muffler in the way

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Beetle Juice

New Member
Jun 6, 2009
62
0
0
north carolina
My pedal is hitting my stock muffler any suggestion can I heat it up and bend it some or does anyone have a better idea and maybe some pics Thanks Beetle Juice:-||
 

Cabinfever1977

New Member
Mar 23, 2009
2,288
1
0
Upstate,NY
i raised the motor on mine until it clear the peddals.
so i guess you can rotate or raise the engine for clearance.
its easier to make a engine mount out of scrap metal,but you can heat the muffler pipe and bend it so it will fit better,but i never tried that.
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
175
63
Littleton, Colorado
Clamp the flange in a vice between two pieces of wood and bend the pipe until you get the clearance you need. If your pipe/muffler is chromed then using heat will ruin the plating. It can be bent cold all you need is a little arm strength and patience. Don't be too aggresive just tweak a little at a time until things fit.
Tom
 

chrisme

New Member
May 30, 2009
423
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0
Maine
I used my blow torch to heat it red hot, then used a pair of monkey wrenches to bend it.
I have a black muffler, and it buggered up the paint a bit. But I had a can of high heat black spray paint laying around which made it look like new again :D
 

Earthman

New Member
Mar 24, 2009
82
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0
Pittsburgh, PA
I had to bend my exhaust pipe too ‘cause the peddle hit it. I tried to bend it cold, but couldn’t ‘cause the steel bench that my vise is attached to wasn’t heavy enough to keep it from moving. When I tried to heat the pipe to bend it, I found that my blowtorch didn’t make enough heat, so I used my welding torch on it and heated the pipe until it was red hot and the pipe bent with little effort. The heat burnt the factory paint off so I cleaned up the burnt area and painted the whole exhaust pipe with flat black Rust-Oleum High Heat paint. If you do the same, clean and rough up the unburnt paint as well or the new paint will peal when heated during normal operation of the engine. I didn’t think to do that so my new paint is pealing from the original paint. The new paint is sticking well to the area of the bend. Using an infrared thermometer, the bend of the exhaust gets up to about 200 deg F and the muffler part gets hotter than 400 deg F (the limit of my instrument), which may have something to do with it too.
 

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Finfan

New Member
Aug 29, 2008
871
2
0
Tucson, AZ USA
I just used a regular Ace Hardware propane torch and could heat it hot enough to bend. It just takes a little time. It does mess up the chrome but you can ride the bike!
 

chrisme

New Member
May 30, 2009
423
0
0
Maine
It does take a while with the regular hardware store propane torches. It took about a minute for mine to get red hot. And then even longer to have it red hot all the way around. The whole operation took probably 7 or 8 minutes. But it is worth the patience :D
 

Earthman

New Member
Mar 24, 2009
82
0
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Yes, I replaced the factory studs with all-thread, nuts, and Locktite. Replacing the factory stuff is recommended a zillion times on this forum.