Yeah, you can use your mig welder on it. I repaired the welds for the rear frame mounting brackets. I wound up throwing away the rear frame, ripped out mounting flanges for the exhaust, tubes cracked all the way through, rear grab bar bolts torn out, it was a mess.

Be careful on your settings, I blew through twice by the time I fixed all the cracks.

 

Thanks Turtler. I will start out with everything on low. The tubes look pretty thin.

Every raptor and even YFZs loose the rear grab bar bolts. End up using thru bolts and nuts.

 

I contacted the yamaha service center and asked them for a material description and wall thickesses of selected frame members. They came back and said the information was proprietary and that I should just buy a new frame. So much for customer service.

They sure have their nerve, I am sick of yamaha's sh... attitude about their design flaws.

 

I hear ya. Till now, the only thing I haven't touched on this Raptor has been the frame. This bike is littered with design flaws. After everything I have done to it, it's still way better than anything you can buy new. So, I am stuck.

 

Don't mention it....just helpin' out. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] I guess there's something about that corner of the frame that just weakens with hard riding. I just stripped my Raptor down to the frame, and had a friend weld in some gussets at all the stress points.....been going strong so far...(knock on wood)..[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I found another crack in the frame. Upper motormount, right side, just aft of the motor mount support weld. It was helical crack all the way around with a .100" gap. There was 1/4 of material left. This was the bad one.

Welding up this crack really mitigated the vibration. Although, I can still feel some. I did not have my crank balanced when I replaced the rod and piston. Maybe I should have.

I think gussets is a good idea. This is really a whimpy frame. There are areas where the paint is gone at high stress areas. I bet these are areas for future cracks.