CL350 Exhaust problems with aftermarket rear suspension

2209 Views 17 Replies 5 Participants Last post by reyj96, Dec 16, 2018

reyj96

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2018

3

First time poster but I've been reading for a couple months now. I recently bought a CL350 pictured here and as you can see it didn't come with the stock pipes on it. The exhaust it came with was too loud and low to the ground so I leaped at the chance to pick up a set of stock pipes on craigslist. What I didn't realize is that the aftermarket rear suspension the previous owner had put on the bike seems to be wider than stock. While test fitting, the upper muffler contacts the shock, and makes it hard (impossible?) to line up the two pipes. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? I'm hoping I don't have to replace perfectly good shocks, and am hesitant to do so since it seems like the lower pipe could also be the one thats not lined up correctly. Any info helps! More pics for reference:

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Boomer343

· #2 · Oct 30, 2018

Welcome reyj96.

For reference the stock spring is 1 7/8 inches in diameter. The aftermarket shocks that I have that look similar to yours have a larger spring diameter, looks to be 2 1/2 inches.

It's a tight fit even with the stock set up.

One thing I saw in your bike photo was how blued the right hand pipe is, that usually indicates a lean mixture which runs very hot. Lean mixtures result in burned valves or holes in pistons.

reyj96

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 30, 2018

3

Thanks for the reply, I've continued fiddling with the pipes and am wondering if the lower header is bent and maybe thats why I can't get the two to line up - it's tough to gauge when I don't have anything to benchmark the pipes against. Pic 1 is the angle I the lower pipe should be at, but you can see in the next picture that this means it enters the engine at a strange angle, so I can't get the flange over. Pic 3 is how the pipe sits if I have the end seated flat inside the engine. Video illustrates further. Could a bent header be the problem?

As for the bluing of the exhaust - the thing seemed to run fine when I bought it, hopefully there's no internal damage!

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Crashoverride

· #4 · Oct 30, 2018

The part at the back that connects to the frame, is it bent? If the bike ever went over on that side odds are it is and they will be more tight to the frame. Its pretty thick metal too, perhaps you can bend it out some.

83XLX

· #5 · Oct 31, 2018

I doubt the pipes are bent if they don't have visible damage (dents, scrapes, etc.). The brackets could be bent a little, though. Those pipes and brackets usually need a lot of fiddling to get everything to line up. The more you rotate the lower pipe, the more the upward angle changes. I'd loosely fit the upper pipe/muffler first and then fiddle with the lower pipe and brackets. It's a frustrating mess, and I grew tired of it when experimenting with carb jetting. My CL now wears CB pipes...

longdistancerider

· #6 · Oct 31, 2018

3

The pipe doesn't look right. Here's my left pipe from a '72 CL350

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reyj96

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 31, 2018

2

Thanks all for the help! The funky shape of these pipes makes it really hard to tell if something is off..
As far as I can tell there are two places it might be bent, the first seems to make more sense in terms of how the biking being laid over could have lead to this. If anyone has pictures of their pipes uninstalled that would be very helpful.

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Boomer343

· #8 · Oct 31, 2018 (Edited)

2

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I set up my pipe and you should be able to replicate my set up. I put a bolt into the front bracket and set it to 25.3mm measured at the edge of the bracket closet to the work bench in the middle of the bolt hole as shown in the second photo. The middle bracket measures 34.9mm and the bracket closest to the mufflers is 12.7mm

edit to say ... ignore the other numbers/fractions written on the bench top.

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reyj96

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 31, 2018

Thats super helpful Boomer343, thank you. I'll do the same measurements later today and get back. Just by eyeballing it, the bends look pretty similar but fingers crossed I'll be able to figure something out. I was really hoping these things would be plug and play!

Crashoverride

· #10 · Oct 31, 2018

I found it easier to get the plates on the muffler connected but the nuts loose and then with both pipes connected to each other, get them in the engine and then align the rear mount. I have space to work on mine this winter and I can have the pipes off this weekend if needed with pics.

83XLX

· #11 · Oct 31, 2018

2

Don't know if this helps any, but these are about the only two old pics without a heat shield I have.

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longdistancerider

· #12 · Oct 31, 2018

The CL's also didn't have a spring cover shroud, just an open spring. That may be part of the muffler/shock interference when the pipes get sorted out.

83XLX

· #13 · Oct 31, 2018

longdistancerider said:
The CL's also didn't have a spring cover shroud, just an open spring. That may be part of the muffler/shock interference when the pipes get sorted out.

Depends on the year of the CL. The early ones had the came shock as the CB. From what I can see, the CL exhaust in question here is from a later model, so very well may have been designed to fit around a shock with no upper cover. Here's my '69 - still a pretty tight fit and everything has to be aligned just right.

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reyj96

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 31, 2018

I've got some wiggle room with the upper pipe so I'm not worried about that as much. I've been trying to mount the lower header without the muffler and the rear hits the bikes frame. I'll try mounting it with the muffler on to see if that makes anything clearer, but I'm hesitant to use too much muscling on parts as old as these.

83XLX

· #15 · Oct 31, 2018

Make sure you rotate the lower pipe till it almost touches the top of the engine side cover. If the pipe hits the frame or is at the wrong angle when you do that, then the pipe is probably bent.

reyj96

Discussion Starter · #16 · Nov 1, 2018

I found this mark on the pipe, so I'm thinking the bike these came from might have dropped. This would bend the hoop more inward which would make sense with the fitment issues I've been having. Can I heat this up and bend it back? This is as close to the engine as I can get it.

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Boomer343

· #17 · Nov 1, 2018

These pipes are double walled and very strong, your pipe isn't bent from that scrape.

BUT ... you are ignoring the advice that has been given to you .... the only way to set up these pipes is to put the split keepers in place with everything bolted up to the head.

Do both pipes, get them in place, snug up the nuts, then see where things line up .... if you have done this then do it again and take some pictures otherwise you will continue to go around in circles or worse attempt to fix something that isn't broken .... yet.

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reyj96

Discussion Starter · #18 · Dec 16, 2018 (Edited)

4

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the bike lately so I apologize for the radio silence, but in the interest of closure I just wanted to share what ended up happening. After a lot of frustration and fiddling with the pipes I bought I ended up buying a second lower header on eBay for a decent price. That one had no issue lining up and I had it bolted up to the bike in less than ten minutes. I compared the two side by side and it turns out the one I had purchased previously was bent the way I guessed in the first of the two pictures from my last post. It fired right up and sounds so much better than with the loud 2-into-1 it came with.

Other bonus work I've done in the last month or so: Restored a speedo that came with the exhaust since the bike came without one (untouched tach for comparison). I wound it back around to 0 so I can tell exactly how many miles I put on the bike and have since put LEDs in it. I also painted the rusty forks black, and built a mount for the speedo out of steel bar. Next on the list is a headlight cage, exhaust wrap, and black ammo can saddlebag (and maybe a license plate somewhere down the line..:lol

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