Help-Exhaust Heat Shield Repair

[rez]

I have a full Cobra exhaust system on my bike. I have a broken clamp tab on one of my Cobra exhaust heat shields....the one nearest the muffler (for the forward cylinder exhaust pipe). It's the small tab which is spot welded on to the back side of the heat shield that the gear clamp goes through to secure the shield to the exhaust pipe. Any suggestions on how I could repair this??? I thought of re-welding it on top of the existing blob of weld (with low amperage wire feed welder) but am afraid I will still have enough heat to mark the chrome. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[ringadingh]

The very same thing happened on my V&H heat shield last season. I fixed mine by silver soldering the tabs, although it did blemish the chrome finish slightly. Its not that bad overall, and doesn't jump out at you, but there is a mark.I don't know of a way to fix it without leaving marks of some sort, shy of buying new sheilds.

[ballast]

Any chance they are under warranty? Contact Cobra and cry a little.

[landman]

what charley said.cobra i believe has a lifetime warranty and thier customer service is pretty good.call them!

[rez]

Thanks for suggestions. I did contact Cobra and they returned email quickly. They would warranty but i am not the original owner and they want proof or purchase....sales slip. I didn't pursue any further. Anyway i used my welding skills and repaired the tab by welding in a new piece to the existing/remaining tab pieces using low amp/heat setting on a wire feed welder. Kept a wet cloth on the chrome side to absorb some heat. No marks on chrome at all when i finished. Shield is back on the bike.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Good thing you have welding skills. I would have been left out in the dark. Congratulations on what sounds like an excellent job.

[Jared]

I was going to recommend welding it toward the bottom of the shield, so that if it did leave a mark it would be less noticeable. But your already done! Nice job!!!

[tbmmbt]

Well my wife bought me some Cobra True Duals on clearance as the motorcycle dealership just wanted to get the older pipes out of the store. Got what she thought was a good deal. A little over $100 less then a brand new set would cost even though these are new just older off the shelf pipes. Well when I was putting on the shields the back cylinder pipe shields tongue makes it lay and touch the other shield. I remember reading on here that Cobra was having issues with the older ones and that they would replace the part that they were having trouble with. Called customer service and was told that they would have to send out both heat shields but they wanted pictures and to ride the bike anyway being both pieces would be replaced. Rode the bike once to hear the pipes and sure enough it put that 1/8" cut in the front heat shield but wasn't to concerned as they said they would replace them anyway. Got another call from Cobra and they wanted the # from the back shield . Took it off and gave them the # that was stamped on the backside. Got another call from Cobra and was told that the pipes I have is an older set which we knew but it was still a new set. Then they called and said they wanted a copy of the invoice. Now my wife bought these pipes back in Dec 2010 and I was given these pipes and installed them in March 2011 so the invoice took some looking but she finally found it. Sent a copy of the invoice to Cobra and haven't heard a thing since then. Granted it hasn't been very long since I sent it to them but they sure was quick to get on the phone and ask for different things to make us jump through hoops for. They say that the Cobras have a lifetime warranty but its hard to get them to do anything when it comes to our situation. I will reserve my comments on Cobra until I see what they are going to do. It has been a known problem with the heat shields. The customer service guy has been fine with what has been going on but he blames the engineering department for all the phone calls and questions on things they want. We will see what happens but hopefully they will stand behind their product and replace the parts that they knew were defective to begin with.

[ballast]

The main lesson I see so far is "Keep your receipts and invoices". I will find mine this weekend and put them someplace safe.

[tbmmbt]

Well Cobra made contact today and they want us to take the heat shields off our bike and send them back. Not "We'll send you a new set and when you get the new heat shields then send back the ones that were with your exhaust". We asked why do we have to send them back first. They told us that is the way warranty works. We told them how long will it take and they answered it would take at least a week for them to get them and log them in and then at least another week to get the new heat shields sent out. So we are figuring it could take up to 3 weeks to get the new shields installed. We told them that we have to sit here without the opportunity to ride for almost 3 weeks because they won't send them out and when we receive them we will send the others back and they said thats the way it is. Now does anybody else out there who has the Cobra True Duals or any other Cobra exhaust have to do that when they was going to get the replacements for Cobra's screw up when making the heat shields? I would like to know what you had to do and how was it handled. Seems we have to pay the price for their screwup. Tell me if I'm wrong here and what should I do to get this remedied. Any help would be greatly appreciated.