The Making of

This project took me 4 hours to complete, I did all the work myself. I am lucky enough to have access to the equipment that kept it from being a 10 hour job! I removed the outter chrome cover from the Aero muffler by grinding the welds on the rearmost strap because I didn't want to scratch it. While this is not a necessary step, I did not want to take any chances.

The first cut on the Aero muffler was the hardest to do, (mentally) you can still turn back up to this point! I cut the main body just ahead of the rearmost weld and just behind the rear wall, removing the tail pipes in the process. I forgot to make alignment marks BEFORE I made this cut so now my tip isn't perfectly vertical to the ground anymore, oh well! next time.

This is whats left when I was done cutting, rear wall (not shown in this picture), tip cover mounting ring and 2 short pieces of pipe that made up the original outlets. The outlets will be tossed and the ring rewelded later for mounting the stock "fin" tip.

Next I cut the front of the pipe just in front of the bypass pipe so as not to disturb it, it would have been better to cut it in the same place that Rich shows on his site.

The The main chamber baffles are rosette welded so I drilled out the welds, two of which are located underneath the mounting bracket. It was still pretty tough to get the old baffle assembly out. I used a large (3lb.) hammer and several pieces of 3/4" rebar ground on one end to form a chisel point. Once I got all the guts out I moved on to the new inards.

The insert muffler that I used started life as a Dynomax Round Race Bullet Muffler which I bought from Summit Racing Equipment for $31.95 part # WLK-24215. It has a 4" body (the reason I chose it) and a 2.5" core. The overall length was app. 16".

I cut off one of the ends just to the inside of the weld seperating the inner and outer peices. At the other end I cut just shy of the large diameter (to allow it to fit inside a 4" pipe snugly) I just cut the outer housing and did not cut the inner core at this end. I then cut the taper off of the outer body again just shy of the large diameter. This piece I turned around to form the inlet of the core. I had to "shape" the inlet of the core to meet with the bell so that it could be welded together.

The finished core insert.

At this point I had to shape the inlet end to clear the indentation in the muffler body. It is a snug fit since there was 17,000 miles on the original can.

Once I was satisfied with the fit Islid it in almost all the way, pushed in the fiberglass packing and the drove it in the rest of the way. This required firm persuasion from a copper mallet because the fit was quite tight (no rattling!).
Then I welded the "tip mounting ring" back on, and then the chrome cover was also welded on at this point.

As for the bypass pipe I removed it and made a cover from stainless so that I can remove, add or replace the packing later.

This is the stainless steel cover that I cut from a peice of 4" pipe.

After drilling and tapping the holes and cutting a gasket it is ready for high temp paint

I went to a local muffler shop that I do business with and had them take a 1 foot long piece of 2.25" pipe and swage one end out to 2.5". Since I am a regular customer there they did not charge me for this task although I think they would not have charged more than $5 or so. I then drove the 2.5" end into the "glasspack" opening and remounted the stock tip. I centered the pipe within the tip and marked it so I could cut it at an angle to match the tip.

The only outwardly noticeable difference is the larger opening in the back!

Update

In a pipe that I made for a fellow Aero rider, I incorporated an idea that came to me after completion of this one and had ridden it for a while. I made the baffle assembly removeable from the rear by removing a couple of 1/4" stainless steel bolts and slide it out like an aftermarket pipe. This made repacking much easier that the 1st incarnation. It also facilitated the ability to "unpack" it if more voulume was desired and also the ability to have different "inserts" for ???? 2", 2.5", 3", 3.5" cores to "tune" the sound perhaps.

LINKS & SOURCES

Rich has a very well thought out and information packed site. I gained a lot of inspiration from his muffler mod!

Pops also has a well documented site with lots of pictures showing the process he went through.

The Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club is the site that I initialy got the idea to use a glass pack from. Coincidentaly I got to their site linked from Rich's site!

Summit Racing is the place that I bought the glasspack from.

Last Updated on 05/07/2004

	The first cut on the Aero muffler was the hardest to do, (mentally) you can still turn back up to this point! I cut the main body just ahead of the rearmost weld and just behind the rear wall, removing the tail pipes in the process. I forgot to make alignment marks BEFORE I made this cut so now my tip isn't perfectly vertical to the ground anymore, oh well! next time.
	This is whats left when I was done cutting, rear wall (not shown in this picture), tip cover mounting ring and 2 short pieces of pipe that made up the original outlets. The outlets will be tossed and the ring rewelded later for mounting the stock "fin" tip.
	Next I cut the front of the pipe just in front of the bypass pipe so as not to disturb it, it would have been better to cut it in the same place that Rich shows on his site.
The The main chamber baffles are rosette welded so I drilled out the welds, two of which are located underneath the mounting bracket. It was still pretty tough to get the old baffle assembly out. I used a large (3lb.) hammer and several pieces of 3/4" rebar ground on one end to form a chisel point. Once I got all the guts out I moved on to the new inards.
	The insert muffler that I used started life as a Dynomax Round Race Bullet Muffler which I bought from Summit Racing Equipment for $31.95 part # WLK-24215. It has a 4" body (the reason I chose it) and a 2.5" core. The overall length was app. 16".
	I cut off one of the ends just to the inside of the weld seperating the inner and outer peices. At the other end I cut just shy of the large diameter (to allow it to fit inside a 4" pipe snugly) I just cut the outer housing and did not cut the inner core at this end. I then cut the taper off of the outer body again just shy of the large diameter. This piece I turned around to form the inlet of the core. I had to "shape" the inlet of the core to meet with the bell so that it could be welded together.

	Once I was satisfied with the fit Islid it in almost all the way, pushed in the fiberglass packing and the drove it in the rest of the way. This required firm persuasion from a copper mallet because the fit was quite tight (no rattling!). Then I welded the "tip mounting ring" back on, and then the chrome cover was also welded on at this point.
	As for the bypass pipe I removed it and made a cover from stainless so that I can remove, add or replace the packing later.
	This is the stainless steel cover that I cut from a peice of 4" pipe.
	After drilling and tapping the holes and cutting a gasket it is ready for high temp paint
	I went to a local muffler shop that I do business with and had them take a 1 foot long piece of 2.25" pipe and swage one end out to 2.5". Since I am a regular customer there they did not charge me for this task although I think they would not have charged more than $5 or so. I then drove the 2.5" end into the "glasspack" opening and remounted the stock tip. I centered the pipe within the tip and marked it so I could cut it at an angle to match the tip.
	The only outwardly noticeable difference is the larger opening in the back!
Update	In a pipe that I made for a fellow Aero rider, I incorporated an idea that came to me after completion of this one and had ridden it for a while. I made the baffle assembly removeable from the rear by removing a couple of 1/4" stainless steel bolts and slide it out like an aftermarket pipe. This made repacking much easier that the 1st incarnation. It also facilitated the ability to "unpack" it if more voulume was desired and also the ability to have different "inserts" for ???? 2", 2.5", 3", 3.5" cores to "tune" the sound perhaps.