well i broke another flange into on my sunl.this makes the second exhaust.first one broke had it welded then it broke flange into.
ok second pipe crack around flange had it welded 6 months later flange broke into.
winter coming on money tight so i decide to see if i could fix this one.so went to the ole scrap pile got me a piece of metal thicker this time and cut a piece of 1'' OD tubing and made a new flange.
used a metal chop saw a hack saw drilled holes with small drill press.the biggest bit i had for exhaust opening was 3/4.so then i used a dremel and large round file went to work and made the hole to fit the 1'' OD pipe.the ID of this piece of 1'' pipe fit the OD the stock 7/8 pipe tight but that is just what i wanted.

here is what it looks like, then i took it and had it welded. don't have a mig welder and fraid to try it with a big stick welder also didn't have any small rods.
trick was to get the angle of the flange wright so it would fit the head good and exhaust mount up wright.
put it back on this evening and me and the dog took her for a spin or two,every thing seems to be fine and no leaks.how long it will last who knows but it is made heavier now with better metal

pud

Nice work Pud. If it keeps breaking then thicker is better

thanks chuck. also i left out i used a bench grinder to shape up the flange and tubing cutters for the pipe to get a nice square end on the pipe but a hacksaw would have work to.
i wasn't going to show what i done but i know there are others that fight this problem to.my orginal plan was to
have a new header pipe made but when i called the guy he said he had just sold all of his small dies metric and standard.he said he had only used them a couple times
it really wasn't that hard to make just a little time envolved.i made everything to fit tight, put pipe on with brass hammer and flange to.got everything close as i could be eye then put exhaust on bolt on cvt cover put flange on studds and tigtened it down easy.then i used the small brass hammer to bump the pipe to the wright angle.BUT I WAS EASY aluminum head didn't want to break any thing.took it back off and put it back on double checking everything tightening back down.
then had it welded.
here are the pictures of it on and welded everything lined up good its a tight fit for me back were muffler goes between cvt cover and swing arm.my muffler is big.

pud

Maybe you could put another bracket on to help support the whole thing. The crossfire had a triangle welded into it

my muffler has a bracket running to header pipe and the original flange had supports running down the sides of pipe a couple inchs. it also broke those to before when pipe crack on flange.
the original exhaust that came on this buggy didn't have the supports coming down from flange.so they added them later trying to solve a problem but it didn't
i know they raised the price of the stock exhaust from 45.00 dollars to wright at 100.00 that tells me they must be a big seller.
may be wrong but i think the pipe they make these header pipes out of is just to brital, plus the muffler is bigger and heavier.

pud

Yea it's dirty diaper metal for sure. You can tell that when welding it

Hi Pud,

Nice job with the fix. I hope it holds up for you. After reading your post I got to thinking about how our buggy's are set up the same. Does the muffler bracket support, on your buggy, bolt to the frame around the engine? Mine did. It made me nervous. Amoung other issues, you must loosen the muffler bracket anytime you adjust your chain tension. Otherwise you will risk breaking your header pipe. I recently ordered the bolt mount, found on other brands of buggy's, from Mike at buggypartsnw.com ($10). I cut the tabs off the frame around the engine where the muffler bracket support formerly mounted. Then, I pulled the little rubber plug off the CVT cover, where the kick start would be located, and installed the bolt mount to the CVT cover and connected it to the muffler bracket. Now the muffler remains static with the engine frame at all times regardless of any subsequent chain adjustment. Cutting the tabs off the engine frame created more room for me to pull the CVT cover off with better access to the variator and clutch too.

hello Andy i didn't realize your exhaust was like that.i saw that another members buggy was set up that way,like yours.
he broke his exhaust to.
mine came with kick start gears and mounted on shaft sticking out of cvt cover.i done away with my rattling gears and went to the bolt through cvt cover.
mine had a splined like collar that went on the splines of kick starter,then muffler tighten down on it.that collar wouldn't stay tight even drill it out and re-tap threads on it but it still worked in and out.i thought that was the problem letting the exhaust move around and break
no luck there either after i changed that. the bolt is a better way to go though.

pud