The exhaust center pipe on my '79 was cracked open on the left and soon afterwards broken off on the right. Ideally a new exhaust would be great, but I'm determined to get the bike on the road with minimal replacement parts. I reviewed several suggestions here on the forum including the copper pipe macgyver which I attempted but will not pursue.
I took it all apart and will be sending it out to a performance muffler shop to have them weld on a new center pipe. I'm going to request a clamped connection in the middle, mostly likely 1" pipe going over top of the old nubs.
I decided to mock-up the system on the floor of my garage so they would have the correct geometry to work with or I could wait a another week and ride the bike over (nah). I made 3 wood spaces to set up the mock-up.
- A. spacer at the muffler brackets measuring 10 1/2", with a 1/4" dowel on each end to set with the bolt hole
- B. mid span spacer, between the pipes, towards the front using the exhaust screws (drains?) as a guide.
- C. manifold bracket, 4 x 1-3/4" holes spaced to match block spacing (1)3-3/16"(2)3-5/16"(3)3-3/16"(4).
This is what it looks like in case anyone out there is looking for a similar setup.
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this is the B spacer, simply get a tight fit and add an alignment strap to the bottom
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used a piece of cardboard to get the impressions of 4 of the manifold screws (they are equal to the center spacing of the pipes)
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used my drill press to cut out the C spacer
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muffler spacer A
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A, B and C (I went back to C and added a stop board on the inside to prevent the pipes from sliding through, it also helps with the pivot angle and stabilizing the rig)
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the mock-up using bungee cords to keep it all together