Exhaust Replacement seized up

[lewisp]

hey,

relatively new to the Early Bay scene but needed some advice from the experts. I'm replacing the exhaust on my 71 Westy and all has gone well up until i came to remove the nuts from the studs that hold the header on. For love nor money these nuts will not come off. WD40'd them, have heated them up to no success. One of the issues is that the studs themselves turn as i'm trying to undo the nuts, so you cant get a good bit of force on the nuts themselves. Have tried to use a nut splitter but the placement of the nuts is so tight that the splitter wont fit over them.

From the turning I would guess that they are threaded studs but not sure if i'm able to/ should remove them entirely, then remove the nuts in a vice where i can get to them easier. Like i said, i'm pretty new so may have judged this one completely wrong.

any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[vinvan]

Just remove the studs and replace them with new, Think JK sells them

 

[StuF]

Dremmel them off and replace - Ive cut a few seized studs off over the years!

 

[Bluesnailman]

use copper nuts on every exhaust part you can when re-assembling That has to be the best thing I ever did as they are softer than the steel studs and come off easier.

 

[ozziedog]

If you can get them off as studs then just take them out and bin them, only Dremel as a last resort because you still got to get the stud out. WD40 is pretty much useless with serious stuff like this, this is when you want proper penetration ,, OOOooooerrr ! Something like plus gas and leave it soak. WD40 isn't really a lube or a penetrator it's just to get rid of water really. And what he said ^^^about the copper nuts. When you put the new studs in, don't go crazy tightening them up, two nuts on, lock together and just a hint of pressure then take the nuts off, threadlock wouldn't hurt either but don't use thread lock if you haven't got copper nuts.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, should be compulsory I think. :mrgreen:

 

[mr scoops]

ALWAYS use a copper slip when fitting exhaust nuts.

 

[lewisp]

Thanks very much guys. In the meantime I ended up getting it into a garage as having some welding done as well, so they finished the exhaust install but now i know for future!

Cheers for the help.