Removing downpipes (and fitting Renthal bars?)

[Bodhi]

Hey everyone, need a little advice with regarsds to getting the whole exhaust system off. Tried at the weekend but the bolts on the 2 middle pipes were impossible to get to. Will I have to remove the Radiator in order to get to them or is there a special tool to use for reaching them? Any advice would be much appreciated as I need to get them off soon to sand them back and repaint them as they're rusting up now, argh!!!

[meno]

mine came off without removing the rad, i used a 1/4 drive socket set with extensions.. on one of them i poked it thru the gap between bottom of rad and the hose.. there was one nut which required a spanner and a bit of hand mashing tho lol.

dont forget the well given advice by other forum members to be liberal with the plusgas or equivalent on the nuts/studs for a while preceeding removal.... :D

[Superjack44]

mine came off without removing the rad, i used a 1/4 drive socket set with extensions.. on one of them i poked it thru the gap between bottom of rad and the hose.. there was one nut which required a spanner and a bit of hand mashing tho lol.

dont forget the well given advice by other forum members to be liberal with the plusgas or equivalent on the nuts/studs for a while preceeding removal.... :D

Sound advice from Meno,
Something I do is as well as the plusgas is to try and tap the end of the nuts rapidly but gently to try and get the plusgas to creep might sound silly but it worked for me.
Remember the studs are only 5mm , if the nuts are tight dont just use more strength take your time and try a little to and fro movement slowly if you do it too quickly they can heat up and snap then you are in deep doo doo

[Bodhi]

Thanks for all the advice. Might try giving it another go. Where would I get replacement nuts/studs if I was wanting to change them at the same time?

Also, since you've offered such good advice with the downpipes, I've got a set of Renthal bars on the way to me. Any advice for fitting them? Will I need to drill them for the switch gears to bolt on, or do I need to alter the switchgears? I think someone had explained what they did before but I can't find the topic on it. Don't wanna make a mess of it but want to give it a go myself.

Thanks in advance.

[meno]

theres 2 ways rly.. obviously the best is drill the holes for switchgear, the other is to file the nubs on switchgear off and just put some tape under where its gonna clamp.

[Bodhi]

hmm, well part of me doesn't want to go drilling my nice new bars. But then I don't want to end up destroying my Switch Gears either. If I was just to use some kind of grip tape, if such a thing exists, would that stop the switch gear moving when bolted on?

[meno]

only if u filed off the nubs first.. switchgear wont close together properly if theres no holes for the nub to sit in unfortunately

[Bodhi]

d'oh, yeah was meaning if I filed off the nubs and used some sort of double sided tape would the SwitchGear stay in place well enough? I'm thinking maybe something like the stuff used to hold License Plates onto cars as it'd hopefully be pretty waterproof and durable too.

[meno]

anohter lovely and grippy tape is self amalgamating tape (sometimes known as vulcanising tape) its not sticky.. just grippy as hell :)