Hey The nuts that hold the vertical exhaust to the barrel, are they standard nuts or something special? TIA
Ah, that explains the colour and slightly squished-ness. Local dealer is an issue, wish I had one, nearest is 45 mins away. Which isn't to bad but a bit of a pain as it makes it 2 hours for little bits like this. Would other dealers do them such as KTM/Yamaha as I have them close? Or even Halfords?
Just mail order, I've had parts mail from Ducati leeds.. postage is not much for little bits. Best buy Genuine or known standard. I guess you don't want to wait...
I'm sure you could reuse them. My dealer is only 5 mins from my work so I would always get new ones. I have however reused on one occasion with no probs whatsoever. Basically, because they are copper they are soft and can round off very easily.
Main reason I ask is that the holes don't look quite round, slightly oval on the outside. And when I spin them on a m6 bolt they stop at the very tip. I can't see anything to stop it, no thread lock, etc. If I was 10 mins from dealers I'd defo buy more.
In theory they really should be used only once as the squashed part is there to act like a lock nut. If the thread is tight then there probably is no reason not to reuse them. I have in the past used stainless serrated flanged nuts when I couldn't get hold of any and had a track day coming up, again they worked well. As long as you use something that is not likely to rust to the thread of the exhaust stud then you will be fine. I would advise not using any thread lock as this might cause problems further up the line if you break a stud undoing the exhaust, that can lead to all sorts of nightmares. I often use a dab of silicone sealer on nuts that don't want to vibrate loose but I want to come off easily in the future. So far this has worked well for me also.
Copper can be restored to give it back its soft sealing property's by a process called annealing,a simple process of heating it to cherry red and allowing it to cool,handy for brake line washers,and sump washers,it's a metal commonly used around heat/exhaust headers as it doesn't expand and loosen the way steel will,it also won't seize onto the exhaust stud!
They are designed to be used once. They are 'off shaped' so they lock tight and don't come loose. They are cheap from main dealers.
