Hi All,

I have a 07 Road King with stock exhaust header pipe and wide oval S&S slipons.  Just in front of the slipons is a flapper valve attached to a cable going up to some kind of controller or sensor behind the battery.  What does the bloody thing do ?  Why is it there ? Is it some kind of noise regulating thing ?  Im think about wiring it open to see if there is any difference to drivability.

Any thoughts ?

Jersey

Some info for you ....http://www.ehow.com/facts_5750563_harley-active-exhaust-control_.htm

AEV  =  Active Exhaust Valve ...

 

It say's  in link, install aftermarket emulators to bypass the AEV in the open position  ...  No doubt that will work ..  Better option is, go to dealer , and they can deactivate the AEV, (in the open position), via the ECM , takes about 5 minutes !!!!      If you have an advanced tuner , you can do it yourself  , if you are comfortable playing with that stuff...

Best option ,,  ( A bit more work),,  remove header pipes ,, cut pipe off where AEV is ,, and replace, (weld),  with pipe , (same length as before),,  with this option you still have to deactivate the Actuator which controls the AEV .. other wise the cable going from the actuator to the AEV will be moving in and out, thinking the AEV is still there ...  If you go this way , (I did),  just cable tie the cable that used to go to the AEV up , and in a safe location,  out of the way...

Some say the exhaust sounds is a little better,, and is less restrictive , ie better performance ,,,  Your call !!!!

some just screw in a self tapping screw in to the mechanism somewhere to keep it held in the open position

Yes , you could install a screw, (or something similar), to lock the AEV in the open position ,, But would'nt it be wise to deactivate the actuator, (the device that controls the cable), in some way ?? .. Even when you disconnect the cable from the AEV , the cable will still be being pulled in and out , (by the actuator),

Just seems a bit messy to me ,, a screw locking the AEV in the open position, (may break or fall out),,, a cable tied up with other cables , with the inside of it moving in and out, with whatever rpms your doing !!!! Just my 2 cents !!!!

Yeah I didn't do it on mine, just have heard of people doing it.

Thanks Guys
Sounds like I have some researching to do. Hate paying the dealer to do things before I have had a crack at figuring it out another way. As Markwoumla says, I do understand I may need them to disable the AEV thru the ECM. Wouldn't want to just disconnect the cable and have it still going in an out of the controller under the seat. Have seen conflicting posts as well. Seems there is quite a bit of reading to do on the subject across multiple forums.
TA

What tuner are you using?

Jersey ,,  Here are a few things you can think about ,,

A couple of pic's showing Active exhaust valve in the closed and open position ,,  in the fully open position,  there is still a good amount of the flapper material restricting flow ..   Will this effect performance, etc , (even minute), dont know,  but I think a good tuner would'nt want it there ...  

If you went the whole hog , and did away with the AEV altogether ,, ie , removed header pipes, and cut off and welded new pipe to suite  , etc,,  you could then , (because headers are removed),  remove the catalytic converter .. (I think your 07 Road King has the cat in the header pipe ),,  Now you have the next best thing to an aftermarket set of header pipes ....   Pluses for all this ,, better sound , and cooler engine temps ....     Whatever you do, you still have to deactivate the AEV  !!!!

Good luck with your research  !!!!!!! 

Active Exhaust Valve in the closed position ..

Active Exhaust Valve in the fully opened position ...

Header pipe with AEV removed and new pipe ..  Also, cat removed and welded back up ....

You can buy active exhaust and active air intake eliminators, these are dummy plugs for the actuator wiring so you don't get fault codes by just unplugging them.
I got mine from big joes choppers.
If you can't access the ECM through a tuner yourself this might be the way to go to avoid going to a dealership.
So what I'm saying also is that the intake has the same sort of set up if it's still stock.

Hi Hosh
Ive only had the bike 2 months. No Tuner. Came with S&S Slipons but no other mods. Will get around to them soon enough. Looking at the flapper tonight Im hoping it might have been deactivated already. It appears to be in the fully retracted position. Assuming that is open. When I can run it for awhile I'll actually look and see if it is operating. Bugger of a thing. I been away from Harleys for a while and cant believe some of the changes. This valve thing got me curious about my exhaust so I shoved a torch up my slipons to see what I could see. It turns out the baffles are different in the different sides. The Header side baffle where the valve is also more restricted than the opposite side. I guess it makes sense as with it evens out backpressure a bit more between both sides once the flapper valve is open. Bikes sure have moved on in the last 20 years.

a friend of mine, who is good with EFI & tuning, was able to load software he already had, not screaming eagle or power commander some software that works with a few different ECU's, but to make a long story short he said you can adjust when that flap opens & also ajust air fuel ratio to make the flap your friend. he said its great. so don't break it try to work with it.

 

Nice Pics Markwoumla. Really shows what Im dealing with.
Ta

check your air cleaner too mate

http://www.bigjoechoppers.com.au/eliminators.html

hey daggs
have already seen that little flapper on the air cleaner. Looks more like a half hearted attempt to appease the Greens in Cal than a real solution to a problem. Be interesting to see the numbers on a dyno or some other scientific instrument whether that little thing does anything to make a difference to noise or emissions. Just looks cheesy.

Yeah it does, even if you don't change yr air cleaner you can remove some of the plastic backing plate to let more air in.

Also with the exhaust flapper you can remove the cable totally off the bike, not leave it on there disconnected just from the valve.

Take it right off, I even removed the whole actuator from behind the battery box on my dyna.

Thanks Daggs,
Going to look into getting rid of both the intake and the exhaust flappers. I have free flowing S&S slip ons and I am leaning towards just putting a K&N Air Filter into the stock Air Box with the flapper removed. Just want to be comfortable that I am compensating with a bit of extra fuel first so I purchased a set of VIED's from Nightrider which I haven't received yet. I didn't buy the VIED's for performance so hopefully this thread wont start another debate on Tuners. I bought them for heat reduction, get rid of the ping and a bit better low end throttle response. Anything else is a bonus. Have read lots of reviews from guys that have installed them and 99% were happy with what they got for the amount they paid. They are only $130.00 and get you up to 8% more fuel flowing in closed loop mode which is where I do 95% of my riding. I know that many of the pro tuner guys will disagree with using the VIED's but I believe you get what you pay for. I don't want to spend $500 to $1000 on a tuner for just a pipe and air cleaner upgrade. I think I will be happy enough with the $130 VIED's. If not I'll stand corrected and upgrade to a tuner.

It's your bike mate so you have to do what you want to do, I personally would get any bike on the dyno once I had it in a configuration it was going to stay at for a while ( with a reputable operator)

Thanks Guys
I know what your saying Daggs and dont disagree at all; just cant get it done at this time. The little freeloaders are spending more than I can bring in. I'll definately look into these eliminators once I figure out how I am going to go about the removal of both flappers.