1976 Yamaha XS500 Cafe' Motorcycle Project - Post 2

Work continues on the 76 XS500 project. I've taken the rear fender, lights and seat off. The seat pan is rotten so I'll be looking for a different one, or will possibly do some welding on this one to make it work. I also got my aftermarket pipes installed.

Here's one of the new pipes. It's much shorter than the old one.

I had a bit of trouble gettting them to fit the stock headers. I had to make a custom step ring from a piece of exhaust pipe from O'riley auto parts.
The stock "step ring" was too snug for the header pipe. I cut the new exhaust pipe into two 1.5-2" sections. Then I cut them down the center.
I expanded the new "step ring" so I could take a little off the center so it would grab the header pipe tightly once I tightened the new muffler.

I tried placing the new muffler and I still needed a LITTLE more width to grab around the new step ring. A colleague at work suggested I cut up a pop can and add it to my step ring. So...

Now I've got to figure out why she's only running on 1 cylinder..... oh - and here's my new tires. I want to make sure everything's running right before removing the wheels, painting them and installing the tires. Check back soon for more updates.