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Would anyone with any welding experience be able to tell me if this headpipe bracket could be welded back on or would I be fighting a losing battle and should just buy a new one? Its completely broke off, not just the right side that you can see in the picture.
Is it Ti or steel? I’ve had both metals welded, the Ti weld did not hold up… what is the cost to replace vs repair? If it’s 150$ to replace and 100$ to weld it…. Buy new, if it’s 500$ to replace …..welding worth a try….I would also make sure the rubber insulator is not worn out and make sure you loosen all mounting points of the exhaust & muffler can, make sure nothing is binding, tighten front to back….
OEM 21 KTM, my guess is steel. Replacement is looking to be somewhere in the 300-400 range. Cost to repair I dont know yet, wanted to see if anyone here had any experience with having one of these repaired to see if it was worth doing or not.
Many welding shops are getting $175/hr. now. Find a fabricating type of shop, maybe some place that does sand rail or race car type frames. Avoid the wrought iron shops. Maybe put a "want to buy" thread in The Bazaar section.
I'll do that and check on pricing. If a repair is looking like $200 minimum I'd rather just buy a new one with some new rubbers and know that its good to go.
The Shop
Find some local welder on Craigslist or something. I bet someone out there is willing to weld that up for $50 or less. It's steel, not a liability (you're not having a frame welded), and super straight forward. It doesn't take a ton of talent to stick that back on.
That should be a pretty easy repair.
Thats about a 5 minute job for any half-decent welder. Maybe a buddy you know can do it for a 6 pack or like Luxon mentioned Craigslist.
On a side note: I’d recommend everybody to buy a mig welding set up as you’ll find yourself needing a welder on more occasions down the line. A used Lincoln kit will run you $500-800 depending on the model. It will save you much more than that over time. It’s a solid investment and it’s never a bad time to learn another useful skill. I’m not an expert welder but you don’t need to be in order to get the job done. Cheers
That's stainless and an easy repair with a tig welder and over half the time to do it is going to be simply cleaning and prep work, not even actually welding it. I charge $20-40 for a quick repairs like that all the time and just do it when I have a little free time in my schedule, so don't immediately go to doom and gloom here with shop minimums. Pull the pipe off and mark the hanger for which way it faces (so the person welding it doesn't have to guess), go to your local fab/welding/race shops and just ask them how much they want to weld it up. Some may tell you a minimum shop fee that may not be worth it and some may be cool and do it for a fair price. The one thing is to not expect it to be done while you wait, as it may be a day or a week before they have a chance to do that when it doesn't impact the jobs that are actually keeping the lights on, and pay them in cash because sometimes the shop doesn't even log it and it was simply done "on _________ employees lunch break and you're just going to pay him".
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