before anyone jumps down my throat, i did a search and for some reason it won't work. i'm thinking it has to do with my safari browser.

anyway, i was told by the dealership that when i install the exhaust i will net to buy a jet which cost $6.75 and i will need them to adjust the carburator or carburation (can't remember exactly which on they said) and they said that will cost about $100.

my question is, can i do this myself or do i need to take it to the dealership? if i can do it is there any links to a write up on this?

thanks in advance!

 

Do yourself a favor, download Mozilla Firefox and never use Safari again. If you are just doing the pipes, you should not need a rejet for the carb. I'm sure others will chime in on this.....

 

what year? carb i'am asuming

 

oh sorry. its a 2002 XL883

 

You need to rejet even if you aren't doing anything to your bike go to Sportster.org they will tell you how to do it in there how do section.
You need a 145 slow jet a 165 high jet and remove the little plug that hides the idle mixture screw and screw the idle screw out to about 2.56 turns, this does require removing the carb to get the plug out.

 

what about running the pipes w/o the baffles in?

someone told me i wouldn't have the correct back pressure if i didn't run thr baffles in...

 

Just installing Screamin Eagle Pipes, no need for carb work. I ran my bike that way for about 4,000 miles. If you decide to get a Screamin Eagle Air Cleaner, then you'll need to rejet and tune the carb, which is pretty easy to do yourself.

 

Anyone that say you don't need a rejet is yanking your you know what, and the statement you made about going baffleless show me that you don't know didly about performance and you should probably just take your bike in somewhere and have someone else advise you and do the work for you.

 

hey man. the guy at the harley shop told me that the bike wouldn't have correct back pressure w/o the baffles in. i have never heard that before. that is why i was asking. i thought that is what these forums are for? asking questions and getting helpful answers...

 

Chances are that if your engine is showroom stock, then it would benefit from rejetting. If you install more freely flowing mufflers, then the original lean mixture set at the factory will be pushed even leaner. There is no doubt about that. Installing a less restrictive air cleaner will only add to the leaness problem. Yes, you might be able to install Screamin' Eagle mufflers and then putt-putt around town (or blast block to block) doing urban errands and never encounter a pronounced jetting/mixture problem. It depends on conditions where you live, the quality and type of gas you run, how you use your bike and how hard you ride it. What might work for around-town riding might be way too lean at 95 degree temperatures at 75 mph when you're running a tank of gas diluted with ethanol.

The term "backpressure" is kind of a wild card/BS term that is widely misused. People who say you need "more" backpressure are never able to quantify what amount of backpressure the engine "needs". But backpressure isn't the real issue raised by running without baffles. Removing the baffles often produces the same operational running problems caused by running drag pipes. People who run drag pipes often resort to installing "lolly-pops" in their pipes to get back some of the bottom end torque that is lost to the reversion which takes place in open pipes.

There's a pretty good explanation of exhaust dynamics and physics at "BigCityThunder.com". Go to that site and find "exhaust dynamics" and read that several times and you'll get a better understanding of how baffles break up a reversion shock wave, as well as what happens if that shock wave isn't broken up and is permitted to re-enter the cylinder through the exhaust valve.

An exhaust pipe is just a simple piece of open pipe until one end is attached to a running engine. Just like an open pipe is just a plain pipe until it is attached to a pipe organ. Things happen in those pipes that we can't see. Things like mass flow, laminar flow, gas velocity, pressure waves, speed-of-sound shock waves, reflected shock waves (reversion) and parasitic wave harmonics. We can't see any of this stuff, but we can experience the results when a pipe is mis-matched to an engine. The stock exhaust diameter on the 883 is already on the large side. Going to anything larger kills the gas velocity in the pipe. If a one and three quarter inch pipe is about the right size for a 1200, then how can that same pipe be about the right size for an 883? It can't, of course, but both engines come equipped with the same sized pipes and mufflers. If you take a look at the exhaust on a flat track competition H-D 750, you'll notice that they don't run "fat" pipes. There's a practical reason, and it isn't appearance or cost.

If all you're after is LOUD, well, at least be aware of how you're creating problems for the engine when you start yanking baffles in your quest for more noise.