[Guest]

Here's what I did on my 2002 FXDXT w/stock pipes:

Loosen muffler clamps, spray WD-40, go eat dinner.
Work the mufflers off the pipes (mainly wiggling, some light tapping with a wooden block on the mounting bolt bracket).

Set muffler on end with inlet side up, outlet side placed on plywood piece covered by old diaper to avoid damage. Put solid 1-1/4" mild steel dumbbell bar in inlet side. Smack carefully with minisledge. Nothing. Smack again. Nothing.

Call local indy shop and ask how much to knock plugs out. "$20 to $40 depending how hard we have to work at it." Calculate how much beer that would buy. Take minisledge and give it a REALLY good whack. Plug breaks loose and muffler falls over, placing small dent in can. Do the same thing with the other muffler, but place some shop towels around to avoid dents when it falls over. Install, start it up. Sounds SWEEEET....

Ordered Ness Big Sucker online. Will stop by the local Yamaha shop and get a needle shim. Hit the H-D dealer for a larger slow jet. Once I collect all the parts I'll proceed with phase 2 of my el-cheapo performance package.

Thanks to Dr. Tramp on HawgRyder's forum for the instructions ...

 

[cox9000]

Sounds like what my cousin did with his pipes. I was thinking about it but I've heard people in my area having problems with the law when the pipes are too loud or modified wrong. Anyway glad to hear that you're saving the bucks and ready for the next stage.
Ride On!

 

[Geno]

Tom, thanks for the detail info. I'll punch out my stock mufflers as soon as the snow starts to fly here in Wisconsin.

 

[rickpoco]

Was that a clean old diaper?

 

[trooper113]

That's exactly what I just had my local non-Harley Harley shop do to my '03 1200S. Punched the stock mufflers, re-jetted, K&N filter in the stock box. Sounds great, runs a bit better.

 

[Rscotts1]

Knocking out plugs

What do these plugs look like? When I get the mufflers off what am I looking for? What happens to the plug...does it fall into the muffler? My ride is a 2002 XL883 Sportster. This newbie really appreciates any and all help.

 

[Guest]

Re: Knocking out plugs

What do these plugs look like? When I get the mufflers off what am I looking for? What happens to the plug...does it fall into the muffler? My ride is a 2002 XL883 Sportster. This newbie really appreciates any and all help.

They're a metal disc about the size of a quarter. When you punch them out they fall right through the pipe to the floor (or CLEAN old diaper if you use one ... )

 

[Turtle]

It's just a plug that diverts the exhaust into the baffles about half way through the muffler. So it ends up being more of a straight through design, but still retains the baffle.

I did the the old hole saw bit. Where you get a hole saw the size of the baffle weld at the back of the muffler. Cut through the weld and remove the whole baffle.

 

[SIDEKICK]

ever hear of a HOLE SAW?

 

[Turtle]

Do you not know what a hole saw is?

 

[Guest]

The thread description is "cheap basturd's exhaust mods ... " a REAL cheap basturd would NEVER waste gas running to the hardware store to BUY a hole saw (with an extra-long shaft ... ) when there's a perfectly good dumbbell bar and a perfectly good minisledge just laying around the house with nothing to do.

Shoulda seen the way I 'fixed' the faulty choke heater on my 1973 Plymouth Fury (cop engine, cop brakes, etc ...) instead of buying a new one ...

 

[03Fatboy]

Just tried it

After reading this thread and some others I decided to give it ago on my 03 fatboy FI.


Sound was a bit louder idling but when in the torque band it "ROCKS"!

More response, could definately tell it was breathing easier

I would add a couple of tips for FLSTFI bikes

• remove heat shields
• remove passenger foot peg (I rotated lower muffler around it)

Also it would be easier to go to the hardware store and pickup a 2 foot section of steel water pipe to knock it out with. I ended up puncturing the first one before I found a short piece of pipe I made work. It knocked the second one completely out just like a freeze plug.

I used a scrap piece of carpet on a block of wood instead of a diaper

Now I can have a more enjoyable sound while saving up for the pipes that I want and get the AC and PC3r installed so that the pipes will be the last piece of the package but I can still benifit from each of the pieces as I go.

 

[duhast]

That's all fine, but......

none of you are in California, are you?

Yes, the wonderful Peoples Republic of California....Workers Paradise....with it's nice smog regs on bikes.

I asked a local Harley shop (not a dealer) about punching baffles. "Not a good idea in Cal."

Seems it's not at all beyond imagination that someday soon we will have to smog cert our rides, and Cal. pipes are catalytic., and not cheap.

Soooooo, bottom line here is, save for illegal after-market pipes, and keep the stock ones pristeen and hanging in the garage until you need them.

 

[Guest]

If you have a bike that came from the factory without a converter, they aren't going to make you add a converter later on (at least it hasn't happened yet ...). And even if the gummint did something stupid like that, those old stock mufflers would be of absolutely no use at all.

MOST of the folks on this forum live in non-catalytic converter, no-inspection areas. To THOSE folks I say: Bang 'em up, punch holes in them because it's fun and cheap, toss 'em out when you get swoopy new pipes and if on the off chance you ever actually need stock mufflers someday (say because you move to California...), jump on E-Bay and get a used set for $30 ... That way you had all the fun and you only had to pay some schmuck $30 to clog up his garage storing those mufflers for you all that time...

 

[03flstfi]

Hawaii's big thing is "modified" exhaust (punched baffles) Police-wise, yet they dont seem to bother the guys with obnoxious aftermarket pipes, IF they were installed by the dealer... go figure. Nothing wrong with punching baffles, heck, we did that to my wifes FXDL...

 

[Ultra02]

I live in California and I can't tell the difference between the pipes that came on my 2002 Ultra Classic and the one's I bought off of ebay to modify as Cheap Basturd did. They both have the general statement that they meet the 80db sound level other than that they are the same. The one's from ebay came from back east somewhere. So I know they say we special mufflers in California, but I think they are just trying to be different when in all actually they are the same all over.