RIGID MUFFLER MOUNTS A Fabricator At Work!

[JR]

Good Evening all scootdawgs from old muggy and going to rain some more Arkieland!! Man has it rained a lot lately and no end in sight! Oh well at least with it raining it gives you time to fix anything that might need it!



Have you ever seen this on your scooter? This is the front muffler mounting bracket on my wife's 150 Bali and we had the sun poke out long enough yesterday to take a good little ride and it broke again and even some of the bracket was lost on the highway.



Another view after I removed the muffler. This is a very poor design as the way the muffler is mounted allows for no flexibility while you are running down the road and over the course of time the mounting brackets start to crack and even break. I've welded it before but this time I decided to re-design it to stop this once and for all! ;D



We all know what this is and I went to the local body shop and they have old shocks every where so I picked out one and even found one with the same ID of the scooter bushings. They were glad to give it to me to get rid of it!!



Took the 4" grinder and put a metal cutting blade in it and started cutting my new bushings, a total of three.



This is what they looked like after cutting them and I made one that was thicker than the others for the front mounting bracket.



Now this is the bottom back mounting bracket and I took the grinder and cut the welding tacks off so i could remove the little pipe bushing from the bracket.



This the little pipe bushing removed and don't throw it away as it will be used again. The shock rubber bushings are the same ID as the OD of this pipe and it fits in them nice and snug!



Here is the outside bushing along with the inside one on this bottom mount slid on ready for welding.



After welding the bushing mounts I put the rubber back in and slid the original pipe bushing back in and I tack welded a washer back plate on pipe so the rubber bushing would not come out.



Next I replaced the missing metal on the front mount bracket and also welded the new bushing socket and then installed the rubber bushing!



Now the bolts that hold this muffler on are too small for the original OEM bushings and my new ones too, so I made some little washer spacers so they would fit snug so the muffler would stay tight and also not give or rattle. I want the torque and flexing to be on the new rubber bushings.

Next I buffed and smoothed it all up and gave it all a good coat of high temp paint. I am letting it dry good overnight and will put the muffler back on in the morning. I'll take pictures of the completed install in the morning. Paint plus some off of a cutting blade, total costs maybe $2 but it will stay in place now and no more breaking!! JR

[Kaos]

And YOU talk about someone who loves to beat their chest...thats like the pot calling the kettle black.

[Kaos]

and if my karma goes down after the above post I will know who is doing it. (which will really only be a confirmation).

[anomoly40]

^ Dude, it's over. Quit crying and thread jacking. Part of growing up is getting over the small stuff. He's showing us a way to fix what China can't design right.


Back to the topic on hand, be careful cutting nitrogen charged shocks if you go this route and get free ones. They make big booms.

[Kaos]

"turn-about is fair play"

[rampant]

Keep us informed if this really stops the cracking, i was just going to replace my front bracket with a piece of steel and remove the cast piece they welded on from the mfg.

[JR]

Who give a rat's A*& about your Karma? At least I'm not going into the hidden mode and then hitting good guys while acting like I'm offline!! What was that song? Cry, Cry, Cry!! Yep See I can beat the old chest a little because I don't heave to go to welding shops and such to do my stuff like you know who and then get on a forum and bash the people who done it for you cheaper. You remind me of some Bi-polar person. Would you like a reference to a good doctor in your area? I'll see if I can look one up for you and send it to you.

Yea guys back to the subject before we were so rudely interupted by the please don't take my karma so I can beat my chest guy, I will as I said take some pictures of the muffler after I get it back on and yes I feel confident it will stop the problem and for sure it can't hurt. I've seen where guys just throw away their mufflers because of this and as I said it's a very easy and non-costly way to help it.

Yea anomoly40 you don't want to cut into those shocks and one can just cut the end off with the bushing material first if he wants and then cut it up for his bushings. Instead of using a cutting blade on a grinder one could use a porta band saw also.

Now if you would like yours done also Kaos send it to me with return postage and please send the return postage via cashiers check, don't want it to be like the old poor me rim thing with Kliff and ya not pay me. I'll show you how a reall fabricator does although you could see the artistry in the above pictures. I'll even do it for free to show you what a good guy that beats his chest really is. In the mean time I'm just going to have to Get Smart.

www.controlversuskaos.com/

[JR]

Ok Got her back on and all bolted up well and this is the front mounting bracket bolted up.



This is the back mounting bracket. You can actually now flex this muffler a little so again it's got to be better! If not then back to the old drawing board!! JR

[jrinlv315]

Looks good bro, nice welds, let us know how she holds...JR






oh anyone want to take a bone

[kliff]

Great repair "jr," what was the ole saying.." no brag, just fact."

jrnlv....you're on my list man, soon as I throw a bone to pahaze, and time out again...you're n the list, cides, I'm just tightenning up some loose ends 'fore I move on...if ya know what I mean..... LOL.

[JR]

Thanks Kliff I consider that a compliment from a fellow do-it-yourselfer like yourself!! This has been a real problem for a lot of folks on lots of scooters and if one sometimes just looks for a way to make it better and share then it's jut another one of those pesky things on Chinese scooters that we can resolve.

Even recently someone posted a thread about completely losing their muffler as in "What's that noise" and Oh wait a minute you figured out what the real noise was it was someone else's money making all that racket!!! LOL JR

[jrinlv315]

Kliff not lookin for a hand out, thanks though, peace JR

[stradarx150te]

I still wish i new how to take bones But i think we should all have none Anyways to much crying over bones,

Jrryan Looks good I'd give you a bone but i need your address!! LOL

[kliff]

May 15, 2009 18:58:36 GMT -5 jrinlv315 said:

Kliff not lookin for a hand out, thanks though, peace JR

No hand out man, just recognizing a freind. ;D

[JR]

Thanks guys but the main thing is here if this will stop some of the muffler breaking problems it's worth it all. Me as I said was tired of it after re-welding the thing twice and after looking at it really good it's doomed to do thisthe way it was made. Now I can take my hand and actually move the muffler just a tad and I do believe that flexability will take the stress off of the metal brackets. Time will tell!! JR