frame difference?

The frame is the same,but not the engine.The cylinderhead is ~20mm down on the 550 compared to the 650.

04 models got revised, steeper, geometry and differing engine capacities have different height barrels and hence headers to suit.

Steve

Also in 05, the berg's went to yet another exhaust set up. And the 05 uses a rubber vibration damper (page 32 of the 05 parts manual) at the point where you are having trouble getting it to line up. So, I'm assuming that there is definitely a possibility that the bracket location on the frame was moved.

There is another factor concerning putting an 05 exhaust on an 03 bike as well. As Steve mentioned, the steering head geometry changed in 04, it got pulled in 1.5 degrees from 28.5 to 27 for the FE models, with 22mm offset triple clamps. I don't know if there was a triple clamp offset change from the 01-03 models to the 04 models.

On the FC and FS models the rake was pulled in to 26.5 degrees, the triple clamps on the FC models were 22mm's, with the triple clamps on the FS models being 17mm's top and 16mm's bottom, The triple clamp change on the FS models was necessary to maintain enough trail with the smaller 17" front wheel.

When I bought my 04 550, the front tire was hitting the right side header coming off the motor, because of the decrease in rake angle which brought the front wheel closer to the frame on compression. While the prototypes had fixed this problem, when the bikes went into production there was, shall we say, professional over sight, and the earlier model right side headers made it onto the 04 models. This was later fixed under warranty.

So the 05 system you bought probably has shorter right and left side headers to clear the tire, and the mid pipe will be in a slightly different location due also to the change that was made in the mid pipe to facilitate the vibration damper, and possibly a little longer.

I missed the fact that the exhaust came from a newer bike,but I still think the fitting problem is because the exhaust is designed for a 650 and not a 550.

Fourstrokeforce,

I agree that the 650 and 550 exhausts are not interchangeable, however, there is only one mid pipe listed for 01 for all models, another is listed for 02- for all models, another just for 04 when they switched over to the KTM style parts numbering system.

From 04-07 the mid pipe has same part number but I know for a fact that they will not interchange. Different headers, and different muffler to collector flanges. Have a look at the parts manuals and you'll see what I mean.

The reason I'm on about this, is that he says the mid pipe won't go around the down tube by the pegs. Whereas, the difference between the 550 and 650 is just height.

Maybe we'll get some more clarification from him. It's all good