Can a hole in muffler be repaired?

[nutsandbolts]

weld them up

I would take them to a muffler shop or welding shop. Both my mufflers had holes in them, one quite large (size of an egg) near the connection to the individual pipes. Thy were all on the hidden side so they oculdn't be seen.
They fixed them all (6 holes) for 200 CDN. and polished the welds really well.
I thought that was good considering aftermarket cans (mufflers) cost 250 each (have two), and would require modification to make them fit. A 4 into 1 one kit would have cost 400-500 but I'm not crazy about the look.
good luck

[Clone]

I would take them to a muffler shop or welding shop. Both my mufflers had holes in them, one quite large (size of an egg) near the connection to the individual pipes. Thy were all on the hidden side so they oculdn't be seen.
They fixed them all (6 holes) for 200 CDN. and polished the welds really well.
I thought that was good considering aftermarket cans (mufflers) cost 250 each (have two), and would require modification to make them fit. A 4 into 1 one kit would have cost 400-500 but I'm not crazy about the look.
good luck

Holy smokes, were you getting the gold plated slip on megaphones? I priced out chrome megaphones for the cheapest 70 and the dunstall replicas were 120. No huge modifications just cut off the old ones, use the adapters that come with them and clamp them on, the biggest consideration would be to the hanger location as most of the time you need to consider angles and all that geometry to get them bolted on.

[kcorbin]

I cut mine off at the end of the header/start of the megaphone and replaced them with slip ons. I had to fabricate a couple of brackets, but no need to re-jet.
The slip-ons I acquired were from the back door of the Harley shop for a case of cold ones and a little bit of cash.

Thanks for supplying a pic! I've seen others mention this for years now but I've never seen a pic of an actual Harley muffler on there (not in the thread anyways).

I showed this to a buddy and he's like "Dude, I have a pair sitting in the garage gathering dust."

Soooo, now that this project is closer to reality, how did you attach them to the pipes? I couldn't see this in the pic but it looks well done.

I'd prefer some type of clamp system since I don't have a welder and am hoping to avoid shop fees.

And, you didn't have to re-jet? I'm planning on re-jetting down the road but that's quite a ways off after electronic ignition, new intake, etc.

[Clone]

You should be either able to clamp them after cutting off the original mufflers, or failing that you will need to find a welder, or someone who can braze.

[chuck hahn]

I wasnt paying attention once and installed my axle bolt in the wrong way and discovered it had rubbed a hole in the inside of the left muffler..I took it off and set my mig welder on the lowest setting and dotted a million spot welds on and progressively worked my way to the center till it was closed up. Then i took my angle grinder and CAREFULLY smoothed it all down and unl;ess i told you to look behind you would never know it had been comprimised..a good welder with some skills can repair it i would think.

[Planecrazy]

Many Harley shops will simply GIVE them to you if you ask nicely and explain that you have an antique bike and can't get stock pipes for it anymore. I picked up a flawless new set of pipes from the local shop for FREE just by asking ... They usually have so many lying around that they're happy to get rid of them.

Regards,

[tas850g]

you can replace your mufflers with HD mufflers??? I need to ask my brother how many stock HD mufflers he has laying around and try that out on my '79.

If the bike runs well and the plugs are a good color would I have to re-jet?

[Planecrazy]

you can replace your mufflers with HD mufflers??? I need to ask my brother how many stock HD mufflers he has laying around and try that out on my '79.

If the bike runs well and the plugs are a good color would I have to re-jet?

"Yes"
"Cool!"
and
"Probably not, but I don't know for sure... Individual results may vary."

[Jagir]

Thanks for supplying a pic! I've seen others mention this for years now but I've never seen a pic of an actual Harley muffler on there (not in the thread anyways).

I showed this to a buddy and he's like "Dude, I have a pair sitting in the garage gathering dust."

Soooo, now that this project is closer to reality, how did you attach them to the pipes? I couldn't see this in the pic but it looks well done.

I'd prefer some type of clamp system since I don't have a welder and am hoping to avoid shop fees.

And, you didn't have to re-jet? I'm planning on re-jetting down the road but that's quite a ways off after electronic ignition, new intake, etc.

The Harley slip-ons were a bit too big so i simply cut some slots into the ends with a hacksaw. I then squeezed them with some vise grips to fit them inside the ends of the headers . Once they fit, I held them in and on with some nice stainless clamps (hose clamps would work).

In retrospect, I wish I had packed the connection with a bit of muffler tape or some heat resistant rubber gasket as they do poop out a little bit of exhaust, but I only notice it at the stop light on a windless day.

THanks for the props. I've put about 10,000 km on them and am finally seeing a tiny bit of yellowing at the junction (where I should have packed the connection).

Also, I may be running a touch rich as It takes about 2-3 minutes to warm up on a nice day and 4-5 minutes on a cold day. Perhaps re-jetting would help after all?

[Roger P.]

The local Harley dealer here says they sell the stock mufflers back to HD to be re-used on new machines.


I had a hole in the remaining pipe on my 650 Seca Turbo about the size and shape of a section of an orange. I got some epoxy putty, the kind shaped like a wiener with the putty on the outside and the hardener in the middle. I kneaded up enough to fill the hole, attached it, and then painted it black to match the pipe. It lasted for the 3 years I rode the bike, and was still on when I sold it.

[Skunky]

Re-used by Harley! That cuz it's Canada...here in the states we just throw-um out.