Commando opinions.

[willis]

I finally got these Emgo/commando mufflers installed. It took about an hour and a half but am happy with the fitment. I used the adapters as mentioned above. I cut the 1 piece a little long so it would feed into the muffler a little ways. The left went on no problem with a little help of a mallet and wood block. The right gave me a little trouble as the inner split sleeve kept slipping. I finally got the adapters on nice and tight though.


My first issue I ran into was the left muffler was hitting the axle. To solve this, I sourced a longer bolt in my parts stash and added a 1/2” spacer behind the mount bracket under the foot peg.

When it came to mounting the rear muffler hanger, I grabbed the stock hangers and flipped sides so the brackets angled forward. Then I replaced the puny mount bolts with some bigger bolts in the muffler channel on back. The bolts were too big to fit in the channel, so i took them to the grinder to modify from hex head to rectangular. I also had to file a small notch in the bolt shoulder so they cleared the channel. I forgot to get a pick, but will try to tomorrow. I also had to add a spacer between the muffler and bracket to fill the void of the factory offset of the hanger bracket.


Everything is nice and solid. The only thing I’m not 100% on is the passenger pegs now fold forward instead of back. I may devise a better bracket later but this will work for now. I will try to come back and edit a few more detailed pics tomorrow.


EDIT*** I forgot to add that the brake lever is really tight and if I really had to lock up the brake I fear it would make contact with the muffler. I won’t know for sure until I can road test this weekend... if it ever quits raining here.

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the write-up. A few questions.... how do they sound?
What's your impression of the quality of the commandos?
You said earlier that you were thinking of going with Mikes headers. Did you, or did you stick with the stock ones?

 

[Mailman]

Looking good Willis! Nice work around with the adapters. Are you happy with the sound?

 

[willis]

I was running short on time when I finished it all up tonight. I did fire it and they had a deeper tone than stock, but it was pouring down rain and was hard to get a really good assessment inside my little workshop. Tomorrow is supposed to be the first dry day here in a while. Hoping to wheel it outside for a more realistic opinion. I’ll try to post a video for you.

As far as the construction they feel pretty solid. The slotted hanger bracket on back could be a little beefier. I’m hoping my bigger replacement bolt will help.

 

[5twins]

If you're hanging them from just one bolt and bolt head in the sliding track, that probably won't hold up for long. Even two bolts heads isn't that good. Using bolt heads, period, is just a poor mounting method. The Commandos used to come with a length of steel bar drilled and tapped for a couple bolts that you slid into the track. That clamped the whole sliding track to the mounting bracket.

 

[willis]

I picked up a couple of T-bolts at the Harley shop today but they were a little too big. I’ll post up some pics of the bolt mods I did tomorrow. I could grind the t-bolts down like the other bolts but honestly am more comfortable with the bigger diameter bolts in there.

Oh yea Jim, I forgot to mention these are my stock header pipes.

 

[gggGary]

Willis; what 5T sez. Yes the m8 is a bit small, and you don't get much thread, a lock washer AND Locktite is a good idea here. I lost 2 of those bolts so far this year, You may end up cutting a bolt to get perfect length. I went just a little long now, the bolt end dented the muffler inside the slot a bit. Like you Willis I used a longer M8 and sleeve in the header/frame bracket to get spacing the left a bit longer than the right. These are (I believe) MikesXS headers.
Not completely happy with those clamps, bolt heads and sleeves, they stick out a bit much, haven't dragged anything yet.

 

[willis]

So here are the bolts I used. From left to right:

1. Longer replacement bolt mounting header to frame.
2. Same bolt as #1 but ground down to fit muffler channel.
3. Mike’s supplied muffler channel bolt.
4. T-bolt from local Harley shop (needs ground down to fit.

 

[willis]

Another angle comparing the muffler hanger bolts. Also notice the slight channel filed into shoulder of larger bolt to fit inside the muffler channel.


Also, a pic of the spaced header to frame mounts.


I totally understand where you are coming from regarding the muffler hanger bolts needing beefed up. This will make do for now until I can come up with a better system. I made do with what I had since The bike is not road worthy yet.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Here's a good thread showing the threaded bar.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/mounting-triumph-pea-shooter-exausts.27956/

 

[willis]

Trying to figure out how to upload a video. Never done it before and don’t have a you tube account. Pipes sound good. Louder than stock but still pretty quiet IMO. I took it for a quick test stroll in the neighborhood. Got some leaks at the muffler clamps and some carb tuning to take care of. Will see if I can tighten it up some or if I need a different clamp. A picture in the meantime.

