This is all t150vej's fault.

We were talking recently, and he was asking me about the Paughco headers I installed a few years ago.

In the course of that conversation, I remembered that I'd never installed the left side heat shield. They were out of stock when I got the headers, and I never got around to it. Over the miles, the left (rear, that is) pipe has blued up quite a bit, and t150vej admonished me into wanting to tighten up my rig.

Damn him. Now I'm in it.

The heat shield arrived yesterday. Figured it would be a quick and easy bolt on, right?

Not so much.

My troubles started five years ago when my factory "Y-pipe" broke. Decided to go with Paughco "true-dual" headers, mostly because I was already running Paughco fishtail mufflers with the old style flange fittings. Without those, I would have gone with the new style headers. But that ship had sailed.

Right away, I ran into an issue. The new headers did not fit with the factory exhaust mount bracket (the one that mounts with the starter motor bolts, MoCo P# 65645-89). The location of the header pipe ran right through the bracket:

So in a fit of extreme niftiness, I fab'd up a different version of the bracket that cleared the pipe:



That all came together nicely, and has been working fine for five years. The install looks like this:



"B" and "C" are brackets that came with the original Paughco stuff (which was advertised as a "direct bolt on", but wasn't).

That tatty looking heat shield on top is what Paughco calls the "snail". Been running that from the start.

As soon as I tried fitting the new heat shield, I knew I had a problem. The shield extends far enough (I think they intend it to almost touch the snail) that it runs right into "C":



Noodling on my options here.

1) Cut an inch or so off the new heat shield. By far the easiest solution, but also almost guaranteed to invite the chrome to peel over time. Unless someone convinces me that's not an awful idea, I'm not going there.

2) Flip "C" over (so the flat part is on the bottom), and reengineer "A" and "B". This might work, but I started playing around with it last night, and I'm not sure that even after I flip it over, the new shield will clear it. Plus it would be a lot of work and I'm lazy.

3) Cut a bracket like this and weld it to the header. Don't really like that idea that much, but it does seem simple.



The good news is it's January so I've got all the time in the world to figure something out.

Any thoughts?

 

Can you mask off the chrome with tape, cut for clearance, then put a light braze on the edge of the cut to prevent peeling? Just tossing that out there; I've forgotten more about welding than I learned in tech school.

 

Not sure if "C" is a clamp at a joint or just a holding the pipe with no joint.

If no joint, then can you rotate "B" 180 degrees? so it moves "C" further away from your new shield? Or will it create the problem of 'B" now hitting the old shield (snail). That's assuming "B" is a separate piece from "C". Hard to tell in the pic, but I assume it's separate.

 

Looks like it needs a notch, cut it with the cut off wheel rotation into the chrome, not pulling it,
I assume the heat shield clamp is inboard from the end enough to clear the existing clamp,

if it peels down the road, the patina will hide it.

 

............ wait, what? I have been described as a bad influence more than a few times, so if the shoe fits..... Don't cut the new shield unless it comes to a dying gasp of a last resort.

Looks like the new shield comes around and wraps the pipe more completely that the snail shield. (?) Can't tell if the two will (or should) meet when fitted to the left pipe. (?)

"From here," it looks like you could flip the P bracket, as you mentioned, and move it inboard of the saddle bracket (A) - putting it next to the snail shield hose clamp and that might clear the new one. The L would need to be shorter of course. Probably be easiest to remove the P if you just pulled the whole pipe to slide it off the end so you wouldn't have to spread it so wide.

The saddle bracket changed from '88 in '89 for the different starter as did the clamp joining the left/rear with the right rear. Both those part are at different angles, with the clamp being a lot wider than your P clamp, so stock parts would be of no help.

And since you're into all this and I'm the one spending your money, check and/or replace the muffler mounting rubbers 65724-85A and if the mufflers have been squeaking, despite cleaning and greasing, replace the straps also 65723-85. The chrome wears off and they make noise sliding around in the rubbers. This applies to ANY Touring model, Evo or TC. The parts are cheaper from a dealer than aftermarket as well. Changed mine last year and it was whole new world of no shaking and quiet - well worth the $30.

Great write-up 0maha. I'm sure you'll keep us updated

 

I would flip the "B" bracket to move the "C" bracket closer to the "Snail shield" but if that puts the "C" bracket too close or hitting the "Snail shield" then use a spacer in between where the "B" bracket mounts to the "A" bracket.. this way you shouldn't have to cut the new heat shield....

This way when "B" meets "A", "C" won't feel so all alone... lol...

 

Good call and might be the easier route - reverse B so the tab is pointed inboard and just slide the C inward. Looks like it'd clear the snail shield and be far enough to miss the new left main shield.

 

Would it be possible put B on “trans side” of A? On the photo B is on “primary side” of A

 

I should've added to my last post that I believe this is what YD was trying to say...

 

Read YD's post and yep, I think we both repeated his thought. What's that old saying - "too many cooks in the kitchen will spoil the soup"

Having seen some of 0mahas fab work on here the past few years, I have full confidence he will figure it out and make it pretty.

So, like the Wizard of Oz said - "pay no attention to the old man behind the curtain"