nearside exhaust

[RDfella]

Nearly finished restoring a '58 A10 Golden Flash I've had in my shed for 30 yrs. Nightmare.  Anyway, latest (and hopefully last) problem is nearside exhaust. Just had new pipes and silencers from Armours. Fine, except the nearside front pipe won't fit. Mounting bracket appears a bit out and kink near rear of pipe is too far forward. Even if that was further back (as on original pipe) the silencer would still need to be angled upwards to exit at the same height as the offside (right hand) one. Is this right? Seems a bad design altogether because if the kink was large enough and rearward enough to clear chaincase & footrest and have the silencer level, then the silencer would need to be 6 inches shorter. There appears to be two types of pipe for these:- up to '58 and '58 - '62. I chose the latter as the silencer shape and bend of pipes matched what was on there.

[Black Sheep]

Most odd. I very recently fitted a pair of Armours exhaust pipes to our '59 Flash. Had to shorten one by 1" but otherwise a perfect fit.

[Greybeard]

Mentioning shortening exhaust pipes: The down pipes on my Plunger go a long way into the silencers. From memory I'd say about 6 inches. Is this likely to cause any problems?
I've never felt the need to shorten them. I think that setup gives my bike a rather nice growl.

[terryg]

You're not the first with such an issue.
Finished my Super Rocket a couple of years ago, using Armour's pipes I bought a long, long time ago.
The nearside downpipe caused a lot of grief until I gave in and got out the angle grinder and welder.

If you give an idea of your location it's possible someone from the forum will offer to take a look, if that might help.

[Butch (cb)]

Indeed. There are a few of us here who are perhaps a little  less enamored of Armours.

[a101960]

Just had new pipes and silencers from Armours. Fine, except the nearside front pipe won't fit.

No surprises there then. Some things never change.

[RDfella]

Terry - was thinking the same thing but seems a shame to cut & weld a new pipe. Kinda ruins the finish, though I could arrange weld to be under the footpeg. Am currently waiting on Armours for a solution.
I noticed Feked comment on their site about pipes not fitting to the extent they recommend using a different one altogether, which allegedly guarantees a fit.
Attached pic shows old pipe with new one above. Doesn't seem much in it, but I'd say the old kink is around 2" further back. Anyway, there's no way the new pipe will fit without cut & weld.
Now my bike had the later pipes and silencers BUT, being a '58 model, is there any chance I should have ordered the earlier ('53 - '58) ones?
Lastly, given the amount of bodging I've had to rectify when restoring this bike, it's hard to know how things should fit. Am I correct in assuming the left hand silencer needs to rise at the rear (ie not horizontal like the RHS) in order for both pipes to be level at the back?

[coater87]

 I dont remember where I read it, if it was here or somewhere else.

 But the poster said the Fekked pipes do not fit either, and they also complained about the service. I hope someone here has ordered and fitted a set and chimes in. I hope they fitted right up, because its time I ordered an exhaust.

 Mine is a 58 also, it seems like its hard to order things because 58 is treated like a change over year for everything.

 Lee

[Greybeard]

I bought my exhaust bits from Fecked and they fitted pretty well; just needed to add some narrow spacers to the bottom brackets. This was more than four years ago so who knows if Fecked still supply decent systems.

[chaterlea25]

Hi RD,
From your photo it looks like the pipe at the head end is longer than original?
If this is so all it may take is cutting the new pipe back to the same length as the old one
If you fit the pipe to the head, does the mounting bracket line up with the frame bolt?

John

[terryg]

If I remember correctly it was the bracket that I lengthened on my set, in order to push the rear of the pipe out, away from the footrest bolt and the chaincase. I suspect these pipes are essentially 'hand made' and fit is, to some extent, pot luck.

As I bought my pipes long before I fitted them there was no option to complain.

In the end I was happy with the look, both fore and aft.

[RDfella]

Thanks for the input & guidance folks.
Chaterlea - yes, the new pipe is about an inch and a half longer, but it comes up tight against the footpeg to the extent I can't get in more than half an inch into the head or get the front bolt to line up.
terryg - agreed. Whilst I've owned several old bikes over the years never had an A10 before (apart from an A7 we used to thrash around the fields in the 60's) and the list of bodges on this bike would fill a page, leaving me uncertain exactly how things should be. Like I couldn't figure why the rear mudguard wouldn't line up with its brackets - turned out someone had previously left out the upper rubber spacer which in turn made the mudguard higher. Instead of correcting their mistake, they then cut / welded and generally bodged the brackets and mudguard to make it fit!
But back to the exhaust - it seems to me the slightest change in a bend anywhere on the LH pipe is going to cause a problem fitting (meaning getting a replacement is unlikely to solve the problem). I've therefore decided to make this one fit. Plan A is to tweak the top bend a little to see if that helps. Plan B is to cut the pipe just before the footrest and reverse the piece cut off, thereby effectively moving the kink to behind the footrest and giving more room. If I need to do that, I've decided to fit an insert and cover the join with a clamp rather than weld it, as welding on a new pipe would look kinda bad.

[RDfella]

Update.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
Didn't return pipe to Armours as I felt it was more a BSA design fault than their faulty workmanship.
Slight opening out of front bend got it actually onto the bike and a few more tweaks (such as lengthening mounting bracket half an inch) got it fitting - albeit touching footrest bolt. Clearly BSA didn't think this one through, because all it needed to avoid the footrest pinch spot was to carry the kink at the rear of the pipe three inches further back - and move silencer back a couple of inches to compensate. No wonder so many complain about having issues with A10 pipes. Arrrgh, as a designer myself I hate it when you end up with problems because of somene else's incompetence.

[trevinoz]

I don't think that there was a design fault.
The original pipes fitted OK.
Maybe a pattern manufacturer fault?

[duTch]

**  Trev got in while I was typing and his suggestion pretty much backs up my theory**


 I bought a set of old-new pipes for my Plungie (origin unknown but with a U.J. sticker on them) from a guy who didn't want them because something wasn't right (the brackets were the only obvious thing)...

 They looked good and fitted, except for siting too far out(wide) and the only thing I could do was cut 30mm off the head end. Trouble is by then the finned clamp now sits on the start of the bend and looks crap. I intend at some stage to cut a bit more off and weld on a longer straight section.

  I think I detemined the problem after comparing them to my old ones, which fitted nicely, the problem being the top radius being larger on the new pipes, and the bottom radius being *I think* a bit smaller...the larger radius at the top with the correct length of straight made them sit out further- as far as I can determine.