Is my muffler shot? If so...now what?

[Semi-retired]

For the last couple of weeks, I've heard this jingling/jangling sound coming from low on the left of my '03 Midnight. Sounded like the spring in my side stand had given way and the stand assembly was banging up and down against the frame and/or the pipe. The sound seemed too "tinny" though to be caused by the thick stand arm.

 

I got down and looked around on a couple of different days, and saw nothing.

 

Yesterday (first ride in a week) the rattle was so loud, I pulled off the road, not more than two blocks from the house, to see what HAD to be ready to fall off the bike.

 

Still couldn't see anything hanging down.

 

The sound is VERY annoying (to the point of being DANGEROUS sounding). So now I'm starting to suspect that it's a baffle or some other internal component of the left muffler that's come loose. Sounds like someone installed a stretched out coat-hanger INSIDE the muffler by spot welding it at one end.....and letting the other end dangle against the insides of the muffler can.

 

When I bang the back end of the pipe with my fist, it sounds just as though I were shaking my toaster to try and remove a stuck bagel!!

 

So, tell me........DO the baffles in the stock pipes come free of their welds on a Venture this age?

CAN they be welded back in place? (Kinda doubt there's any access from up the pipe!)

 

Lastly, and most apprehensively.......what's the least expensive way out of this problem?

 

Thanks for any words of wisdom, guys.

[Steve S]

Get you a set of "take offs" that someone has sitting around their garage... :mo money:

[Eck]

(quote)

Lastly, and most apprehensively.......what's the least expensive way out of this problem?

 

 

Well I just happen to have the stock mufflers off my 05 RS-venture that you can have, but to use them, you will need to have a little welding done because of what I did to them.

 

When I installed a set of HD mufflers, I ground off the three small weld spots that hold the "chrome dome" piece located on the forward end of the stock mufflers. When I did this I accidentally ground into the muffler just a we-tiny bit to far and there is a very small hole where the spot weld was.

Al you would need to do is take the mufflers to a muffler shop or a local welder, and have them put a spot of weld over the 3 small holes. Then you will have to cut the chrome pieces off your stock mufflers and let the same welder spot weld them on my mufflers and there you have two brand new stock mufflers for the price of 6 spot welds.

 

The welder should not charge you any more then $10 to $20 bucks to spot weld your two chrome muffler ends onto my old stock mufflers.

 

So the cost of what ever he charges you in welding and the cost of shipping the mufflers to you is all you would have tied up in a new set of stock mufflers.

 

Find someone on the site here that welds who lives close to you and maybe you could buy him lunch and a cold drink for welding it for you....

 

[Semi-retired]

 

So the cost of what ever he charges you in welding and the cost of shipping the mufflers to you is all you would have tied up in a new set of stock mufflers.

 

Find someone on the site here that welds who lives close to you and maybe you could buy him lunch and a cold drink for welding it for you....

 

 

Wow, Eck.......what an offer! Thanks, buddy.

 

I really appreciate your generosity.

 

Assuming that these things travel well (is there cardboard strong enough to make the trip?), I wonder what the cost would be to ship them? I haven't even pulled mine off yet, so I don't have a clue what they weigh.

 

Having not owned a Venture before, I don't know how fast/soon/often these mufflers "deconstruct" themselves....as mine appears to have done.

 

Just curious.....if we only do the "left" one, since it's the only one rattling.... is it one of those things where, "if the left one's gone......the right one is SURE to follow"......like, two weeks later!!

 

Let me take my pipe off the bike over the next day or two and if I don't get any other suggestions (maybe someone in Canada, or even Ontario, has a muffler they don't need lying around, too) I'll give you a shout about getting your muffler shipped to my "upstate" New York shipping address.

 

Where are you Eck?

[flb_78]

The cheapest way out and staying with quiet mufflers will most likely be converting to the Harley mufflers. I bet most dealers will have a set laying around you can pick up for cheep, and then construct the brackets yourself or buy a set off the forum.

[Yammer Dan]

Take them off. Hold them up endways and shake them. Have had loose parts fall out.

[Semi-retired]

The cheapest way out and staying with quiet mufflers will most likely be converting to the Harley mufflers. I bet most dealers will have a set laying around you can pick up for cheep, and then construct the brackets yourself or buy a set off the forum.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I knew those Harleys were good for something!! LOL

 

Is there any particular model/vintage that fits better than any other? A buddy of mine has an '08 Street Glide that he installed a pair of Rineharts on........are his old mufflers likely to fit the Venture.....if he still has them?

 

I believe Squidley used to make/sell brackets for this purpose, right Brad? (I also think I saw you post a long time ago that you don't do them anymore....but that you knew of another source???)

 

Thanks for any tips in the 'use Harley ones' subject area.

Anybody out there who's done this?

Any particular model or year that would fit the 03 RSV with the least amount of futzing? (It's an old German term......honest!)

[Seaking]

Thanks for the suggestion. I knew those Harleys were good for something!! LOL

 

Thanks for any tips in the 'use Harley ones' subject area.

Anybody out there who's done this?

Any particular model or year that would fit the 03 RSV with the least amount of futzing? (It's an old German term......honest!)

