Need some input regarding exhaust fitment

[Fleksta]

It's finally warmed up enough to do some work on my '79 Special, so after taking the carbs off to be rejetted I figured it was a good time to replace the exhaust.

I'm told that the bike has XS1 style header pipes, and the mufflers were ratty old cocktail shakers with no baffles at all (just straight through). I hate overly loud bikes so I bought a pair of Dunstall replicas as I saw a few vids on Youtube and liked the sound.

Now of course, I go to mount them and they don't even come close to fitting properly.

The mufflers slide on nice and snug, but the hanger is a good 2-3 inches from the rear peg and on both sides of the bike they rub on the axle.

Before I toss these out the window in frustration and just go order the Commando system from Mikes, does anyone run these? If so how did you get them to fit?

I've attached a few pics of the situation and would appreciate any input. Thanks!

 

[5twins]

Personally, I wouldn't bother with them. I started out with that muffler and can tell you from experience that they're crap. After a few hundred miles, one of the baffles broke and blew out on the road somewhere, never to be seen again. Then the bolt heads started breaking through the sliding track. They don't flow any better (and maybe worse) than stock mufflers. I didn't think they sounded too bad until I got my Commandos. I mounted one Commando and left one Dunstall rep on. I started the bike and the sound comparison was quite obvious - the Dunstall sounded cheap and tinny.

That sliding track mount found on most aftermarket mufflers doesn't hold up well to a vibrating XS, lol. What you need is the drilled and tapped bar insert for the track so you can bolt to it with 2 short bolts. That spreads the load and stress across the entire sliding track and then it will hold up.

 

[Fleksta]

Yeah, you're not the first person I've heard say that the build quality is poor on the Emgo's.

I was just hoping to get a season of use out of them before buying a proper replacement.

When you were running them, did you have similar fitment problems? How did you get them on with enough clearance around the axle?

 

[5twins]

I have a Standard so the passenger peg hanger is a bit different, maybe extending back some more. I had minor problems. The sliding track was still a bit too far back but not as far as yours. I have MAC head pipes which upsweep at the ends so I had no axle issues. I swapped on XS500 muffler hangers because they have the muffler mount holes a bit farther back .....

 

[5twins]

We recently mounted a Commando system on my buddy's Special and encountered similar issue like you're having. Even though this was supposedly a Special "system", the sliding tracks were too far back. We utilized the stock Special muffler hanger but moved to the rear passenger peg mount .....

..... the sliding track strap was run straight back from that to the track. The muffler was spaced away from the bracket for mounting bolt and axle clearance with a plate .....

 

[Fleksta]

Thanks for the tips, was that the Mikesxs commando system?