Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Step by step baffle removal instructions

I'm having problems pulling up your pic's. Would you email them to me?

Is there a trick to viewing the photos in here, all I can see is red X's.

Thanks

the link is probably broken, or server issues on those pics

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~matt_l/exhaust.htm

Web site from NZ that shows the baffles extracted and the sound you will get.

Hate to contadict... but when I went to the house of the owner of that site, I was in Australia!

But that's how I learnt to remove baffles... from Matt's site.

I just removed all the baffles from my 2005 America stock pipes... Did loads of research on here and elesewhere, reading about hole saws, extenders, hooks etc...

I just took the cans off and beat the living sh*te out of them with a half inch across 5 ft pole

Very quick, precise and quite effortless. Regardless of what you hit first wether its the tube or the plate welded to the sides.. it all shifts after a few good taps... 10 mins each can.
They do sound really purdy now

My picture links don't work anymore, and I can't seem to edit the original post, so I'm reposting in its entirety with new links to the pictures. I no longer can locate the audio file, sorry 'bout that guys.

I took out my baffles today. It took two hours total, but it was hard work. Extremely frustrating, confusing at times, grueling hard work at times, painful at times (my bruised hands are testimony to that.)

Because this is a subject lots of folks are interested in, I’m posting step by step instructions with images to help a bit. I hope that the Bonneville America community finds this helpful.

I used a 1 3/8” hole saw to cut into the baffles from the rear of the pipes. This was the easiest step of the process, but required a trip to Lowe’s to get the hole saw. Make sure your hole saw cuts metal. The one I bought at Lowe’s cost $10 and worked like a charm:



The pipes looked like this when I started:




And like this when I was done with this step:



NOW the fun starts. If you read other posts on this message board, it sounds like you can just wiggle the baffles and whack the welds them with a screwdriver and they’d pop out. This was NOT THE CASE for me.

Wiggling them back and forth started the process. The hardest part for me was finding an appropriate tool to crack the welds. The biggest screwdriver I had was not long enough to reach the welds. I looked around my garage and found these huge nails. I mean huge. Here’s a picture of the nails next to the baffles and a ruler. You can see that whatever you use to crack the welds has to be at least 8” long:



I used a combination of wiggling the baffles back and forth with a pliers, banging the nails through the welds and the inner bracket, grabbing the baffles with a vice grips and pulling, banging the nails through again. Ultimately what worked on one of the baffles was putting the sharp side of a chisel inside the baffle and banging on the other end with a hammer. This pushed the baffle into the exhaust pipe and finally broke off the weld. The second one came out due to twisting with a vice grips.

At the end of the process I was exhausted, sweating, and my hands were hurting, but when I turned the key and pressed the ignition button, it was all worth it. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The new and improved exhaust note exceeded my expectations a hundredfold. I was planning to have an aftermarket exhaust installed to give the bike a more masculine sound, but no reason to do this now. I would describe the new and improved exhaust note as warmer and richer. I also have a digital audio file of the new sound. If someone can tell me how to post it, I’m happy to put it on here.

These are all the tools I used:



Here is how my pipes look now:



Hope this helps! If you need any additional info, let me know.

Joe

Have taken out 3 baffles love the sound but a bit loud do i need to rejet and what size jets, sorry if this has already been posted

First of all, welcome to the forum. To answer your question, you should rejet.
Here is Dinqua's jetting calculator which is a good place to start with jetting. This is not the absolute answer but as I said, it's a place to start with jetting. The BEST way is to jet and dynorun. Or the seat of your pants dyno can help.

thanks for the reply will get round to changing the jets will it do any damage in the mean time running it as it is..

No damage right away. You've got a some time but don't wait for months to go by, you know.
Do a search on this topic and you can learn more about the topic....quick ways to rejet by dropping just the bowls, how to read your plugs by looking at the color, etc...

sorry still really confused ive had so many contradictive advice (not on here)dinqua's jetting guide says 130 main 42 pilot jenks bolts said 135 main 42 pilot 1 shim
free flow air box, some guy who sold jenks bolts the company said 120 and maybe 1 shim but get it on a rolling road, and then some chap who used to tune triumphs and worked for triumph said you can't chop out the stock pipes like that your going to do more damage with no back pressure
I am at my wits end please help

SUPER EASY BAFFLE REMOVAL un bolt silencer throw into trash can go to local muffler shop select some chrome tips the length diameter and style of choice pay go home and bolt on.

look you dont need back pressure. my america will leave a black mark down the street how ever long you want. All i did was install the unifilter, remove the snorkel, install 130 mains, shim the needle .9 mm, turned out the jet screw to 2 1/2 turns out from closed, and remove the silencers.
I installed some 18" turn downs. I beat a 1200 sportster off the line and he could never make the distance back threw all 5. I stayed ahead of him 1/2 a bike length. I know you dont want to hurt your bike but trying to beat out the baffles or punch an over sized hole in them is way out there. I put 22" x 3 1/2" slash cuts on my friends bike $105 for both. at a muffle shop and my 18" turn downs $40. For the price of performance replacements you can go to a custom exhaust shop and have some thing completely unique built.

Yes this is true, you will have to tune the bike afterwards. However thats not to difficult either if your local triumph dealer is cool. The tech will tell you what he has been doing to get the best results. Your bike may differ to an extent, but its a good way to start. I also live at sea level here in texas, down on the gulf. you dont have to dyno one just ride it. If you have been riding long and understand mechanics of it all you'll befine.

My exhaust does not look like the posted photos: 2006 Bonneville America
They are slash cut and the inner (smaller) pipe is about 3" inward.
Would the same baffle removal method apply?

yes you would have to get the power commander and retune.

Many thanks dude great stuff! Now to get the inner one out lol

I did this and yep its easy then i got the idea of more mods so slash cut my pipes now thinking of removing the next baffle will i need to re jet or would it still be ok

You'll need to re-jet.

No you don't need a Power Commander. There is a little program called Tune Ecu available now that allows you to change the maps on an EFI bike at home with a laptop using a $20.00 Vag-Com cable that you can order from several places.

If you only remove the end plate and the first baffle you won't need to mess with it.

EFI=TuneEcu
Carbs=Jets

thanks for that i will

Thanks for the info! I did mine 2008 America yesterday,sounds great!

I just Mangled the ****** out of my 05 America stock exhauste. I'll post pics as soon as I can but it looks like I'm going to have to buy new pipes for the sound I need. I didn't even get the first baffle out because it was so much bigger and deeper then I thought.

There is a set of TORs on Ebay right now for $99, if you want a quick fix?

Hi everyone this is my first time in this forum. after reading about baffles I did remove one baffle from each stock exhaust pipe, Bike runs and sound better but still quiet...I may go for the second one or drill holes in it.
my bike is 790cc 2006 AMERICA and is my first bike.
little bit apprehensive about re-jetting my self but willing to do. thank you all for great advice