EW Exhaust Fitting

[davebarkshire]

When I mentioned that I was about to buy an EW exhust system from Armours several people warned me that it would not fit. I could hear them sucking air through their teeth across the internet. So yesterday evening I decided to position the exhaust and it didn't fit of course. I've been told that Armours don't take kindly to being told that their systems don't fit so will have to try to make do with what I have. The main problem is that the rear cylinder pipe is too short. I was thinking about braising a piece of pipe onto the short section. I could take a section from the old pipe which seems very soft and I think is made from copper. Can copper be braised to steel? (I'm not sure that copper can be braised at all!?!?!?)

(If I grind down the front pipe then it will be too short and the line of the exhaust will be wrong and will touch the gearbox.)

Does anyone have a better idea than this?

Photos...

The complete exhaust in situ...
http://www.barkshire.co.uk/bikes/images/DouglasEW1926/DouglasEWExhaustInPosition.jpg

The gap...
http://www.barkshire.co.uk/bikes/images/DouglasEW1926/DouglasEWExhaustInPositionMisfit.jpg

[roy]

Dave, would it be possible to cut off a piece of the old system, connect to cylinder and slot it into the short section of the new.

[graeme]

Typical bloody Armours product.
They are notorious for sending this kind of rubbish to far away countries, knowing it would be too expensive for the sucker who bought it to do anything about it.
If it was me Dave, I would be marching back into Armours and demanding they sort it out or get your money back. They shouldn't be allowed to "not take kindly to being told that their systems don't fit". If they don't fit, they don't fit - and shouldn't be sold! Why should you have to sort out their stuff up - you paid good money for the sytem and it shouldn't need sorting to fit. A gap like the one evident here is absolutely inexcusable.

[Doug]

Dave,

Actually it looks like the system is being carried a little low. The rear pipe should just pass under the end cover of the transmission. Not that it in any way excuses the poor fit of the pipes, but you may be able to cut some out of the front header and close the gap on the rear header. Perhaps at most it will minimize the extension and hide the joint inside the gland nut. But I would send a picture of the pipes as fitted to Armours and see what their excuse is. Perhaps they will tell you no one else has ever complained and that you must have a non-standard engine! 

Also the silencer is too far back. The inlet should be just past the kick starter and the hanging strap should be at the very end of the canister.

-Doug

[tommy]

From memory and I could be wrong, the rear pipe on the original comes up with a flange/ring at the top with the tightening ring already on the pipe?
You can not remove the ring without sweating off the flange.
The front pipe slides into the rear so you can fit the ring first.

I very much doubt that any replica exhaust company will provide a system with a new exhaust ring fitted, so would think they would leave the stub long so you can cut and fit the ring, then the flange.
Otherwise they should supply a separate piece with the flange for you to fit yourself.

I doubt if the original part is copper, it would or should have been steel and will take brazing or welding no problem.
It is easy enough to turn a new flange.

Lifted to the correct height and sliding the silencer section onto the front pipe it should fit.

The big problem is that welding the flange or a stub piece in will ruin the plating.
It will bubble, then flake off in sheets.

That said, was the silencer section on the EW not painted black?
I have seen both.

If you need help with re-plating, I have a good friend in Sheffield that does all my silver, gold and nickle plating.
We make and restore musical instruments and they do allot of work for us at an incredibly cheap price and the plating is fab!

My father has 2 EW's and I think he had a problem with one of these exhausts.
I will ask and find out what it was and the cure.
I am away from tomorrow flying the Douglas flag at the Irish Rally so it will be a week before I can report back if you can wait that long.

Meanwhile, do not knock Armours too hard. Finding a company just to make the silencer box is hard enough. You are already a good way there.
The alternative is getting your own one off made. You can pay for perfection, but it might take the smile off

I had something similar from them for my MKIV with a waffle box exhaust.
They send you the system for a MKI which has a different offset for the cylinder heads to the later MK's
One pipe fits, the other not.
Armours are not supposed to know the subtle differences from one year of Douglas manufacture to the next. I doubt if most on this site would have thought of that one!

A company called technical tubes makes the pipes for Armours.
It was a bit of a bind, but they remade me one to the correct offset free of charge.
That comes with it's own price tag though, because it then had to be chromed and the cost of that hurt!!

My man in Sheffield does not do chrome, unfortunately.

Happy fettling.

Tom

 

[Doug]

When I did the exhaust for my 600EW, I made the ring, or exhaust flange, a separate piece of plain low carbon steel and then welded it on after plating. As Tom mentioned, for the rear pipe you have to add the flange one way or the other after slipping the gland nut onto the pipe. You should also make sure you can slip the gland nut onto the front pipe from the rear. Sometimes when the tube is bent it is distorted out of round enough that the gland nut will not pass over the bend, if the hole through the gland nut is a close fit. The bend on the front pipe is gradual enough that this should not be a problem, but then again… On the 600EW there is a tee welded into the front pipe to take off hot exhaust to the intake manifold jacket, so like the rear pipe, you have to install the gland nut onto the pipe before adding the flange.

I made the ring about a 1/8" thick, so that it would not warp or melt away while welding. This makes for a thicker flange than original, but it only means the gland nut does not thread onto the cylinder stub quite so far. You do not notice the 1/16" difference.

There was a heat affected zone, but it is only just visible past the gland nut, and in-situ on the machine and facing the ground, practically invisible. I think had I wrapped a wet rag around the pipe before welding, the heat affected zone would have been completely hidden by the gland nut. I used TIG to weld the flange on, as it put the least amount of heat into the surrounding area; and at that I just ran around the end of the tube and fused it to the inner diameter of the ring without using any filler material. Acetylene welding or brazing would burn all the plating off the last inch of the pipe!

Make the ring a snug fit on the pipe, so that you can do a trial fit by running up the gland nuts and clamping the rings to the cylinders, and then bumping the pipes around for the desired alignment. Then carefully back of the gland nuts, hopefully without disturbing the ring locations (which is why you want them snug on the tubes.) Best would be to have three tack welds placed around the inside of the ring, and have another trial fit to see if the rings had shifted, before committing to a full weld.

-Doug