Harley Mufflers, Installed!

This is what I started with:





Time has taken its toll and I am ashamed of every dinglesmash and dent I managed to acquire in the 34k miles I have put on this machine. There was not one scratch when I started with it in 2000. Mufflers are the main crash bars on this bike:



I must not have liked the factory indent for the centerstand, because I added my own, courtesy of the cell-phone user who catapulted the bike out from under me when she rear-ended me. Another story, for another time.



Instead of disabling my bike for the time it is going to take to re-do the header, probably with Jet-Hot, it occurred to me to use a temporary setup, courtesy of J&R Cycles, in Marietta, Georgia. Robert is the owner of the shop and he graciously let me conduct my mad science with a donor set of KZ-650 pipes from a B model. Not a cris-cross, but a 650-4, so good for the interim bolt up. More importantly, for the test cutting that has to be done.



To be honest, they were pretty rough. At first I thought all I needed were the header pipes and crossover. I ended up cutting the mufflers in two places to obtain the inlet anchor. I needed that too.



Originally, I thought I would be clever and cut in front of the weld. $10.00 later at the welder shop, I learned to cut the mufflers closest to the hanger support first, to obtain the inner core. Then cut the muffler off at the weld, leaving the weld alone. The first muffler shows my overexuberance in trying to get by without the core support.



After obtaining my pieces-parts cut down and torn apart, it took some time to take stock and start cleaning. These things will never be gorgeous. I tell myself, "this is a temporary setup."



It suprised me that there was some shiny under all the grime.



The replacement mufflers came with the band clamps, thanks to Tim Miller of Ebay "closeout-motorcycle-parts" desire to fix a shipping mixup. Those details would have added another $25.00 retail to the cost of this project. I guess I could have used automotive muffler clamps at less than $2.00 each, but they wouldn't have been right for the application. The bigger problem is that they don't allow for easy removal if needed. It was late Friday afternoon when I shot the picture, so light was a problem I didn't realize at the time.



The next issue to deal with was sleeving down the 1-3/4" I.D. of the stock Harley mufflers to the correct O.D. of the existing 1-1/4" header outlet. Part of the solution came from E-bay, in the form of Custom Chrome adapters. These took the Harley inlets down to 1-1/2" . . .the copper sleeve was an initial attempt to take the rest of the clearance out. They don't work, because they are too thin . . . maybe they would of if I had used layers, but I found a better solution.



Another $10.00 at the welder netted me some thick-wall iron pipe which had the 1-1/4" I.D. and 1-1/2" O.D. sizes I needed to bridge the gaps between ancient Oriental mysticism and American prgamatism, a.k.a. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." The $10.00 got me two 1.5" length cylinders, with a single split cut to allow for installation compression. The band saw at the welder shop worked far better than my hack saw would have. Well worth the price of admission. Picture did not come out. I hate it. Sometimes you just have to use your imagination antenna.

Close up of completed left side clamped in place.



While I had everything apart, I used a wet brillo pad at first and then some Turtle Wax "Chrome Polish and Rust Remover" I had sitting around to do whatever could be done for the headers. The exhaust collars, being aluminum or something like pot metal, got the vinegar, bar-keepers friend, and heat on the stove, didn't makeadent-or-do-a-thing treatment. They turned black to mock me. The brillo pad application did some good. You can see the head is kind of the "before" status. Leaking tach and cam seals make a mess of things.



I reused the copper header gaskets. You can, if you heat them dull red with a propane torch to expand them. No leaks.

New pipes in place. Someone before me with the other bike must have run #3 hot for awhile. Maybe someone has an idea for the blue removal. In the meantime, repeat mantra. . ."this is a temporary setup. . ."



New muffler in place on the right side, right next to the nifty Sportster shock. Please don't post petty messages about my bent, incorrect rear turn signal. I was notified about it during my last crash, thanks. It still looks better than the first one that got smashed during the first crash that took out the original.



Another shot, this time with another sucessful mad science project, the lightweight, color-coordinated, highly efficient shipping container that can transport noble Tigger as we traverse the time-space continuum, humming Flight of the Valkyries.



Remember what I said ealier about the factory recess for the centerstand? There were others on the stock mufflers, for things like axle access, too. Seemed kind of like "oops, we have to add these" afterthoughts. Big shiny mufflers with convolutions. After doing this conversion, I lost all of those, and it's kind of hard to see from the pictures, but the centerstand curve gracefully wraps around the muffler, without contacting it anywhere. Looks better than factory, clean efficiency. A gift of Light from the Father of the same. Gotta give credit where credit is due.





Take-off parts to be modified / repaired before shipping off to Jet-Hot for the next chapter in this retro-resto / upgrade adventure.



Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:51

I can only see the last pic in your post.
:blink:

Hi Mario . . . I pulled a fire alarm.

KZ Rider thread

I have lots of pretty pictures to go with the post.

Trying to sort this out. . .

:lol:

Edit: Formatted URL. - Nate

Post edited by: N0NB, at: 2007/05/25 13:27

Could you post more about the "Custom Chrome exhaust adapters"? I did some searching and didn't find anything.

I did sporty mufflers on my 400 rebuild, and intended to on my 750... more on that someday...

Scratch pad attempt to fix this issue, I think. . . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:24

another upload. . .one at a time per post

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:28

third in the series. . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:31

and another one. . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:33

dum de dum dum. . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:35

I think I figured out the work around for the "one-picture-per-post" limitation. . .

:lol:

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:39

I keep replying, and add one one permitted picture. . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:43

Seventh in the series. . .maybe. . .

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/05/25 12:45