Yep you read it right. Bike been sounding funny, Idling weird for a few days. Finally found out the rear exhaust pipe was cracked. And by cracked I mean it was barely hanging on. I pulled it the rest of the way off by hand. I been wondering why it's been idling like crap lately and feeling sluggish. My SE II mufflers have no baffles but it's amazing what letting some exhaist out somwhere else can do. These are the original harley pipes too.

This all came from the PO not installing the bracket that supports rear muffler and keeps it from wobbling. I made appt at local shop to have a new bracket installed tommorow morning but looks like I won't be needing it now. Just going to buy a quality set of after markets and will a good exhaust my engine will run better hopefully.

Being tight on cash the Vance Hines short shots are looking real good for me. I like loud and I've heard you don't loose to much bottom end torque when leaving baffles in. If I did loose a little bottom end I probably wouldn't notice.

So if I buy the short shots do you think I should take the bike in and have the carb tuned to run right with them?

 

Thats....crazy! Warranty? Did it happen after turning too sharply?

 

No its from not having the proper bracket to support the rear muffler. When PO installed the Screaming Eagle mufflers he didn't re install the support bracket. Its been shaking up and down for awhile and i had a appt with shop to get a new bracket on there. Unfortunately it gave out 12 hours before my appt.

No warranty left on a 2002 lol

 

some folks I just don't know what theyre thinking. hey what's this piece ...........mmmmmmmmmmm I dunno are you sure it's from the bike? I dunno never seen it from this angle.............. Hey let's go for a ride and some beers! Cool let's go!

 

Thanks for sharing. This will be good lesson material for someone installing a set of exhaust pipes. Brackets are there for a reason, unless of course you're looking to replace the exhaust pipes more frequently.

 

Make sure you keep an eye on the bracket, if the bolts work their way loose (or are not tightened properly from the get go) they wallow out the threads or snap off in your tranny case

 

I had a similar thing happen to me a couple of years back (2011 FXDB) - cracked clean through the rear pipe, just behind the O2 sensor. Scarcely a year old, all standard mufflers etc, never taken off the bike that I'm aware of.

Luckily, local HD replaced it under warranty, no quibbles. Even touched up the paint where the loose end of the pipe had scratched the swing arm.

It made me decide, when I changed my pipes, to go full system (V&H Straightshots) rather than slip-on...
.

 

Makes noises for sure.
Had my 2 into 1 break clean in the front of the big chamber. hiding under the cover.
Took a few minutes to find what the noise was.
Went with a 2 into 2 as the price was right.
Works just fine.

 

Might sound kinda dumb but why not tig weld it back together?

 

not sure if you are going to swap pipes or not but if you need we can reweld that back up and it will be better than new, however the chrome will have to be ground down so a coating of some kind would have to go on the pipe, also something we can help with