So, the Mrs and I decide that now that we have our M licenses we need a bike.  I've read nothing but good things about the Savage as a starter and having a soft spot for thumpers (had one after college) we start haunting CL and find a likely candidate locally.  It's been down at least once and the current owner admits to the obvious exhaust leak from the header/muffler junction.  The cases are in tough shape, too.  It looks like it spent last winter tarped in the backyard and not in the garage.  We get to a price we all think is fair and we're now the new owners of a slightly beat up silver (which everybody knows is the fastest color) '04.  

Now, however what I thought was simple cosmetic challenges seem to be evidence of potential neglect.  Every fastener is either stuck or rusted in place.  Just trying to put a fresh plug in I inadvertently did the "door mod" to the head cover when I snapped the rear bolt.    Mrs pmacb didn't find it funny but was mollified when I showed her the thread on the door mod and how it won't rattle when left that way.  

The big issue right now is a really loud and kinda embarrassing squeak or chirp from the exhaust.  It sounds like the worlds loudest cricket.  I took the exhaust apart as best as I could and did the "copper silicone gasket" fix, but it didn't seem to help.  It seems to be rpm and not road speed related.  I can live with the occassional backfire, but this noise has got to go.  Any suggestions to cause or places to start?  

Thanks,

pmacb

alphalt roads sound different(better) than concrete ones..
my 3" hard krome muff even gets a chirpy sound on concrete..

Have you torqued the manifold bolts?

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 06/27/11 at 08:49:33:

DITTO^^^
i snapped one in thumperclones head pita to get it out...

Excellent, glad you got that sorted.  Enjoy your "new" Savage!

I had a 250cc Chinese scooter with the same issue once.  As the baffles wore out, they fluttered around inside making a terrible racket.  Worse sometimes they would restrict the flow of exhaust gasses and kill the scooter out right.  A new muffler fixed that, but a Chinese scooter is a Chinese scooter and after 10k miles it died.  Now it sits in the garage waiting to see if I can fix it.  The S40 is so much fun its waited nearly 3 years ....LOL.

I'm rocking the atomic cricket now too -- stock muffler is getting old.  Started making that noise a couple of months ago, but doesn't seem to affect performance.  Sometime this winter when I have time I will swap out the old stock exhaust for an HD take-off I picked up recently.  Glad to hear that fixed the problem for most of you.

Approaching 8,000 miles on the stock muffler.

When I took it off to see if it was indeed the cause of the noise, I could rear some rust and/or dirt rattle around in it.  I thought about taking it apart to see the condition of the internals and then repacking it, but after looking into that I think it would be a lot more work than an HD muffler swap.