I made a right side exit down swept exhaust for my 1975 Honda XL350 flattrack bike. I used the original flange and collar that mounts to the two studs on the exhaust port. Well .... the bike fell over on the right side and snapped one of the studs off. I'm sure I could get it out with an E-Z Out, but chances are good it's going to happen again. My plan is to weld a couple of tabs on the pipe, and use springs to hold the pipe in place. Has anyone done this? Will it work?

Not a common trick on 4 strokes, can't say it won't work but suspect it'll leak lots. If the pipe's more exposed than normal then it's gonna get a good whack sooner or later, if there's no support between the head and the back mount it's going to strain the flange studs. Guess I'd bite the bullet and try pulling the stud, if that don't work I'd still pull the head and put it in a mill to cut it out, from memory there's enough meat in the head to go up a size too. Once it's good again I'd look at the pipe mounts, I'd weld another tag closer to the head to help support it, don't know how the pipe's routed but ideally about a foot from the flange.

Luck.

PS: I'm coming over all nostagic, post a pic.

Do what I did to my 78 XL350

One 1 1/4" pipe into three 3/4" pipes and into 3 mufflers (those were off 110cc 4-stroke bikes). Weird custom stuff going on all over that bike.

:) Mine was a silver/blue one with the low pipe and that huge up-swept muffler. One of the first mod's was a high pipe and a mini cooper muffler.