Exhaust options from those that have heard them in person.

[Nomad_Dave]

Originally Posted by dvc357

Oh by the way brother,
Are the three steps you mentioned;
The outer rear baffle
The inner baffle
And the catalytic converter?
I wanted to take what i could from the rear only.
Would that be just the outer and inner baffles?

I did the modification on a 2009 nomad 1700. I started my efforts from the rear, with a hole saw and a long extension that i welded on to make sure it went the entire distance. That resulted in some more noise, but left the outer baffles intact, and inner baffle bunching up and restricting airflow. Basically less than impressive. Also, the coin sized blanks that came loose were now beyond my reach as i had only gone through from the back, and they are the exact size of the inside perforated pipe that runs between the inner and outer baffle mass.

That is when i cut the front ends off. I used a die grinder and carefully cut them off. Once that happened, I had access to the rest of the baffle, and more importantly the "rattling coins". I removed them and welded them back together. I put them back on and went for a ride.
The exhaust whistled horribly when I decelerated. I thought there was another piece of shrapnel inside that I had missed. So back to the bench for the pair of pipes. What I found was after removing most of the inner and outer baffles, there was the center pipe and being drilled with holes, the air rushing past it was causing the metallic whistle. So I cut the ends off of the pipes, to access that pipe. That finally did the trick. I grabbed that inner pipe, and wiggled it, which came loose and free, as it is only crimped at the top.

If i were to do this all over again, I would, but I would immediately cut both ends off, and removed everything at once. You cant truly gut the pipes without accessing the front and the back, its impossible. The finished product when looking at my pipes from the back is unobstructed, there is no intermediate or smaller pipe inside the main housing.
End of the day, time well spent.

I understand aftermarket is the way most people go, some due to the ease, some for the look, and some for the sound and performance gains, but the end result is basically the same. When i asked Ivan if there was a major difference, there isn't. His tune works the same no matter what.

Sorry for the long response, but i feel like you should know from the start what you are up against. Keep in mind, my bike has the dual exhaust with the slash cut tips, so accessing from the rear only limited what i could do. I could have easily done the entire operation in an evening, but instead it took a few times to get it right, using the measure twice cut once theory.

If you are going to attempt this, and want any further info, i can certainly draw up on paper what it took, as i failed to take pictures as i went. I can take pictures of what i ended up with if you like also.

Cheers

[dvc357]

Hey Brother,
Thanks, i really appreciate the info.
Mine is a two to two, dual sided. The
mufflers flair up within the first foot then
maintain the same approximate diameter
until the outlet. The outlet end is straight
cut.
Im going to give it a go this weekend,
I’ll let you know. I’ll be prepped to remove
both mufflers off the head pipes
if necessary.

[Nomad_Dave]

Originally Posted by dvc357

Hey Brother,
Thanks, i really appreciate the info.
Mine is a two to two, dual sided. The
mufflers flair up within the first foot then
maintain the same approximate diameter
until the outlet. The outlet end is straight
cut.
Im going to give it a go this weekend,
I’ll let you know. I’ll be prepped to remove
both mufflers off the head pipes
if necessary.

This is what mine look like - this is all i messed with. nothing ahead of this.

[dvc357]

Yup!
Rear baffle removal is not possible on
my mufflers. After drilling out the rear plates
with a 1 3/4” bimetal hole saw, there was
a second plate further in that was welded to the
baffle and the muffler body.
So, since i didnt want to have to weld.
I stopped at that point.
Very anti climatic!

[Nomad_Dave]

Originally Posted by dvc357

Yup!
Rear baffle removal is not possible on
my mufflers. After drilling out the rear plates
with a 1 3/4” bimetal hole saw, there was
a second plate further in that was welded to the
baffle and the muffler body.
So, since i didnt want to have to weld.
I stopped at that point.
Very anti climatic!

That is the "point of no return" in the entire operation. That is where the cut and weld comes in to play.

[tomrtrd]

If you can fit your drill bit into the muffler to drill out your baffle and get those quarter size piece of metal out , you can drill out 2 of them . Just watch out you dont drop it in the muffler

[Nomad_Dave]

Originally Posted by tomrtrd

If you can fit your drill bit into the muffler to drill out your baffle and get those quarter size piece of metal out , you can drill out 2 of them . Just watch out you dont drop it in the muffler

The only problem i found when i did that, is the baffle material wadded up and ended up restricting flow.
I also HIGHLY recommend you weld the hole saw arbor to whatever you have used for an extension. I used a piece if stainless i had sitting around. Mine came off mid muffler. I did manage to thread it back on (an hour of wasted time) and when i removed it, i then tack welded to stop that from happening again. Dont put the drill in reverse to get out of the muffler either, that also can cause the tool to un thread and stay inside.

[UNCLE WILLIE]

i believe what u say that wadded up is the cat material -- my 010 nomad had 2 sections of it about 2" long with a space between them -- i used a large drill bit to run through both of them on each muffler -- the material is soft and easy to drill --- later on i took the rt muffler off and cut the 1/34" plug out at the inlet end then knocked the rest of cat material out then on left muff used chizel to cut the remainder of cat out from the outlet end -- not hard to do just takes little time --- was not happy with the sound but did run better -- later put VnH muffs on --- most of the exhaust goes out the right muff so i didnt bother to cut the plug out of the front of the left muff