back firing in the exhaust

[Weldangrind]

I've seen copper gaskets, fiber gaskets (a mint green coloured fibrous material with a metal ring) and no gasket. I've used both the fiber gasket and the copper gasket with good results.

[culcune]

I put a copper gasket in and mine still backfires, and is far louder than when it was new. Is there gasket sealant I should add to it? It does run fine and sounds more beefy now than when it was new, but when I rode it without a helmet the other day 16 miles home from work, it was deafening (this is not a usual practice of mine, but I got it started with a CDI change, so wasn't expecting to ride it home that day, but was able to, so did)

[pchitti]

Is this the brand new one? Inspect the welds where the exhaust pipe meets the muffler.

[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by culcune

I put a copper gasket in and mine still backfires, and is far louder than when it was new. Is there gasket sealant I should add to it? It does run fine and sounds more beefy now than when it was new, but when I rode it without a helmet the other day 16 miles home from work, it was deafening (this is not a usual practice of mine, but I got it started with a CDI change, so wasn't expecting to ride it home that day, but was able to, so did)

The copper exhaust gasket does not require any sealant. The copper gasket crushes to make an airtight seal when you tighten the bolts. If you still have a backfire after removing the old crush gasket, and installing a new one, your fuel/mix mixture is probably lean.

[culcune]

It is the new bike, pchitti. The old one had gotten even louder over the time I commuted on that bike!

Spud--my fear is tightening the bolts too tight and breaking the bolt or stripping it. It is as tight as I want to go right now, but I am fairly certain the copper gasket did not crush. The end nuts are the 'capped' kind of nuts (they resemble a bullet), so not sure if they reached their maximum as far as tightening, and simply won't let me go further physically since they are those bullet-like capped nuts? I might buy some regular nuts instead so I can theoretically tighten those lower down the bolt thread, perhaps, which might do the trick. But again, I don't want to strip the bolts, either.

With a helmet, the bike isn't as loud as my ride without, and seems to sound 'cool' enough that it draws pedestrians' attention (and they are not laughing or giving me weird looks, either ) I might just grow to enjoy the sound...