Fitting y piece. Help needed.

[beamish]

Greetings to all you fellow GS owners.

I am fairly new to this forum, but have been reading up on this site prior to buying an R1150GS. I am located in Leicester, are there any other Gs owners in this town? I know of one 650 GS rider whom I have met. (nice chap) when I owned a 650 GS myself. On to my question.

I have just purchased an 03 plate 1150GS from those fine people at Woolastons in Northampton and was advised that a fantastic upgrade would be to add a Y piece, that I propmtly went out and purchased from those nice people in Lincolnshire. It arrived this afternoon and after a brief look at the bike decided it would not be much more that an hours job to fit. Boy, was I wrong. I removed the rear box first and slackened all the bolts holding on the brackets. Easy so far, then it was time to undoe the 2 torque screws holding the cat on and guess what? they wouldn't budge. I was using the tool supplied in the bike tool kit with the extender for extra leverage (big mistake). Still wouldn't budge, then one slipped stripping the top of the screw a little, so now the damn torque tool just turns. So, off to Halfords for a new torque bit as well as an impact driver. Then the rain came down, so I will attempt again in the morning. Does any one know if I need to remove the centre stand or have I missed something else? Any ideas how to get the screws out if the torque tools just keeps spinning? I did a search of this forum to no avail for advise in fitting the Y piece, so, please help if you can.

 

[finglonga]

They can be a bit of a bugger as the heat tends to seize them up.

Soak them in WD40 overnight also put some on the lambada sensor as this is even tighter.

When the dealer put my Y-piece on (before I picked up the bike from new) they said they had snapped one of the bolts .

I recently had to remove mine to get it welded and had no problems.

You don't have to remove the center stand, but how to remove rounded off torque screws I dont know sorry.

 

[MikeP]

Solid nuts! Fnarr!

Many years ago an engineer gave me a tip that I've used with success for years. Don't buy expensive releasing fluids and WD40 isn't much cop either. Use de-icer. Buy it "out of season" when it's cheap. Apparently it's the alcohol that does the biz. It's thin enough to penetrate and as it evaporates it helps loosen the corrosion in the joint. Give it a good soaking!

 

[beamish]

Thanks guys. I think I will have a major problem removing the two screws holding the cat on especially as i may have rounded them off. Would drilling them out be the thing to do should it come to it? also, I guess once the screws are out (here's hoping) they are just set aside and a hole is left where they were.

I am surprised that the Y piece dosn't have some sort of fixing area to fix it to the main frame. I would have thought that it would move around a fair bit when driving.

What are people feelings on fitting the Y piece. Was it worth doing, better performance/fuel consumption etc?

Thanks again for all yor help.

 

[MikeP]

Only had a Y on mine for a couple of weeks. Kept standard can. No other mods needed, no backfires, not really any louder but does improve the mid-range noticibly. Pick-up from 2.5k revs is clean and seems much more brisk. I suppose it's obvious really, less restriction!

Not noticed any change to fuel consumption. The only reason why I fitted it was so that I can use "iffy" fuel in the future without the risk of gumming up the Cat but would advise fitting now just for the better mid-range.

 

[Steptoe]

Thanks guys. I think I will have a major problem removing the two screws holding the cat on especially as i may have rounded them off. Would drilling them out be the thing to do should it come to it?

hit a slightly bigger torx bit in the head, works everytime .

I've a set of cheap 3/8 torx bits just for hitting into rounded off hex caps.

 

[Spout]

Thanks guys. I think I will have a major problem removing the two screws holding the cat on especially as i may have rounded them off. Would drilling them out be the thing to do should it come to it? also, I guess once the screws are out (here's hoping) they are just set aside and a hole is left where they were.

The bolts are quite long - the thread not starting for half an inch or so. This means that penetrating oil probably wont reach the threads Similarly, drilling will be a bit of a chore!

Good luck............

 

[Fanum]

When you do get'em out, smear the new ones with a good dollop of copper ease so you won't have the same problem in a year or two if you have to take it off again .

