Found a present after riding... broken exhaust mount tab

[bunk]

So went riding this morning w/ my wife... once we got home did the usual bike tear down and wash.  When i went to take off the pipe... i found a little present.  Looks like I have another project this week.













Anyone have any do/don'ts when welding to the frame?  Or just grind until clean, then weld?

thanks in advance...

[BDI]

Thats normal kx500 breakage right their. How I fix those is weld the piece back on then cut and bend a piece of metal to box the back side of the mount. It will never break again if you do that.As for does and donts Just try not to get it to hot a tig welder would be the way to go.

[KX500freak]

at least you did a thorough after-ride inspection!
and for the welding go with bdi,s suggestion
only thing ..try to make sure why how and when it broke ,
that way you can build things better ,and no broken mounts again either.
i,ve done so on my k5,s and never suffered from broken mounts anymore after

[bunk]

Thanks BDI & KX500freak... after seeing how it broke and looking at how & where the pipe needed to be hit to break it... and I know exactly when i did it.  At the time I was thinkin it was the left side of the skit plate that took the impact, but i guess the pipe got it instead.  Good thing for the CF pipe guard, or my pretty FMF pipe wouldnt be so pretty.

[Johnniespeed]

My new 04 KX500 did that when it was two weeks old.  I figured that welding it would cause a hard spot and it would break again next to the weld. I made a very simple bracket that slips under the radiator mounts and holds the pipe mount, four years later it still holds up great.
  John

[bunk]

My new 04 KX500 did that when it was two weeks old.  I figured that welding it would cause a hard spot and it would break again next to the weld. I made a very simple bracket that slips under the radiator mounts and holds the pipe mount, four years later it still holds up great.
  John

do you have any pics of it?

[Platypus]

I bought my 500 with the same mount broken.  Every 500 pipe mount breaks there at some point unless you fix it before you ever ride it.  I took mine to a muffler shop and the guy welded a piece of chromoly on with a nut welded to it also.  It's been fine since then.

Funny part is I asked about it on here before I rode it and people said fix it but ONE person said ride it.  Well that's the way I felt and I did and ened up snapping the lower mount off the pipe.  I just really wanted to ride it....it was worth it.

[Mick]

A list of common breakage problems with my KX and others I ride with:
1.  Pipe mount bracket
2.  Silencer bracket
3.  Rear hub bearings (drive side)
4.  Kickstarter
5.  Frame
6.  Plating on carburetor slide
7.  Electrofusion plating on cylinder

These things would break so often I just built my own stainless peices in most cases.  There wasn't a lot I could do to prevent the plating issues.  All I could do was rebuild the motor and replate.  But despite all the breakage problems others and myself have had, I still don't know of anybody with this famous "2nd gear" transmission failure.  Makes me wonder where that came from?

[WRXBRUMBY]

Hey Mick

I just did the full rebuild and I replaced 2nd gear, it wasn?t from failure but from excessive dog engagement wear. The nugget before me must have been hard shifting into 2nd under load. This could possibly cause this so called failure you speak of.

Hey bunk, I put one of those awesome tanks on order from Clarke. Bloody thing still isn?t in Aus yet. I have been getting mixed msg?s about what size they do. Yours is 3.9 gal yeah? Cause they are talking 4.0 gal, and also there is a 3.5 I think. Do you guys normally round up? If so this would explain the 3.9 being called a 4 gal.(just hope they bring the right one over cause the 3.5 one looks pretty sad)?? 

http://www.clarkemfg.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=CM&Category_Code=kawasaki

[kaw rider]

depends on what welding you are doing,  discount your cdi box.

[bunk]

Yours is 3.9 gal yeah?

check this out... hopefully that helps.

http://www.kxriders.com/forums/index.php/topic,4546.0.html

As for the welding... yea taking off the cdi box would be a good idea.  Thanks-

[Johnniespeed]

Sorry no pics, spent the camera money on a new pipe.   John

[dsrtrider]

my pipe mount under tank broke years ago and still havent fixed it.  also mounts that springs attach to on exhaust break constantly.

[BDI]

I wish I had pictures of my KX500 frame to show, every Pipe mount was fully boxed. The upper sub frame mount had a piece of chrome moly tubing that rapped the stock sub frame mount and then had two triangle gussets. Every unfinished weld was finished, then of course the frame was powder coated. The frame had a real cool finished look to it and it was bomb proof. All the normal kx500 frame failers were aliminated. The only thing I never did that I wanted to do was weld prestamped tabs on the cradle for the skid plate to bolt derectly to. If I was to go through a Kx500 today I would do all of this to the frame without thinking twice about it. I would put it right there with putting air in the tires.

[barryadam]

BDI, I DID add those tabs for the skid plate.  It's a Works Connection plate with the side guards for the water pump, etc.  I fabricated some tabs out of square tube notched to fit the frame rails, and cut them off at an angle to provide (4)  strong "gusseted" tabs.  I designed them so the plate is about 1/8" lower than the frame rails and a small rubber pad is used between the tabs and the plate.    This gives a wee bit of rubber isolation for the skid plate (not much), and allows liquids to drain out between the frame and the plate. We don't see mud here like in other areas, so I don't get mud packing problems. The nuts are welded to the tabs.
Then everything went to the powdercoater.
That should have been designed in from the factory, IMHO.