I decided to revisit the exhaust I bought almost a year ago and try to make it work just to see if there is any loss from it having a catalyst compared to the normal "ebay" exhaust 99% of Hawk owners run.
It's not available at the moment, but this is a link to it if you decide that you too want something that doesn't fit and needs fabrication.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...im/refuge08-20
Before I delve into things too much, you may notice my plain jane carb and filter setup. I already did an experiment with carburetors on the Motocult head and big bore setup with the 292 cam. One for curiosity sake, and the other just to prove a point to people that obsess over having the biggest carb they can manage to fit on the Hawk. Yep, that's a "Mikuni VM26 30mm" It took me 5 minutes to setup, and one main jet adjustment to get running right. I haven't lost a thing in terms of power and speed, and if anything it runs the best it ever has and the mileage is incredible for a larger bore, ported head, big duration cam engine. I will never stop loving the Fake Mikuni carbs. It's staying there forever.
Anyway, on to the real reason we are here. Redneck Engineering! A bit of steel strap for a muffler hanger and a pair of vice grips to hold the mid pipe in place.
(as always, if you want larger pictures, all of the images are linked)
The first problem with this particular exhaust is the mid pipe mounting bracket on the pipe itself. It sits too far away from the pipe, at the wrong angle, and does not center with the mount point on the Hawk at all.
My solution involves 2 heat shield mounts/clamps and a hinge reinforcing bracket from the hardware store (because it was $2 and weirdly perfect for this). Now I could mark my center and drill a hole. If you are curious about the stability of this mid pipe mount solution, it is incredibly solid. Surprisingly so.
This is the original bracket that comes on the mid pipe. If you are so inclined and can weld stainless steel, it would be entirely possible to simply cut off this mount, shorten the legs, and weld it back on in a better position.
I don't have a welder capable of thin stainless, so this is the hardware store solution.
Once I had the hole drilled, just a simple bolt and nut on the back side to hold it, and a large fender washer to help clamp the rubber isolator in the frame better. My last one got chewed up pretty bad because of the heat and probably my own over tightening the bolt and squeezing the rubber too tightly.
I will say this, the exhaust fits way better than the ebay system across the board. Plenty of clutch arm and engine case clearance. If my airbox was still intact it would completely clear the bottom with an inch of air gap. With my home brew md pipe bracket I was able to get the muffler alignment perfectly straight, where before it was putting most of the muffler over the tire.
The head pipe does't protrude out as far and stays tighter to the engine.
Look at all of that room.
