Muffler mod

[thegoochking]

Hi guys, i am brand new to both the forum and a brand new owner of a 94 magna. I got her for 2500 with a tear in the seat less then 10k miles and some rust which most of it came off with a wire brush and some cola  . I tried to do the muffler mod and had 3 drill bits break off in the rivets got the rivets fully punched out of 2 mufflers the other 2 have broken bits stuck in them. Am i screwed on continuing the mod or is there something i can do to finish it. I will only be doing the first 2 steps i wont be putting anything back on just leaving it open. And my tachometer stoped working the other day as well it will sometimes come back on if i get the rpms up high enough while cruising at arround 50. How can i fix this?

[thegoochking]

By the way here are some pics of her.

 

[TLRam1]

Nice bike! You will love it.

Where are you riding out of?

The tach could be a loose or poor connection.

[thegoochking]

I am actually riding in florida, haha not quite texas but this is the best magna resource ive found so i feel at home here. Which connection should i check for looseness, and any advice on the mod?

[Greg Cothern]

Good looking Magna!
On the muffler mod, use a 3/16 drill bit, drill straight in and then use an awl to get the rest of the rivet out by just barely inserting the awl tip into the center of the rivet and then angle it over to just catch the inside edge of the rivet.  It should pop out.
Once you have all the rivets heads off you will need 2 vise grip pliers, one to clamp onto the exit pipe at its split (its an easy location to clean up) then the second attaches to the first pair at a 90° angle to give you something WACK with an hammer to dislodge the endplate. 
With endplate in hand you are in business to go about your mod!

[thegoochking]

Thanks Greg, I love the magna. Such a sweet ride and so much power behind it. I have many things in store for her haha. I dont know if u read about my tachometer issue, i just took her out for a little ride and its not working at all now. Where do i check the connection for being loose. I dont know my way arround the magnas at all, my last bike which i still have is a 73 cb500/four.

[TLRam1]

The FAQ Section may have a Service Manual download for your bike. You can look at the schematic to see where the tach hooks up.

Other than that I would manually trace the tach wire back, probably somewhere under the tank back to the coil area, and giggle wires while watching the tach to see if it comes to life as the motor is running. I may be in he tach....clean all your connections and see what happens. Keep us posted as more ideas might come out as you search for remedies. If you had another tach you could tie in to tell if your tach wire is getting pulses.

I have not seen this problem on here before.

[trapper]

Welcome to the forum...We are glad to have you...!   Very nice looking bike.  Hope all goes well with the muffler mod.  Please do not hesitate to ask for any help or advice

[Jerry G Turner]

The tach problem could be your ingnition modual its under the battery box another member replaced his tach with two others that both wouldn't work and then replaced the ignition modual and that fiixed it might be something to check.

[thegoochking]

could it be that something is loose connected to the ignition module or it needs to be replaced. What else should i look for to know that its going bad

[thegoochking]

Tach came back on today durring a turn. I have no idea what caused it to go out. Problem now is the neddle wont drop below 2k even when i turn the iddle screw. So i cant tell when its at 1k for proper idle.

[thegoochking]

Another question about the mod, if i were to only get to of the end caps off will it damage anything riding like that or do i have to remove all 4 for it to run properly.

[Charles S Otwell]

If you have a small grinder and are careful you can grind the head off of the rivets that you have broken bits in and go to a larger size bit to drill the top half of the remaining rivets off , don't drill all the way thru, stop as soon as you go thru the outside head of the rivet. The inside of the rivet will pop off easily. I personally wouldn't run it with just two off , no facts for that, just my opinion . Good luck..

[TLRam1]

I personally wouldn't run it with just two off , no facts for that, just my opinion . Good luck..

Yep, better to have equal pressure. May be fine but agree with above.

[thegoochking]

Thanks for all the help guys, i will work on it tomorrow and see what happens.