We begin. Everything bone stock, except the Mustang Wide Tripper seat.




The exhaust. The Bassani Road Rage 3




Everything went great up to this point. The stock exhaust came off super easy. It was at this point that I figured out that the Bassani install instructions were best used to light my cigar. After coming to this conclusion, I installed the new mounting bracket.




Looks good, right? Not exactly. The o2 sensors installed quickly. The flanges and clips installed easily. The exhaust just seemed to fall into place. I was super impressed. Then I realized that the exhaust gaskets were under my pant leg and I didn't install them...

I pulled the headers back down in shame and installed the gaskets. The gaskets went in nicely and I moved on through my tears to installing the headers again. This time the headers didn't want to cooperate. It was a frikkin arm wrestling match to get everything lined up. It took me another half hour and it finally lined up.

The muffler slid right on and lined right up. Yay!




Everything finally buttoned up. I was so proud of myself at this point. I looked around for parts that I didn't install, and there were no extra parts to be seen.

Now for the saddest part of the entire story. I wiped the pipe down to get it ready to fire, then I moved over and flashed my new map with my Power Vision. Once again, everything went well. Then I pushed the go button... Nope. Not a sound. Not an attempt. Not even a click. With my soul crushed I started poking around trying to figure out what I might have done to stop the bike from even attempting to start. I flashed the fuel map once again thinking that I screwed it up.

In my despair I hooked up a battery charger to see if my battery signed off. Nope. Showed a full charge. Then I started thinking about the clutch and the cut off switches that were on my older bikes. That led me to realize that I had accidentally pushed the shift lever down when I was working with the o2 sensor. It was in first gear... I clicked it into neutral and she roared to life. VICTORY!!!

During my ride, the decel pop was just ridiculous. I rode about 50 miles thinking the tune was just garbage. After the bike cooled off, I started looking for exhaust leaks. Everything seemed fine, so I broke out the torque wrench. The nuts on the rear header were completely loose. I torqued everything down to 100in/lbs. I have no idea how that happened. When I re-torqued everything, I went to the higher end of 120in/lbs. When I fired her up again, the popping sound seemed to be gone, but I haven't had a chance to ride yet. I received a new map for my Power Vision from a member, so I'll be installing that and starting the auto tune process this upcoming week if the weather cooperates.

I say all of that to say this. I'm a terrible mechanic. The Bassani Road Rage 3 is incredible. The FXDLS is amazing.

 

I think you are going to **** your pants how much better this pipe is with a good tune haha. It's good.

 

LoL! I can't wait to start the tuning process. Then I noticed the weather for the next two weeks. Low 40s and rain. Great...

 

Double nut the exhaust studs. You'll thank me later.

 

That's interesting. How tight do you get the outer nuts?

 

And use brass nuts - they won't seize to the studs. You'll thank me later too - but much later.....

 

He's right, you know


I always use chrome acorn nuts to double nut the exhaust studs; the exhaust stud nuts can't come loose, the stud threading is protected, and it gives a nice finished look.

I run the acorns up to the exhaust stud nuts and tighten them against the stud nuts; 10 - 12 ft-lbs; nothing ever comes loose unless I want it to

 

Never thought of this. Off I go to pick up a set. Great idea.

might as well recheck the torque while I'm at it.

They're 1/4" right?

 

I believe the exhaust nuts are 1/2"

 

Very dramatic but good job. Reminds me of my d&d on my fxdls. Yes exhaust nuts are 1/2...