HD RK mufflers on RSV.....

[YamahaLarry]

Will be putting RK mufflers on my 09 as I swap certain components between the 99 and 09 and the 09 currently has the super quiet stock exhaust. Have found a few sets on eBay from $45 or so on up to the $100 range. Some with free shipping, some not.

 

Couple of questions for those that have done this:

1. The clamp: I understand that a wider clamp is used to cover of the exposed header pipe, and I would assume perhaps a stainless steel for appearance. Has anyone found them local or have you had to order them? I've found a few on eBay that would probably work. They are for a 2" pipe, and I would assume that they would close up tight enough.
   
2. Catalytic muffler: Have read that Harley began maybe somewhere around 2009 to put catalytic converter in the right side muffler. I have watched a couple videos online on how to remove it. Doesn't look difficult, but I would think that even once removed, that the back pressure would vary from left to right side exhaust. I guess this is 2 questions in one. Anyone know exactly what year HD began putting the converter in the exhaust, and are there any risks in purchasing exhaust with catalyst and removing it?
   

 

Reason I ask about removal of converter is that I have a great relationship with the local Harley dealership. They even call me to lead/escort most their rides and give me freebies for doing so. Got my last set of wide white wall Dunlops from them FREE. So, I am pretty sure that I could probably get a set of pull-off mufflers if they have any lying around.

 

Seems I always start out on a simple venture (no pun intended), and end up making it a long journey.

 

Added tasks are growing. Audio upgrade + valve adjustment + lower front end (maybe) + exhaust.

[jeromeb]

I was told that the Milwaukee 8's had different sized inlets on the mufflers. HD started using cats with the 2010 model year but they were placed on the right side head pipes before the split. The ones I installed were pre 2010 and they required 1 3/4" clamps. I got mine from HD. Stainless, not chrome. $8.95 each.

[vzuden]

2010 had the cat in the right pipe. I tried to remove it and made a mess of it. The pipes were given to me so I had nothing in them. Went on eBay and found somebody selling a left pipe for $25. I know mine flow equally since they are the same and nobody knows the difference.

I bought chrome clamps but don’t recall what I paid but they were expensive and look good

[YamahaLarry]

2010 had the cat in the right pipe. I tried to remove it and made a mess of it. The pipes were given to me so I had nothing in them. Went on eBay and found somebody selling a left pipe for $25. I know mine flow equally since they are the same and nobody knows the difference.

I bought chrome clamps but don’t recall what I paid but they were expensive and look good

 

Yeah, I have been hearing that around 09 they started adding it, and have watched a couple videos on how to remove. It is messy, but it can be broken up, but looks like a chore I'd rather avoid. Plus as mentioned, I am not sure each side will have the same flow rate. I found the below clamps on eBay, just not sure if they are wide enough to cover the header pipe as some have mentioned on here.

 

HD Chrome Exhaust Clamps

[djh3]

There are far to many non-cat HD mufflers out there for not much money to mess around fudging with knocking a cat out. If your friends with the local Harly dealer see if the got a set of FL (touring model) mufflers of an 08-09. There was only a year or so they put the cat in the muffler as the EPA caught on that Harley owners change out the mufflers faster than the first oil change. So now they put it in the head pipes. The clamps come from V-twin manufacturing. I just used worm clamps.

[YamahaLarry]

There are far to many non-cat HD mufflers out there for not much money to mess around fudging with knocking a cat out. If your friends with the local Harly dealer see if the got a set of FL (touring model) mufflers of an 08-09. There was only a year or so they put the cat in the muffler as the EPA caught on that Harley owners change out the mufflers faster than the first oil change. So now they put it in the head pipes. The clamps come from V-twin manufacturing. I just used worm clamps.

 

So, are you saying that the newer model mufflers, like maybe 2015 and up, do NOT have the cat material in them? I spoke with my primary contact today at the local HD store and they are gonna look in their stock pile of pull offs to see what they have and get back with me. I have pretty much worked out a deal to get them free. Just got to screen print some logos on a few shirts that they are going to supply.

