I installed Harley mufflers on my 1100 today

[mharrington]

Bought some beautiful Harley take off mufflers. $35 shipped to my door. My XS1100s exhaust was sound but the chrome was rusted and stained. I sandblasted the exhaust and painted it with Krylon BBQ black. It looked good- better than the beat up chrome but I wanted at least some nice chrome mufflers. Emgos not in my budget- I needed them cheap!

Here is a before- entire exhaust in black. Looks good with the new red paint.


Here are the mufflers.



They have catylitic converters in them. I could not get a definitive answer if this was good bad or neutral- so I put them on.



Bike with new mufflers.





Mounting bracket I made that utilized the 1100 muffler mount hole.


I only rode 35 miles after the install- I did not fabricate a crossover pipe like the OEM setup. Seat of the pants the power is the same all the way to redline. The sound is NOT SIGNIFICANTLY different. A little growl when you goose the throttle and a little growl on deceleration. Many may not notice a difference at all. I will see what the long term effects of having cat converters in my mufflers will be if any. Speculation ranged from them making cleaner emissions to them getting plugged up. My old mufflers will take 20 minutes to install if need be. I like having chrome mufflers attached to my black header pipes. Plus Harley OEM mufflers are quality made and durable.
(Some Harley owners act like wieners to metric bike owners)

[crazy steve]

Clean install....

As far as the catalytic convertor, only one muffler should have that if you bought a 'set'. If both have one, then somebody sold you 2 half sets. That may or may not be a problem; Harley runs the catalyst bikes pretty lean, whether or not you'll have an issue fouling the convertor won't show up right away. I've heard that some owners have used a 1.5" hole saw with an extension to get in there and hog a hole through the convertor; something to keep in mind....

[Axel]

Nice

Nice bike ,nice install , nice pics

[jjz28]

Those look like what is on my bike, but i have no converters in there. I love the sound of mine, it is louder on the low end and then really has that loud crotch rocket sorta sound when you get on it in the midrange- high. Heck, i dont know how to explain it but it sounds great. Oh, by the way, your bike looks GREAT. I bet you could shave in that thing. How was it painted, did you do it or someone else. What type of paint and clear. thanks.



After looking at your pic again, can you see that convertor from the tail end. I have never saw mine off the bike so maybe mine does have a convertor if its not seen from the open end. I have never took a flashlight and looked in the but i can see pretty far and never saw one.

[mharrington]

Maybe to make the sale the seller paired up 2 mufflers that were symetrical- thus 2 mufflers with cats in them. The install went smooth- they are larger in circumference than what I removed. I cut about a 16th of an inch from the center stand foot pad to clear the body on the LH side. I have heat shields but did not need them as the Harley legalities stamped in are not visible on either muffler. I read about removing (even breaking up) the converters but honestly I dont want to work that hard on them. They are so cheap I can buy another set- an older set that is cat free if I need to. If chrome plating wasnt so expensive Id have my oem system replated. I have another set - converter free for my XS650 project.

[mharrington]

Those look like what is on my bike, but i have no converters in there. I love the sound of mine, it is louder on the low end and then really has that loud crotch rocket sorta sound when you get on it in the midrange- high. Heck, i dont know how to explain it but it sounds great. Oh, by the way, your bike looks GREAT. I bet you could shave in that thing. How was it painted, did you do it or someone else. What type of paint and clear. thanks.



After looking at your pic again, can you see that convertor from the tail end. I have never saw mine off the bike so maybe mine does have a convertor if its not seen from the open end. I have never took a flashlight and looked in the but i can see pretty far and never saw one.

Thanks JJZ! I did all the prep work on my tank and plastics. Filled 3 small but ugly dents in the tank. I then let a painter paint the 2000 GMC red basecoat clearcoat. I had all the work done to where all the painter had to do was wipe down my parts and shoot them. He charged me $250 to shoot the fairing, tank, seat moldings, side covers and rear cowl. I was hoping his estimate would have been less but he is a professional and the results are fantastic. Im pretty sure the cat converters are visible from the inlet only. You know- my mufflers were $14 but the shipping was $20! I still look at craigslist hoping to to find another set locally.

[petejw]

looks good mike,
the chrome mufflers sets off the bike
better than the black ones do.

[Aches n Pains]

Any chance of getting a picture of the mounting bracket by itself?

Thanks,

Aches n Pains

[mharrington]

Here is the steel I used to make brackets. Its what was laying around. 1/8" thick.




Left side- slight bending to clear the swing arm. Mounted to the aluminum bracket just like the original- same hole. Chrome spacer is to take up the space between the aluminum bracket and the bracket I made on the muffler.



Same deal on the right side.



I need to grind just a tad off the rear brake lever as its hits the beefy Harley muffler clamp on that side.

Once installed the home made brackets are hard to see so dont try to be a pro. Do take the steps to have the mufflers postioned symetrically- dont have one facing up and out and the other down and in!

[WSL91]

Very nice bike. I've been hunting for XS pipes and one option is to do that to my XJ (Has a fairing) and move the XJ pipes to the XS Special. I like the way the XS/XJ pipes kick up in the rear but could defiantely go with the strait looking pipes on the bike with the fairing. I'm saving this thread for future reference
Thanks for sharing.

[mharrington]

Here is a quite typical example of some mufflers for sale priced at $40 in my town. Im sure its similar in all US areas. I cant see the mounting bosses. The closer to the center the better (Easier to mount) An offer of $30 would be ideal.

Pair of stock mufflers, fit 2003 Harley Electra Glide.
Not sure if they fit other years or models.


Email or call 616-403-9360
Cash only

[XSRAY1100]

Basic General rule of thumb

If that exhaust is truly off an Electra Glide, the mounting bosses are at the tail end of the exhaust canister. Harley mounts them under the hard bags.

You could use an strap stye exhaust hanger thou.....

Best to look for cansisters that came off a Dyna or Sportser. Mounting bosses will be in the middle. Just watch the Dynas, some will have a cross over port.

By the way, where did you get the front fairing? I like that.

Very nice bike...and great paint job...

[mharrington]

Front fairing is a Maier brand. Dennis Kirk sells them- I got mine from Shadetree Powersports. A search on Amazon will find the best price too.

[XSRAY1100]

Fairing...

Thanks for the info on the fairing. Dennis Kirk wants a goodly sum for it, I wanted to make sure that was the one before I bought it. For phase 2 of my 80XS resurrection. Thread and pics to come.....hijack over.

[mharrington]

Its a real BUMMER that the Maier fairing with the rectangular headlight opening is about $80 more then the same fairing with a round opening. Go figure. When I bought mine over a year ago from ShadetreePowersports.com it was on sale. I paid $149.