 

Ideally, anything that will fit a 2000-ish Road King will work.. I've got a bunch of slippons I'm trying out and they all dry fit properly.. only prob is that I broke one of my nice chrome clamping collars.. I have a new pair coming in soon so I can try out the new LaRosa Downturns. A buddy of mine just bought himself a nice full dresser harley (full of alphabet letters.. ) and may let me have his rumblers as he doesn't like the sound from them.. sounds GREAT to me..

 

The only prob is that it only takes 1 hour to swap out pipes, I'll be changing them out dependent of what I wanna do! Long highway runs, OEM pipes or the Screamin Eagles.. to blast car alarms and raise a ruckus, the Larosa downturns.. Hmmm.. I think they'll be loud as I can see a lot of daylight through them..

[Semi-retired]

Take them off. Hold them up endways and shake them. Have had loose parts fall out.

 

I'll give this a try, Dan.......but I'm not optimistic.

 

The sound it's making is just too similar to a ruler being "twanged" on the edge of a school desk....(you remember the way you used to do it....just to pee off your teacher).......only this time it's a METAL ruler being TWANGED on a steel desk&*%^$*#!!!!! Sounds like some kind of one-man-band instrument on steroids.

 

I believe that whatever piece is making the commotion (one of my dad's old favorite words) is still attached at one end, and swinging in the breeze like a possessed witch's broom handle at the other.

 

But.......that being said.......TRUST ME, I'll pull that sucker and give her the shake test.

Thanks,

Mike

[Little Bob]

I have a set of Road King pipes for sale. Straight cut stock no mods done to them. Off a 2000 road king. ZGreat shape. $40 plus shipping is what I paid for them. Let them go same price. Put a pair of slash cut on mine.

[dksmith196958]

? are the stock harley mufflers slightly louder than stock 84 vr mufflers ? quite is nice but a little talk would be ok.....:bagpipes-emoticon:well lets here it how much of a diff..............

[Semi-retired]

(quote)

Lastly, and most apprehensively.......what's the least expensive way out of this problem?

 

 

Well I just happen to have the stock mufflers off my 05 RS-venture that you can have, but to use them, you will need to have a little welding done because of what I did to them.................

Find someone on the site here that welds who lives close to you and maybe you could buy him lunch and a cold drink for welding it for you....

 

 

 

Hey, Eck,

 

I can't say how much I appreciate your generosity on the pipes.

 

Fortunately, I won't have to take you up on your offer after all.

 

Here's why:

 

While walking through the garage on the weekend and squeezing between the bike and the freezer, I inadvertently leaned on one of my passing lamps.......and it literally 'gave way' under my grip. I checked it more carefully, and found that both lamps were virtually "swinging in the breeze"; the bolts holding the passing lamp bracket beneath the headlight were BOTH about one and a half or two turns backed off.

 

I took an Allen key to both of them and reefed them to proper snugness. Then, to my delight, last night when I went for a little spin on Bertha, there wasn't a jingle or a jangle coming from anywhere......so, apparently, this was the problem.....not the pipe/muffler at all!!

 

After realizing that the area around the passing lamps must have been the cause, I gave the chrome covers on the upper part of the shocks a little "flick" with my finger......and, lo and behold, there was that horrible, tinny jingle that I'd suspected was coming from inside the muffler. Somehow the passing lamp bracket, or perhaps one of the lamps itself, must have been tapping one (or both) of the covers and causing the twang while going down the road.

 

What a relief!! And boy, this bike does have lots of ways to make me feel stupid!!

 

Thanks again, Eck, for your willingness to charge to the rescue. It's great guys like you who 1. Make this site a great place to 'live'......and 2. Re-affirm my belief that, Hollywood stereotypes to the contrary (LOL) bikers are the greatest guys on earth!

 

Cheers, and have a great day.

(P.S. And Eck........I guess you were right. These mufflers DON'T often fail!!)

[Seaking]

Hey, Eck,

 

After realizing that the area around the passing lamps must have been the cause, I gave the chrome covers on the upper part of the shocks a little "flick" with my finger......and, lo and behold, there was that horrible, tinny jingle that I'd suspected was coming from inside the muffler. Somehow the passing lamp bracket, or perhaps one of the lamps itself, must have been tapping one (or both) of the covers and causing the twang while going down the road.

 

What a relief!! And boy, this bike does have lots of ways to make me feel stupid!!

 

Thanks again, Eck, for your willingness to charge to the rescue. It's great guys like you who 1. Make this site a great place to 'live'......and 2. Re-affirm my belief that, Hollywood stereotypes to the contrary (LOL) bikers are the greatest guys on earth!

 

Cheers, and have a great day.

(P.S. And Eck........I guess you were right. These mufflers DON'T often fail!!)

 

Don't feel bad.. after my 'back fire' episodes the other week the bike started an unfamiliar rattle from one of the pipes.. awww man, I killed a RK muffler by playing around sigh.. Oh well... even got a coupla harley guys to confirm where the sound was coming from.. But it wasn't until I put those LaRossa pipes on that the sound was still there.. the rattle is something 'plastic' coming from behind the passenger seat and luggage box.. I can't find the source but the pipes are fine =)