Can't get the baffles out

1276 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by dickman, Jan 5, 2006

dickman

Discussion Starter · Jan 4, 2006

This is my first post on this forum. From all indications there appears to be a impressive knowlege base here so I hope someone can help. I had replaced the stock baffles in my V&H Longshots with the quiet baffles early last season. The pipes have gotten louder and so I would like to wrap some fresh packing around them. Problem is I cannot get them to come out. I remomved the holding screws and can turn them with some difficulty with a 1ft. nail puller but cannot get them to come out. I've tried hooking the welded bolt nut and yanking but to no avail. Is there any tool out there that I could find and purchase that would allow me get this done?? Thanks.

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nvsteve

· #2 · Jan 4, 2006

dickman said:
This is my first post on this forum. From all indications there appears to be a impressive knowlege base here so I hope someone can help. I had replaced the stock baffles in my V&H Longshots with the quiet baffles early last season. The pipes have gotten louder and so I would like to wrap some fresh packing around them. Problem is I cannot get them to come out. I remomved the holding screws and can turn them with some difficulty with a 1ft. nail puller but cannot get them to come out. I've tried hooking the welded bolt nut and yanking but to no avail. Is there any tool out there that I could find and purchase that would allow me get this done?? Thanks.

Had the same problem. The packing is binding against the exhaust. Spray WD40 or whatever lube you have onto the baffles. Yes it's messy.
Put the screws into the welded nut from the inside. Hook a coat hangar
or similar wire around the screw and yank. Once you get it a ways out
use heavy duty pliers to twist and pull.
Have patience. Be careful I remeber falling on my ass when the wire slipped.
When you repack, tape the material tightly. You may even want to try the
baffles without the packing.
Good luck.

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sledman

· #3 · Jan 4, 2006

nvsteve said:
Had the same problem. The packing is binding against the exhaust. Spray WD40 or whatever lube you have onto the baffles. Yes it's messy.
Put the screws into the welded nut from the inside. Hook a coat hangar
or similar wire around the screw and yank. Once you get it a ways out
use heavy duty pliers to twist and pull.
Have patience. Be careful I remeber falling on my ass when the wire slipped.
When you repack, tape the material tightly. You may even want to try the
baffles without the packing.
Good luck.

Have you tried the Quiet Baffles without the packing? Just wonder how that would differ from the factory baffles. Might knock down the high frequency tones, yet still sound good and have "volume"..........

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opiewontaylor

· #4 · Jan 4, 2006

The penetrating oil is the way to go, and give it some time to do it's job. I recently pounded in (yep,pounded) some Khromewerks baffles into my pipes. Those are never coming out..but then..they really don't need to.......

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nvsteve

· #5 · Jan 4, 2006

sledman said:
Have you tried the Quiet Baffles without the packing? Just wonder how that would differ from the factory baffles. Might knock down the high frequency tones, yet still sound good and have "volume"..........

The quiet baffles are completely different than the standards.
The end nearest the motor is capped off so the exhaust goes around and
past the packing. Without the packing the sound was sort of between the
two styles.

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dickman

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 4, 2006

nvsteve said:
Had the same problem. The packing is binding against the exhaust. Spray WD40 or whatever lube you have onto the baffles. Yes it's messy.
Put the screws into the welded nut from the inside. Hook a coat hangar
or similar wire around the screw and yank. Once you get it a ways out
use heavy duty pliers to twist and pull.
Have patience. Be careful I remeber falling on my ass when the wire slipped.
When you repack, tape the material tightly. You may even want to try the
baffles without the packing.
Good luck.

I'll give them a good soaking with WD-40 today and try again. The welded nuts are too far into the exhaust to attempt getting the allen screw in from the inside in order to get a hook on it. Someone asked what the baffles would sound like without the packing material. I did try that originally and in my opinion they were still too loud. Also those V&H billet end caps that give the pipes that "finished" look sure are of poor quality. Only 5 months of riding
(only in good weather) and the chrome has peeled on both caps. Judging from what others have experienced I'm sure that V&H would do nothing for me.

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fxdl raw

· #7 · Jan 4, 2006

Regarding your billet caps having the chrome peel, I had the same thing happen to a set of Straightshots I had on my Lowrider. I pulled the billet caps off, wrapped them up and sent them to V&H. On the note I sent to them I just said "I thought I had purchased a quality product from a leader in the exhaust industry. I am very displeased with the quality of the chroming on the end caps and would like one of two things to happen with them. Either replace the end caps with another set (rechromed or new) or they can just throw them away. I in no way desire to have the end caps back the way they are." I did not contact them prior to sending the end caps to them. About a week after I mailed them to V&H I got a call from one of their reps at the factory. He talked to me about what I had wrote, my riding style, etc.... Once again, I just told him to either replace them or throw them away. The next day the rep called me again and said they were going to throw them away, and, they were going to send me a new set. I got them about 3 days later. No further problem with them. I think you just have to be willing to cut the loss with the end caps if they will not work with you and let them know you are willing to do it. After all, you would not really put the POS caps back on your bike if you got them back would you? Just my 2 cents worth. If you are not stirring the pot in this world, people will **** on you all day long.%[email protected]

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dickman

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 5, 2006

Yes, I probably should have tried contacting V&H and I'm glad they replaced yours but I instead shipped the caps off to http://www.pca-industries.com for rechroming. They do some nice work, I've used them in the past and are extremely reasonable. In my opinion the quality and workmanship at V&H has seriously gotten worse in recent years. Lately, I've heard many fellow riders complain of ill-fitting pipes, shoddy chroming etc. that I would rather just not do business with them any longer. It works for me!

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