Poor FMF Pipe Fit

[Bricks88]

C.C. hit the nail on the head.FRP sent me a 10 inch long piece of PVC for the spacers and instructions with my fork springs.Thats customer service :thumb:

 

[john_bilbrey]

I'll chime in here as well. I just got the Gnarly Desert in on Tuesday, and began the install last night. Pipe arrived in good shape, it even had a "bag o' goodies" zip-tied to one of the mounting holes. I didn't open the goody bag - it appeared to only contain some stickers and some instructions. After removing side plate, old pipe, and PCII silencer, I scavenged the old orings from the stock pipe. Installed on Gnarly and began installation. Fitment to exhaust port was a little tight, it took a little "encouraging" to slide all the way in the port. Overall pipe fit wasn't bad. The trick was loosening all of the mounts from the bike and the pipe, and "encouraging" them a little in different directions. No big tools required, just a good push/pull to tweak the alignment. Reinstallation of PCII silencer with Gnarly installed was excellent, no springs required but I did reuse the rubber slip-on deal that came from the factory. A couple of zip ties there and we're good - that is, until I snapped one of the bolts on the stock mounting hardware. Not the one that mounts to the bike, but on the actual mounting piece that runs through the rubber. It must have been weak from a dismount or other previous tinkering. I'll have to fabricate something tonight to finish install. Ride report to follow along with jetting info.

 

[Legend220]

I was talking about the FMF pipes with my local dealor friend yesterday. He told me that PC would be the better choice because Pro Cicuit and Kawasaki are working together in engineering the pipes. Take a look, Pro Circuit team only races Kawasaki bikes!

Legend220
'04 KDX220

 

[KAY DEE EXER]

My question to legend220 is "How much of that "engineering" goes into the KDX's pipes"? Its not an argumentative question, just curious...FWIW I had the same fitment issues with the FMF -35 pipe.

 

[wanaride]

I must also be in the minority here...

I recently purchased an FMF Gnarly Woods pipe and Turbine Core 2 S/A for my '03 200. After hearing from more than one person about poor FMF fit-n-finish, I was worried about the assembly, but everything went on very easily. I had to loosen the frame mounts mind you, but I didn't consider that a big deal.

Maybe I was just lucky...

 

[nectar]

My desert rev. pipe went on really easy...fit great! But, later, while riding, I was hearing a weird sound from the suspension which I though was a dry/rusted linkage bearing. Turns out that the pipe was rubing the shock spring....

 

[gwhII]

Howdy,

I think I'm OK but I thought I would double check with y'all. Installed a Gnarly Rev and a TCII Q silencer on my '03 KDX200. The pipe does not have a KIPS dent like some have mentioned. It did install and there does look to be about 1/4" of space between it and the KIPS cover.

To make it work, I had to bend the top mounting tab on the pipe, reverse the upper pipe hanger, make a ~5mm thick spacer, and use a longer bolt. The bottom hanger mounted up fine and it felt like the mouth of the pipe bottomed out on the cylinder exhaust port. There seems to be clearance all around the pipe and silencer piping, some places on the order of just a few mm, but nothing rubbing. I cannot remove the pipe without loosening the silencer; it's like the end of the pipe where it widens out to mate with the silencer's pipe will not pull over the hump in the case for the kick start shaft but the actual bit of the pipe that would sit over the hump is of a small enough diameter that it looks like there's enough clearance.

After installation, I started it up and checked for leaks and all there didn't seem to be any. I also took it for a couple quick spins up and down the block and it ran pretty well. I have not had a chance to do anything that would compress the suspension so that needs to be double checked.

The engine is hard mounted so there only being a few mm / 1/4" clearance between the pipe and the KIPS shouldn't be a problem right? Nothing seems to be under stress either. Anything critical that I'm missing?

Best,
Greg

 

[kdxfreeeek]

well like they sed man its mor elike a hit and miss when they make that many pipes there are gonna be a little off BUT they dont send crap it sounds like to me that you all need to slow down and wiggle the pipe till it fits not pushin and kickin g it into place ive done a countless number of dirt bikes and only had that problem on a used pipe and look fo rthat second silencer bolt behind the right number plate if it is not in the pipe will be about 1/8 from going in LOL>

GOOD LUCK

 

[tedkxkdx]

Luckily with my KDX the one pipe I had went on fine. I was my KTM friend who had BIG PROBLEMS. Basically, we got the pipe in the cylinder port fine but the bottom tab was 1.5 inch from where it should be and the silencer end was pointed out away from the bike at about 20 degrees so no bending was going to fix that.
I think it was a completely different pipe than what they had stamped.
Maybe they at fmf should bolt there jigs in place and not move them again.
They should be boycotted with their customer service.
FMF told me it was not their problem since I had purchased the pipe from Dennis Kirk.