 

[gggGary]

note the header/muffler clamps in my pic, found at farm and fleet in the ag section they really do the job. Much better than the clamps that come with the muffler. Nice spacer work onthe header support! Mine are too spindly for the forces involved though that single mount held the whole cantilevered muffler up for at least a few hundred miles when the rear bolt disappeared.
If you use the original 2 hole strap inside and a C shaped outer "bar clamp" secured with the 2 threaded holes.... that's on my own to-do list.

 

[5twins]

Yes, the threaded bar insert is the way to go. I know from experience that just bolt heads in the sliding track don't last for very long. They broke out of the track within the first few hundred miles on the first mufflers I tried on my 650. Everything bolts up tight and seems OK but believe me, it won't last long, lol. Some custom bracket work or bracket modding is usually always needed when fitting aftermarket mufflers.

Even though Mike's used to claim that the sliding track on the Commandos was "improved" to better fit on the 650, it still didn't match up perfectly on my '78 Standard. The track was still too far back. And on the set we put on my buddy's Special, it was really far back. In both cases though, this was with aftermarket headers which are longer than stock ones. You seem to have the opposite problem - your track is too far forward.

The big issue on my '78 was the front hole on the stock hanger bracket being too far forward .....

I switched to an older style hanger bracket with the front hole directly below the frame mount hole. Actually, I used hangers from an XS500, very similar to the early 650 ones like yours, just a bit smaller and compact, and with the front hole possibly even a bit farther back .....

Even using this hanger, the front hole still just missed the track, but it was close enough to clamp the track to the hanger bracket very well, much better than just bolt heads .....

On my buddy's Special, the solution was pretty simple, we used the included multi-hole hanger strap run straight back from the hanger bracket to the sliding track. A spacer plate was installed between the strap and sliding track to provide more clearance up front for the bolt heads at the hanger bracket connection .....

Something like this may work for you, or even switching to Special hanger brackets. They don't have the passenger peg attached to them so you wouldn't have to worry about it angling in the wrong direction if the bracket was flipped around. Special passenger pegs are a separate part.

 

[nj1639]

The aftermarket headers with the slight upkick at the end would probably allow for the use of the stock passenger pegs without issue.
I wound up using a set of the Special passenger pegs along with a steel strap hanger that is angled to keep the commandos away from the rear axle, attaching that to the steel slider in the muff. The Special passenger pegs have a metal flange section that sits in a corresponding flat on the Special frame, so a flat section was ground on the steel hanger to facilitate.

 

[willis]

Ok Jim. I think I got the video for you. This was after a brief warm up stroll around the block.

 

[Jim]

That is a nice sound. I think I'm gonna give 'em a shot.

 

[Mailman]

Those look good and sound good Willis. You managed some nice work arounds making them fit. Good job!

 

[willis]

Well if anything this thread is maybe a buyer-beware. The mufflers as advertised are not what I thought I was getting, but with the help of this forum I think they will work just fine. They do have a deeper tone than stock that was looking for, but it certainly was not a quick change of mufflers I was hoping for. I’ve still got some issues to sort out but am very confident I’ll be good to go in no time. I’m just glad I had a couple containers full of old hardware and spacers that I have kept around over all these years to pilfer through.

 

[Beags64]

Carriage bolts are another option.

 

[Ipa62]

I’m going back to the beginning of this post. I did order a set of commando mufflers from Mikes a little over a year ago. What I ordered was the 1.5” mufflers, what I got was the 1.75 with the spacers. The spacers are really lame, so I called Mikes and complained, they told me the 1.5 were no longer available. They did send me a set of muffler joint gaskets 07-4622. Only problem is that these gaskets are only 2.5mm thick and not thick enough to properly fill the gap between the 1.5” head pipe and the1.75” muffler. What I did was force one gasket inside the other and with a bit of effort (not much) fitted the muffler to the head pipe with the two gaskets. This really worked good, tightened up well, no leaks and the gaskets are not really noticeable. Only problem, had to get in touch with Mikes again, complain some more and they sent me another set for the second pipe. I would have preferred the 1.5” mufflers, but the gaskets have worked well and have not loosened or leaked in the last year or so. I also like the sound of the Mikes mufflers.