Broken Exhaust Bracket possible. I had chirping metal on metal sound from tranny/rear cylinder area and mechanics thought that it was cam tensioner. We had just replaced all fluids and we were wondering if motor was shelling out for some reason. Noise more prevalent at long idle periods but went away at highway speeds. After looking for all reasons around engine and tranny, we spotted a hairline crack in the bracket that bolts to tranny and has a clamp to secure header pipe. Mechanic thought pipe clamp was loose but when we put screwdriver to clamp we finished braking the bracket in two places on the outside corners. When the bracket was completely broken away, the noise subsided by 75%. I was at Sturgis and went by the Harley tent and spoke with techs who advised that the aftermarket pipe installations with true headers usually resulted in broken clamps or brackets. Lincoln vendor welded the bracket and noise stopped. However, weld only held for 300 miles and broke again. Vance and Hines Monster Ovals on a 2006 Ultra Classic. Probably some bad alignment on installation. Broken bracket allowed header pipe to vibrate and cause exhaust leak at header. NOTE: mechanic first diagnosed the noise as cam tensioner adjuster and was going to put on a $2000 geared cam assembly. I got lucky and decided to think about it and then we STUMBLED across the hairline crack in the exhaust bracket.
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Topic: How to check for exhaust leak on head pipe? (Read 23749 times)