Anyone ever changed exhaust on their (newer) Harley Sportster themself?

Assuming the Sideshot exhaust you purchased is designed for your Sportster, this should be a pretty straight forward procedure. You'll need to remove the heat shields on the stock exhaust to access the flange nuts and this makes getting at exhaust support bolts easier too.

The heat shields are held on with hose clamps which will need to be completely backed out to remove the heat shields. Be sure to loose fit every thing and hand start the nuts before locking things back down and use Loctite on anything you think may rattle loose.

I'd love for you to share the details of this purchase / installation on my blogazine - http://www.harleydavidsonadventures.com./ Feel free to send pictures too!

Hope this helps.

Changing pipes is a fairly easy modification to any Harley. You have the gaskets and flanges on the exhaust ports and several mounting bolts down around the muffler area that will need to be removed. If you have the correct V&H for your model Sportster it should be a straight bolt on. Now you didn't mention if you were performing a full Stage 1 on the bike. This would consist of reworking the air cleaner and getting the new fuel injection/ignition download from Harley. This is pretty critical when you change pipes. Without the full Stage 1 you will be running extremely lean which in the long run will effect the performance and life span of the engine. BTW, find yourself another Harley dealer, every dealer i have dealt with will install non-HD parts like pipes all day long, though it doesn't mean that they are cheap about it.

Sportster Exhaust

I installed aftermarket drag pipes on my 07 Sportster last yr ,it isn't very hard to do it took me about 2 hours to remove all the old parts that I no longer needed and to install the new pipes the only problem I ran into was aligning the rear mounting brackets from the pipes to the new mounting hanger

Note: if you are putting drag pipes make sure you get the torque cones for the pipes or you will lose power and have problems with backfireing also as long as you don't change your air filter system with an aftermarket like the Screaming Eagle stage 1 intake kit you will not have to have the bikes fuel system recalibrated on the dyno.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Anyone ever changed exhaust on their (newer) Harley Sportster themself?

I have an '08 HD Nightster and I want to put Vance and Hines Sideshots on it. I'm a little hesitant to start tearing down on a new bike myself but my dealer won't do non-HD parts and I've decided to do it at home.

-Anyone done this work themslves?

-How hard is it?

-How...

Before you decide to do this yourself please go buy a maintenance manual for your bike and it will give you a step by step guide on how to do this and every other maintenance issue you will have with your bike (except electrical, separate manual). I know that the price of the book is expensive but if you use it all the time and do your own maintenance then the book will pay for itself in no time at all.

I'm guessing on where your located because I know some tech in your state that they say that their hands are tied on installing non-HD parts so my suggestion is try AZ call a couple of dealerships there and see what you come up with. I do know that their price on labor is cheaper so it might be worth a weekend trip there.

Good luck

This is not a difficult job, especially with a good aftermarket pipe like v & h. there should be no clearance issues, and if you have even a backyard mechanical ability, it should take an afternoon. You will have to get the carbs rejetted, and this is more of a job. Put the pipes on and then take it back to a good HD shop for the rejet. I've done this on every twin i,ve ever owned, not just HD. Good luck and stay vertical!!

don't forget that an '08 has a closed o2 system on it. Make sure you get the right pipes that accept the o2 sensors, or, you will have to do some serious mods to bypass the system. Also, remember that you are violating the new epa guidelines when you change the pipes and can face very serously high fines. I'm not against changing em, heck, I always change mine, even on my '07, just wanted to remind you what you face. Hang on to those old pipes in case you get cited, then you can always swap em back to get the ticket signed off.

piece of cake, fitting up the new tabs to the old mount spots might not be perfect, depends on the quality, i'm sure v&h will be top notch... i bought cheap and got what i paid for

took about 25 minutes

my only problem wasn't really a problem... i got what i paid for, so i had to swap my flanges from the old pipes to the new ones as well

it will be worth the air cleaner and injector remap... though same as the pipes, screamin eagle isn't always the best choice, there are tons of good aftermarket air cleaners as well... a nightster will probably look pretty sweet with a chrome cone

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