Oxygen sensor broke off!

[supertt1200]

I tried looking through past threads to see if this has happened to anyone else but I couldn't find one. I was cruising along the highway when my normally throaty Drummer exhaust turned into a straight pipe beast. I thought the header exhaust bolts had snapped off again but they were all there. Once it got a little darker I fired it up again and saw some flames shooting out the back cylinder. Turns out the O2 sensor had ripped off where it was welded to the header. Thanks to the awesome engine rotation thread I was able to remove the header and see the extent of the damage which is posted below.

My real question is going to be is this something that can be just welded back together or does this require getting new headers? I also plan on heat wrapping them regardless of what I do.

http://www.tgamir.com/buell/1.jpg

http://www.tgamir.com/buell/2.jpg

http://www.tgamir.com/buell/3.jpg

http://www.tgamir.com/buell/4.jpg

[snrusnak]

That's crazy. Talk about a poor weld.

Don't see why you couldn't weld it back on.

[xtreme]

I would dye penetrate test it to make sure there are no fine cracks first. If not get yourself a new bung and find a good weld shop and they can fix it up.

[squidbuellie]

Thats a new one... Broken motor mount or resent motor rotate? 06 or up?.... but yes yes can just weld it back on.

[onelogue]

When i replaced my first O2 sensor, a mechanic told me not to tighten the sensor over torque spec cause it could cause the welds to crack. The person before you could have hammered down on it pretty hard.

[supertt1200]

When i replaced my first O2 sensor, a mechanic told me not to tighten the sensor over torque spec cause it could cause the welds to crack. The person before you could have hammered down on it pretty hard.

Up until this week I had never worked on it as I was always afraid of breaking it. My HD dealer dropped the motor in order to address the broken off header bolts a few months ago. That's a possibility from this event?


Thats a new one... Broken motor mount or resent motor rotate? 06 or up?.... but yes yes can just weld it back on

motor mount appears fine. it's a 2007.

i was so focused on the large hole that i missed the fact that the underside has quite a bit of cracks. i'm tempted to just replace the header.

[d_adams]

Before.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1256.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1255.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1254.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1247.jpg

After.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1279.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1278.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu151/dadams1969/exhaust%20stuff/XB%20headers/IMAG1277.jpg

Not perfect, but functional for an emergency repair. Btw, these headers were wrapped and this is just my opinion, but I'm thinking that's what caused the damage. Heat cycles with moisture/quenching = cracked headers.

[uly luigi]

The labor to repair that from a good welder would negate the price of new/used headers, Twin Motorcycles has a nice redesign of the headers, and they would be new

[supertt1200]

The labor to repair that from a good welder would negate the price of new/used headers, Twin Motorcycles has a nice redesign of the headers, and they would be new

Twin Motorcycle headers look great but they're in Holland. My local HD dealer will have the stock one in 3 days. I will paint it with POR 15 high temperature paint just for a little bit of corrosion protection. And of course, carefully reverse the engine rotation thread. Hopefully that'll be the last time I do this kind of repair...

[supertt1200]

Sometimes when it rains, it pours...

Got a friend to help me out to piece everything back together. Everything was running great, but during the shake down ride into Malibu we noticed that one of the rear muffler straps had come loose. We then realized we must not have torqued it properly. As a result the strap got stuck grinding against the idler pulley. It shaved a piece of the pulley off, but it also managed to gouge parts of the belt. I was able to limp it home so that turned out fine. Looks like a new belt and idler pulley will be coming soon [mad]