Posted by Witch Doctor on August 17, 2000 at 23:08:45:
Took the replacement stock type muffler off the other night to try out another straight pipe. When I pulled the can off, I noticed that the area under the chroming on the back side is burning through, again. My first muffler was replaced under warranty, at about 1500 miles or so when it burned through at the rear weld. I decided to check the balance of the exhaust system, and what do you know, the head pipe is starting to rot out at the muffler junction, the baffle inside the muffler is about burned through, the head pipe is starting to get pretty rusty up at the cylinder, and the little expansion joint in the muffler throat (where it slides over the pipe) has been completely burned away, to where there is just an outline of it and some flakes of rusty trash in the unit. You folks that still have the stock cigar type muffler might want to think about an aftermarket replacement before yours does the same thing. It can't just be a product of the humidity in the south eastern USA. Once I cleaned the mounting
surfaces and beat the muffler back into place, I thought that would be it. Tightened everything to just shy of the hardware stripping, which changes the muffler angle if you've burned up the little rubber grommets and lost the tubing spacers for the mounting bracket. Rode it this morning, about 84 degrees F ambient temp with no problem. Coming home, 103 degrees F ambient temperature, every shift resulted in the loudest backfires I've had to date from a stock muffler, sounded like a .38 caliber pistol going off. I know what's causing it, air entering through the rooted areas is causing the remaining fuel mix in the pipe to go off like a firecracker. I don't mind except for one thing, which is the backfiring through the header donut. I know it is tight, I checked it last night. The whole picture I am getting at is really watch your pipe and muffler set. This is one area where Suzuki really dropped the ball on the Savage. If anyone knows of a good complete system replacement for the bike, available stateside,
please post it here. I can't have the only bike that is burning up it's system, and I for one would have been quite content to spend the extra $20 it would have cost Suzuki to use a good thick wall pipe.
Feel free to post your thoughts, comments and replacement pipe source here. I can make most everything else I want, but without a tubing bender, I'm sunk.
Keep it in the wind.
-WD