Author Topic: Restoring mufflers, part 1  (Read 5288 times)

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bridgeman11

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Restoring mufflers, part 1
« on: July 11, 2010, 08:31:55 PM »
One of the biggest problems faced by restorers of old 2-stroke motorcycles is dealing with the mufflers. There aren't many (or any) NOS replacements around for some models. The outside may be rusty and dented and the inside is coated with a tough layer of hard and oily carbon deposit from the burning 2-stroke oil in the exhaust stream. Chrome shops don't want to deal with that mess in their carefully monitored chrome tanks!
So, the first step in fixing up old mufflers is cleaning them out. If you have any engine rebuilding shops in your area, maybe you can get them to hot-tank your mufflers or run them through their jet-clean machine. Even if these methods won't remove all the carbon, they will probably remove all, or most of the oiliness. After hot tanking, if there is still some dry carbon inside, one method I've used to get it out is to put in an amount of small bolts or screws and shake the muffler around to break up the carbon. Of course. the next problem is to shake out all the screws!
Another method to remove oil and carbon is caustic soda. A web site with a good description of this method is: http://auction.netbikes.com.au . Go there, click on the "workshop" button and then the "exhaust care" button. I hesitate to recommend caustic soda because this is some seriously nasty, dangerous stuff! Be prepared for this mixture to get VERY HOT, very fast! The caustic nature of this stuff will burn the crap out of you as well as the heat generated. Be careful or be sorry....I ain't kiddin' here folks. If the aforementioned warnings are not enough, also consider how you're going to dispose of the toxic brew left over from this process. In another post I'll describe a method to remove dents.

reed

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Re: Restoring mufflers, part 1
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2010, 09:17:42 PM »
bridgeman 11
I very much enjoyed reading your articles on restoring mufflers part 1 and part 2.
Just like the old days when i was working in a motorcycle shop back in the UK.
Many thanks!
Reed.

Offline Toystoretom

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Re: Restoring mufflers, part 1
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2010, 10:19:04 PM »
Thanks! This is good stuff!

I'm jumping ahead but in part two you build a rack to help pressurize the muffler to help with dent removal. I wonder if someone were to build a similar device to hold the muffler but make it like a rotisserie, fill the muffler with sand, or nuts and bolts, or with whatever you think would work best and hook up an electric motor with a belt drive and let it "tumble" for a few hours. This might get the carbon out. The caustic soda sounds dangerous  :o
I have a tilt wheel for more headroom!

bridgeman11

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Re: Restoring mufflers, part 1
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2010, 10:49:55 PM »
That's not a bad idea. I believe that you'd still have to hot-tank or jet clean or in some way remove the oiliness, leaving dry carbon inside the muffler. But then, some automatic rotating with a media inside would be a good way to remove the dry carbon. Gary

Un4Scene

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Re: Restoring mufflers, part 1
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2012, 10:24:08 PM »
If you've got a relatively powerful cordless drill (I'd imagine 14v or higher would work), or any corded drill it should be fairly easy to make an adapter that will allow it to power the "rotisserie".

 


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