[djh3]

Yes for the most part. I forget the exact years, I ended up googling and visiting some HD sites to get info and some part numbers. The part# I have somewhere are pre 2012 or -13. So say from like 2000 thru 2009 or 10 they were cat free. Then for only a couple years they put cat in muffler, then went back to non cat. Then there is the pesky Calif models had them for more years than anyone else and CVO bikes had them earlier also. OK here is some info I looked up. 05 had no cats, 06 had cat mufflers, 07-09 had no cats, 2010 has the cats in the head pipe (so you cant just change the mufflers to get rid of it.)

[YamahaLarry]

Thanks! I will let them know tomorrow that later model exhausts are ok. Right now I have them looking for exhausts removed from 08 and older. Doubt that any of the HDs here in Alabama will be the CA models.

[Freebird]

I can tell you that my 2013 Road Glide Ultra did not have the cats in the mufflers.

[Condor]

There were only a few years that Harley put the Cat's in the muffler. 2005? to 2009?. Then they placed the Cat. in the header to allow aftermarkets to meet emissions. Anyone looking for a set of touring Harley exhausts check with you local dealer first. They usually have a bunch stowed in the rafters from new bike takeoffs. That's what I did. I offered to buy a set but they insisted I take them as a birthday gift... :-) I've always wondered how they knew??.. :-) :-)

[YamahaLarry]

There were only a few years that Harley put the Cat's in the muffler. 2005? to 2009?. Then they placed the Cat. in the header to allow aftermarkets to meet emissions. Anyone looking for a set of touring Harley exhausts check with you local dealer first. They usually have a bunch stowed in the rafters from new bike takeoffs. That's what I did. I offered to buy a set but they insisted I take them as a birthday gift... :-) I've always wondered how they knew??.. :-) :-)

 

Got them looking now, and will be getting them free (sort of) if they can find a set without cat. Just got to screen print their logo on a handful of shirts provided by them. So, i will have to spend a couple hours making a screen and squeezing some ink.

[YamahaLarry]

I can tell you that my 2013 Road Glide Ultra did not have the cats in the mufflers.

 

UPDATE: Ended up getting a set of new RK mufflers from a dealer pull off of a 2016 (could have been 2015). Very nice looking, no blemishes, scratches or anything and just purchased a set of the clamps from the HD dealer as well. They were VERY tight going on. Took me a while to get them up to where they "almost" bottomed out on the little indention inside the muffler, but on far enough that the clamps hide all the ugly on the header pipe.

 

Love the sound, and the newly acquired 2009 is running fantastic, BUT........

the right exhaust will every once in a while have slight popping sounds when I am changing gears, and most of the time from 1st to 2nd, and sometimes from 2nd to 3rd. And it doesn't seem to be linked to me being aggressive or non-aggressive, and is slightly noticeable, but noticeable.

 

As tight as the pipes are on the header, I would think that there is no way that it is air entering at that point. I did have to put quite a bit of pressure on the header at times trying to get the muffler on, and more so on the right side. So not sure if maybe I may have caused a slight leak at the manifold gasket area, but I would think that I could hear a ticking or something if I did.

 

After I adjusted the valves and installed new plugs, I temporarily installed the old mufflers and synced the carbs. They were pretty much dead on (though I was expecting them to be off since I had to replace every intake shim and 2 exhaust shims).

 

There is no noticeable out of the norm popping during deceleration, only on the very occasion gear change as mentioned above. Just for the hell of it, I will be running some SeaFoam thru my next couple tanks of fuel.

 

Any ideas, anyone?

Edited November 2, 2018 by YamahaLarry

[djh3]

The popping is more than likely associated with the AIS valve. It is a valve that is "supposed" to inject clean air to dilute the exhaust emissions. Mine would pop more on decell then acceleration. I swapped out the OEM mufflers on my 2013 Victory and now I get an occasional pop on up shifts. No such AIS valve on these bikes so I dunno I just live with it. Neither bike is/was that noticeable to me. Some have removed and plugged the lines for the AIS valve. But to completely remove the thing I understand is a pretty large job.

