REFLECTOR: Franklin, exhaust leaks and gaskets

Brian Michalk michalk at awpi.com
Sun Oct 16 18:12:06 CDT 2005


wurzel at alumni.caltech.edu wrote:
> 
> Each cylinder has a 3" long piece of tubing, male on one
> end with a slight "bump" (is it called a "flare" when it's
> in the middle of a tube?) about 1/2" from the end, and
> the other end is female.  At each cylinder, this riser
> is held up with two clamps as you have described.  On each side,
> the rest of the exhaust slip-fits into these three risers and
> is bolted together through some flanges.
> 
> On my engine, some of these risers had those rolled
> copper+"asbestos" gaskets between the "bump" and the cylinder,
> and others didn't.  The ones without seemed to seal just fine,
> so I'm trying to figure out if there's any other reason to have
> the gasket there.
> 
> Sounds like I should just put it back per the Franklin manual (no
> gaskets) and see how it works.

Okay.  Sounds like we are talking about the same thing.

Yes, you can put the riser back in place, just be careful not to ream 
out the hole in the cylinder from getting happy with a lot of 
removal/insertions.

If the press fit is not tight enough, you can expand it with a cheap 
harbor freight exhaust expander tool, around $10.  It will leak, like 
you said, and erode the aluminum.

The Harbor Freight tool is very cheap, and certainly won't visibly 
expand these tubes before you break the tool.  Expand the tube with 
enough torque ... maybe 30 to 50 foot lbs.  This should get it expanded 
to test fit.  If not, repeat again until it takes a rubber or wood 
mallet to get the tube in.  Make sure it's straight.

This is information I got from Susan Prall at A-1.


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