82 XJ550 Maxim Louder Exhaust Options???

Im looking to make my bike lounder with a nice rumble but it is my first bike so have no clue which way to go. HELP!

 

Harley sporster or screamin eagles.
If you have a stock air set up you prob won't need to do any
re-jetting but-you never know so keep that in mind.
If you have a pod set-up then a re-jet is more likely the case.
So far inline fours are rather hard to get a "rumble" out of
as they are a smooth running motor as opposed to a v-twin.
But loud is not a prob but you may have to change mufflers more
then once to get the desired sound your looking for.
Good luck and post the results.

 

Stock Harley mufflers are a good choice for a little better "rumble". If you go with stock ones (not drilled out to make them louder) you will not need to rejet, maybe adjust the mixture screws out a bit.
The Screamin' Eagle mufflers are Harleys answer to loud mufflers and have alot less back pressure, so you will more than likely need to rejet with those. I have a pair of Screamin' Eagele mufflers and they were way too loud for me and actually annoying out on the open road. There is no "rumble" with them, more like loud "wale" instead. You can hear them a mile away too.

 

I have the 82 550 as well. I put on some sportster muffs with no problem. But each bike is a different animal. Before paying for different ones, take off the existing muffs and run the bike around for a while. It will sound like the trashy neighbors down the street that lost the muffler on the old family station wagon and drive it anyway, But then you will know if a change in back pressure will adversely effect performance.

 

Evening Davstarks

Thinking about putting a pair of 2nd hand Harley pipes my mate has in the garage on my XJ700 Maxim X ... any pictures of what your bike looks like with the Harley pipes on please dude?

 

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 6014_n.jpg

It's not the best angle for the pipes, but I can get more if you would like, just pm me.

 

As long as you leave the collector box in place on the 550 you won't have to re-jet or anything, just some fine tuning. The magic is in the collector box; remove it and then you may have some tuning challenges ahead depending on what you do.

 

if you are looking for the cheapest possible option you could just pull off your mufflers, go with strait pipes and just add some chrome tips, sounds pretty good and the total cost is $20 (not including any re-jetting costs)

 

Cheers buddy

Was it much work mating the two bits together?

Babylon 8)

 

No, I went to a muffler shop and had them make an adapter with a bend in it. The O.D coming out of the collector is 1 1/2" and the I.D. of the slip on mufflers were 1 3/4".

 

Top info ... thanks for that

Hopefully get hold of the Harley tale pipes this weekend if I can get my mate to hunt themout of the garage & get his mrs to drop them round as I'm sure she'll be passing sometime over the weekend!

I'll post up a pic of them against the bike & get folks on here's comments to see what angle will look best once I see which pipes they are that he has!

Cheers again ... Babylon 8)

 

My personal opinion is to put the parallel to the ground, but anywhere below the axle looks good. You will have to make a new stop for the center stand to keep it from hitting your shinny new chrome. I pulled the rubber stop off the old muffler, then made an L bracket that bolted to the new muffler clamp then attached the rubber to the other end. The stand is still up out of the way, and it leaves just a little bit of tension on the spring so it won't flop when you hit a bump.

 

Never even though of that far ahead! Chers for the thought fella

 

The 82 Maxim that I recently purchased had the stock exhaust, with the baffles removed. It sounds pretty loud and mean. Like everyone said, you're never going to get it to sound like a harley, but the bike certainly sounds pretty gnarly when it's purring around 1100rpm. That'd be the easiest first step I think. Not sure how much back pressure this will remove, but you could go ahead and try it and see how it runs.

 

My bobber 550 is using just the headpipes right now. It sounds good anywhere from idle to about 4000 RPM, after that it's just LOUD. Think I am going to remount the Jardine's it came with eventually, especially since the city recently passed a vehicle noise ordinance.

 

the PO of my 550 drilled 4 holes in the back of the exhaust pipes each about 1/4 inch.

It was about as loud as I would ever want it. Sounded best at full throttle at any RPM range. Growl for a small 4 cyl at low RPM. And Screamed at higher RPM's.

 

i have some mufflers off my 550 i could sell you. theyre a bit louder than stock but have a pretty nice tone to them. theyre kinda rough but a little tlc and theyll look nice. ill get a pic later today

 

If I go with the sportster muffs on my 550 do you think rejetting is neccesary? I'm have no clue how the re-jet lol.

 

@lopez what kind of muffs are they? I'll keep an eye out foe the pics thanks

 

ive been told as long as you don't mess with the collector box or intake you dont need to rejet. i didn't rejet when i had them on mine and didnt notice a difference. ill write myself a note to snap a pic of those mufflers tomorrow on the way to work

 

@ lopez cool thanks

 

shorty pipes have a nice loud growl also. kinda gets a lil on the anoying side on long 100 mi + rides but i dig em.

 

I agree 100% Rustysavage. I had those same exact shorty mufflers on mine last summer (for a short time) and got sick of the noise they made at highway speeds. After a 500 mile ride one Saturday, I decided to look for some alternative solutions to the annoying bark and ended up with stock Harley mufflers, which sound perfect. Almost like the stock mufflers with a little growl/rumble to them, but alot more mellow.
I've always liked the sound of a V-twin with louder pipes on (not straight pipes) with their low rpm rumble, but loud with an inline four sounds like a mostquito on steroids to me.

 

I was checking out the shorty pipes they sound nice but I like the looks of full size muffs

 

@ lopez any luck on the pics of the pipes?

 

keep the pics of the pipes coming... I'm thinking about this as well

 

so where did these shorty pipes come from and how much?

 

There about $20/each thru Dennis Kirk or JC Whitney. Sometimes can be found on Ebay.

 

emgo universal shorty muffler

part number 431287
maufacture part number 8003310
$23.99

denniskirk.com
????????????????????????

and how and where were the orginal mufflers cut off. cuz they look like they are welded on.

 

Those don't look bad and the price is right. Does anyone have a clip of them running? Very interested in how they sound. For that matter.... does anyone have a vid of their bike running with open stock headers?

 

Sooo, what would work on a 83 XJ750? Mine has a 4 to 1 exhaust. It has a touch of road rash :? . I don't think it was dropped the damage that was on the bike looked more like it got pushed into a tight spot. Both sides damaged same hight. Thats the way it was when I got it. 8O

Anyway what can I put on the 750 to give it that rumble sound?? :lol:

 

Well..... you should get rid of that 4-1 for starters.... go back to stock. If you need my shipping info for the 4-1 let me know

 

I tried taking video clips of all the mufflers I've put on my bikes in the past, but I can't get them to work here (or anywhere else for that matter) for some reason.
Never having the stock mufflers on my XJ, I don't know how to compare them to any of the ones I've tried.
The 4-into-1 muffler with the single canister sounded quiet enough. The Harley Sportster mufflers are about the same (quiet with a lower rumble) The shorty mufflers you mentioned, are a little louder, but not much (they'll hear ya coming!!) and the Screamin' Eagle mufflers have a deep rumble and bark a bit more than the shorties.
And straight pipes are just annoying as hell!!

 

if you have some video clips on your computer feel free to email them to me if you can and I'll see if I can get them uploaded.

matthew.smith5@gmail.com

 

bike is currently in the shop getting the carbs redone. figure i might as well get the exhaust done to so they can rejet. thinking straight pipes or removing the baffles. opinions?

 

well talked to the shop and straight pipes are 200-750 so im going to pick up the muffs tmw and gut the baffles.