[YamahaLarry]

The popping is more than likely associated with the AIS valve. It is a valve that is "supposed" to inject clean air to dilute the exhaust emissions. Mine would pop more on decell then acceleration. I swapped out the OEM mufflers on my 2013 Victory and now I get an occasional pop on up shifts. No such AIS valve on these bikes so I dunno I just live with it. Neither bike is/was that noticeable to me. Some have removed and plugged the lines for the AIS valve. But to completely remove the thing I understand is a pretty large job.

 

I've been considering plugging it off, and may soon. Seems like a pretty simple chore to do on a rainy day.

[grubsie]

I used 3/4" wooden dowels locked in place in the hose with hose clamps on my recent RSV. Cut them at 1" long and rounded off the edges so they would slip into the hoses without too much trouble. A little lube like Vaseline helps. Then I put duct tape over the holes of the tubes that the hoses slip over. On my last RSV, I used rubber plugs but couldn't find any for my recent RSV.

 

The rear is very easy to do. The front takes a little more patience. It's far easier to plug the front one with the oil filter removed. I forgot about that with my current bike. I had changed the oil and filter about a week before I plugged the AIS. Oh well, just a little more patience and had to remove the AIS to get it done. Only took about an hour.

 

The newer HD mufflers have 2 plugs in each. Mine came off a 2014 Electra Glide. You can drill them out with a 1 1/4" bi-metal hole saw with an extension if you want more sound. 1 is approx 12" in from the back and the other is approx 12" in from the inlet. After putting them on stock, they weren't much different sounding than the stock RSV mufflers. I decided to drill out the rear plugs. The sound is much better now. A little more rumble at idle and when getting on the throttle but not intrusive and barely noticeable when just cruising. I may drill out the front plugs to see how that sounds. If I don't like it, I can just go to friend of mine that is an independent (Indy) HD repair guy. He always has take-offs that he is just going to throw away so it's there's no cost for me except a few beers if I show up at the end of his day. He's where I got my current ones.

[YamahaLarry]

I used 3/4" wooden dowels locked in place in the hose with hose clamps on my recent RSV. Cut them at 1" long and rounded off the edges so they would slip into the hoses without too much trouble. A little lube like Vaseline helps. Then I put duct tape over the holes of the tubes that the hoses slip over. On my last RSV, I used rubber plugs but couldn't find any for my recent RSV.

 

The rear is very easy to do. The front takes a little more patience. It's far easier to plug the front one with the oil filter removed. I forgot about that with my current bike. I had changed the oil and filter about a week before I plugged the AIS. Oh well, just a little more patience and had to remove the AIS to get it done. Only took about an hour.

 

The newer HD mufflers have 2 plugs in each. Mine came off a 2014 Electra Glide. You can drill them out with a 1 1/4" bi-metal hole saw with an extension if you want more sound. 1 is approx 12" in from the back and the other is approx 12" in from the inlet. After putting them on stock, they weren't much different sounding than the stock RSV mufflers. I decided to drill out the rear plugs. The sound is much better now. A little more rumble at idle and when getting on the throttle but not intrusive and barely noticeable when just cruising. I may drill out the front plugs to see how that sounds. If I don't like it, I can just go to friend of mine that is an independent (Indy) HD repair guy. He always has take-offs that he is just going to throw away so it's there's no cost for me except a few beers if I show up at the end of his day. He's where I got my current ones.

 

Thanks for AIS info. As for my RK mufflers, they are much louder than the OEM Yamahas and have a bit of a growl to them. But not so loud that it interferes with me listening to my music. I did upgrade the speakers to Polk db402s and that was a big step forward.

[djh3]

I liked mine around town. But on longer trips they began to wear on me. A 12 hour plus trip back from WV I think my ears rang for a couple days. Even with ear buds.