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Harley mufflers for the GS850

  • Thread starter Thread starter fomocoguy
  • Start date Start date
F

fomocoguy

Guest
I'm new here and have soaked up lots of great information that has been a lot of help in getting my bike road ready. I wanted to post this and maybe it will help one of you who need a cheap muffler solution.

My 79 GS850 had mufflers that were totally shot when I bought it. Not wanting to spend $300+ on scratched up originals and not wanting a 4 into 1, I started looking for mufflers I could graft onto my original head pipes. After searching craigslist for foriegn bike mufflers and coming up short, I began to notice lots of HD mufflers going for peanuts. I guess nobody who owns a Harley wants the quiet stock exhaust, so they sell dirt cheap. I picked up a full exhaust from a softail, brand new and taken off by the dealer, for $35. Not a scratch on it. So I cut my pipes right after the y on either side and started lining things up. I thought I would need some sort of reducer, but low and behold the pipes are the exact same size! I cut a 2" section off the harley head pipes and ground the joint side so that it put thecorrect angle on the mufflers and welded it up with my 120v Lincoln 140 mig welder. For the support bracket I turned the mufflers so that the mounts face the ground and made an offset L bracket to bolt it to the frame (goes straight down and angles back at the bend). Anyhow, here's how it turned out:
100_7120.jpg

100_7119.jpg

100_7121.jpg

It sounds fantastic too. Not as quiet as stock, but not obnoxious. More like a well designed aftermarket sound. Works fine with the stock jetting; no lean surges or popping.

So, there you have it. Feel free to ask any questions! I'll be happy to get a close up shot of the brackets if anyone would like to see them better.
 
Well done. i Think alot of us here appreciate a cheap soloution i know i do.
 
Thanks guys! Yeah, I can't throw gobs of cash at an old bike like this, but I want it to look nice, and I know some of you are probably the same way.
 
Hi,

This solution has been around a long time. It's good to see it so well executed. You've got a nice bike going there. Thanks for sharing!



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
Looks good. Especially useful information is that the jetting seems to be close enough.
 
Excellent job! Those HD mufflers always go cheap. Other than being heavy, they are extremely well made and will hold up much better than the originals Zook put on there!
 
A serious request for you: Please take some detailed photos of what you did, and see if you can get it up on BassCliff's big web site of tips and tutorials.

Everyone eventually needs to replace the mufflers, and the OEM Suzuki ones haven't been available for years. Your method keeps the stock appearance, seems to not need carb work, and is about as inexpensive as it can get.
 
Absolutely! I'll see if I can get a few good pics of the brackets tonight or tomorrow. I'll also get a part number off the mufflers if they have one, which they should.
 
Well I took a couple shots of the brackets and where I welded on the pipe. After putting them on the computer I realized I haven't even cleaned up after tacking and welding yet, so I will take some better ones once I clean her up.

Please excuse my weld; I ran out of gas and was experimenting with the flux core wire, which did ok but made a mess.
100_7126.jpg

100_7124.jpg

Shot from directly underneath:
100_7125.jpg

100_7123.jpg
 
The next step would be to modify the factory HD heat shields to cover the rough looking pipe ahead of the mufflers. The factory shield would no longer fit.
 
Hi fomoco,

LOVE the concept & execution. Kudos to you.

Any chance of a video or sound grab. Would love to hear what they sound like.

Harley mufflers would never have travelled in such style. :-#

Richard
 
7981GS said:
As if MY request wasn't serous? :rolleyes:

Eric
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to imply that. My point is more that needing a replacement muffler is a common problem, and documented fix should be stored in a place where everyone can easily find it. We've had other threads about using HD mufflers to replace GS mufflers, but this is the easiest to understand one that I recall.
 
I agree that it would be mighty helpful to have a detailed write-up on this with pictures.

I'm waiting on doing this with two EMGO shorty mufflers but I get a little hesitant about doing irreversible mods like cutting exhaust pipes up.

Did you use a hacksaw to cut the pipes? sawzall? were the pipes on, or off the bike? were the pipes double-walled where you cut them?
 
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