt comfortable and it was not enough to put pressure on the bolt side for a even clamp. I'm thinking i may have tightened down the nut side to much though and just need to back them both off and do them evenly and slowly. See where that gets me. 

[Erik Marquez]

There are commonly three  different exhaust gaskets types sold OEM and most all others.

The OEM is a thicker one, the non OEM, say COMETIC or what comes in various BB kits is often two thinner gaskets. Your supposed to install BOTH thinner gaskets but many folks dont, and then the clamp flange bottoms out on the head, or nearly so. Lastly some kits ship with a thin copper gasket, that will allow the flange to nearly bottom out, or will if the bolt and nut are overtightened. 
The flange when tightened evenly with a proper gasket should NOT bottom out against head, and there should be a decent gap

Edited February 5, 2018 by Erik Marquez
added the third gasket type

[tplayer100]

1 minute ago, Erik Marquez said:

There are commonly two different exhaust gaskets types sold OEM and most all others.

The OEM is a thicker one, the non OEM, say COMETIC or what comes in various BB kits is often two thinner gaskets. Your supposed to install BOTH thinner gaskets but many folks dont, and then the clamp flange bottoms out on the head, or nearly so.
The flange when tightened evenly with a proper gasket should NOT bottom out against head, and there should be a decent gap

Wow good calls that's got to be it then.. Don't know how you figured that out with the limited info i gave but i only installed one of the smaller cosmetic gaskets. 

[Erik Marquez]

Just now, tplayer100 said:

Wow good calls that's got to be it then.. Don't know how you figured that out with the limited info i gave but i only installed one of the smaller cosmetic gaskets. 

LOL, lucky guess? (or Ive been working this model since 2003) I have three DRZs in my place right now...Getting Bigbore, stroker, and head work, one getting ACT gears, one getting a STM slipper clutch 

[tplayer100]

3 minutes ago, Erik Marquez said:

LOL, lucky guess? (or Ive been working this model since 2003) I have three DRZs in my place right now...Getting Bigbore, stroker, and head work, one getting ACT gears, one getting a STM slipper clutch 

Obviously know what your doing haha. You run your own shop?

[Erik Marquez]

3 minutes ago, tplayer100 said:

Obviously know what your doing haha. You run your own shop?

Small place, select customers https://www.facebook.com/WeBuildAdventure/ 
Not general repair.Adventure and SM Bike builds, complete motors, DRZ suspension, and then I care for the collections of a few folks (12 bikes and 9 bikes each) Plus service our training fleet of 90 or so bikes. 

[tplayer100]

1 hour ago, Erik Marquez said:

Small place, select customers https://www.facebook.com/WeBuildAdventure/ 
Not general repair.Adventure and SM Bike builds, complete motors, DRZ suspension, and then I care for the collections of a few folks (12 bikes and 9 bikes each) Plus service our training fleet of 90 or so bikes. 

Wow cool stuff. I'll follow your page. This drz is my first mechanical project so been learning a lot on it. Thumpertalks support is amazing thanks to guys like you. 

[Butthole-surfer]

I’m having the same problem. It looks like the exhaust is sitting at an angle. The stock one can off with a long straight Allen but I couldn’t get at it straight with the bigger pipe. How did you all get around the bigger header pipe? And make sure it’s right? I tried swivels, 90 degree impact drivers. I can’t get a straight shot at that bolt on the top right. I’m hearing a puffing down in that area. 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Butthole-surfer

[Arzee]

I noticed when I did my FMF powerbomb it had a tendency to want to do this, but I left everything loose ie powerbomb to muffler (Q4) and tightened each side in turn until snugged down evenly, don't have a long straight Allen but the short L type worked fine, think I might have used a makeshift extension to tighten up.  Also re-used oem gasket.