Good luck

 

[Spout]

look see

 

[littleredrooster]

One of mine was bost when I got the bike. When I fitted the Y-Piece, I went to Woolastons for a new bolt and was advised not to bother refitting them as they always break anyway. Well-known problem that they seize deep inside the alloy and are an absolute tvvat to remove. Mine has subsequently done 22000 miles with no probs.

 

[Steve B]

Regarding removing the torex bolts I found that after they had become loose they just turned in the hole. I had to lift the cat slightly to take the presure off the bolt shaft and then turn and pull at the same time. Not easy on your own. Puttiing the damn things back was WORSE as the holes didn't line up excactly cos the OE Can bolt was slightly out of alighnment due to the Y piece being obviously not exactly aligned as the Cat.(Am I making sence here?) I again lifted/levered the Y piece up to allow the bolts and holes to align in but it wasn't easy putting them back in. A small jack or trolley lift might help with a piece of wood underneath. It din't help as I had to do this job twice as I'd forgotten to put the Remus exhaust clamps on and the BM ones didn't tighten up enough. Lessons you learn I guess.
As had been said already, used the correct tools for each job.
Good luck

Steve B

 

[beamish]

Many thanks to all for your advice, especially the one for using a larger Torex bit, this did the trick. I think if I were to do it all over again, I would use a good quality Torex bit in the first place and not the one supplied in the BMW tool kit and also use an impact driver from the word go. A word of advice with the impact driver. Try to do the bolt up first, this will make it easier to undo the bolt, then reverse it and it should come off fairly easily. I wouldn't attempt to undo these bolts without an impact driver.

After spending 3 hours this morning trying to get the Y piece to fit, I then took it off and measured the length of pipe that goes to the exhaust can only to find it was 2 inches longer than it should be. I rang the manufacturers and they told me that they do this in case any one wants one of their sports cans. How ridiculous. I spent all that time including undoing the front exhaust bolts and tearing my hair out only to find that this is the reason why I couldn't do up the bolt on the can as it was 2 inches out too long at the back. The manufacturers have now agreed to put a lable on their product warning people. They did say that I could send it back to them and they would chop a couple of inches off for me, but i hacksawed it off myself. I think they were wrong to assume that I was fitting a sports can on and should offer 2 different Y pieces. One for sports cans and one for BMW cans. I could now do the same thing again in about an hour, instead of most of the day, so if any other 1150GS owners who are local to leicester would like help in fitting one of these, then I can help. It could save you a lot of pain.

I did not get a chance to road test, but it certainly has a nice growel to it. I'll try it out tomorrow.

These are the people I got the Y can from and it costs £120.00 + £10.00 postage (next day). Mention that you want the shorter version if using the original exhaust as the y are a bast**d to chop off.

http://www.findit.co.uk/motorbikes/bmw/parts/1399471.htm

Once again, thank you all for your help.

 

[finglonga]

IMHO

Y piece - only buy Remus

Ditto above....You can fit std and Remus can without modification. Needing to cut off 2 inches seems weird IMO.

 

[beamish]

You are right, if only I had known that in the first place. Oh well. Hindsight is a great thing.

 

[beamish]

Anyone know if you need to do a reset on the engine management system after fitting a y piece, or any other adjustments?

 

[Steve]

Anyone know if you need to do a reset on the engine management system after fitting a y piece, or any other adjustments?

Remove motronic fuse (number 5?).
Replace fuse.
Turn on ignition, but don't start bike.
Open throttle fully twice.
Switch off ignition.
Done.

 

[beamish]

Thanks, but is this definetly required?

 

[Steptoe]

Thanks, but is this definetly required?

i can understand your reluctance to go through all this, its a long time consuming job, requiring many tools and removal of parts.



so you haven't learnt your lesson yet - after saying in an earlier thread, " you are right, if only i had known that in the first place, hindsight is a great thing" .

go with the force beamish, O bee one steve is guiding you .

 

[beamish]

I never thought for one minute that is was a long time consuming job. My original question was "does any one know if you need to " I repeat "need to" Is it something you need to do after fitting a Y piece.

Thanks anyway Steve.

I'll ring Woolastons in the morning.

 

[Steptoe]

Wooaaa - lighten up there, beamish old chap - no need to get emotional --