effcts of exhaust leak between header and muffler

[RPC3]

I've got a 78 standard with after market (unknown, came with the bike) mufflers. I've been doing a bit of work recently and today did work in shorts and noticed some air puffing out from between the muffler and header pipes. I've found plenty of threads that explain using the exhaust spacers to fit the inner pipe to a larger pipe that'll fit into the muffler or using copper permatex, etc. I haven't actually taken my mufflers off the pipes yet or even tried tightning the clamps yet, but in general, what are the effects of a mild exhaust leak between the muffler and head pipe? The leak on my bike was just a small fraction of the force coming out of either exhaust, but I'm just curious more than anything regarding how immediate I need to get onto fixing this.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi PRC3,
depends on how you define "mild". If the exhaust is just a slight puff at the actual joint, fix it or not, as you choose.
If the dreaded PO has simply cuffed the aftermarket mufflers over the stock headpipes' outer tubes you'll have a portion of the exhaust backflowing between the headpipes' outer and inner tubes and puffing out the vent holes near the head and although that ain't an urgent problem it really should be fixed.
Me, I'd pull the mufflers just to see what's been done in there.