Help with 5hp Briggs side cover bearing removal

[Harquebus]

The idle is a bit high but you can get it to a much lower doopa...doopa...doopa.

I want something I can ride around the neighborhood without annoying my neighbors. My other bikes are pretty loud since they've got built engines with open headers.

That is very considerate of you. The open headers are fun for the rider for 15 minutes tops but are annoying for anything longer.

A good lightweight and simple noise reduction is a Briggs 294599 "hot dog" muffler. It breathes well because it has a solid baffle in the center, basically a 1" diameter disc, but gases flow around it to the output hole. It is a threaded muffler so having a threaded coupler on the end of the pipe is definitely a "deluxe" feature...

 

[Minimichael]

so having a threaded coupler on the end of the pipe is definitely a "deluxe" feature...

Couplers seem to act as good heatsinks, too. My 5hp flathead is using stainless flex pipe but was getting cherry red hot at the first bend right where it dips underneath the seat. A beefier coupler between the block and flex pipe seems to have cured that problem.

...just sayin'.

And I don't think you should give up on your flathead.