Undrilling out your exhaust

[buickyouth]

One of the previous owners of my bike had drilled out the exhaust to make it louder. I'm sure it's louder. But I have nice neighbors and I like how these bikes are supposed to sound.

Here's what I'm considering as a fix:

• Drive to home depot
• Grab a handfull of different sized bolts
• Find the size that fits the hole
• Grab some more of that size and respective lock washers
• wrench those suckers in.

Depending on how crucial air tightness is at this stage in the game I might employ one of these other more bothersome things to help seal the deal:

• JB weld and metal washers (using a dremel tool to clean the area of adhesion)
• Some kind of high-temp rubber washer (do these even exist at this heat)?

Is this smart, stupid is there a better way?

Let me know,
Ian
1978 Yamaha XS750SE - (holy) stock exhaust

[motoman]

Not lock, but flat or fender washers........should tone it back down.

[motoman]

Not lock, but flat or fender washers........should tone it back down, and a shot of high-temp black paint to cover the 'fix'.

[CatatonicBug]

Wouldn't a quick shot from a MIG welder be much easier? A zap over each hole, then you could even grind them smooth and paint them.

[mlew]

If you can get a wrench on both sides of the bolts then they will work. Most likley you won't be able to. Just running bolts in the holes and snugging them in won't last . They will come out soon. Welding is the only option. I had the same situation with my V-Max. The PO had drilled 1/2" holes in both mufflers. I got some 1/4 carriage bolts and they fit the holes nicley. I tacked the heads in place then cut the bolt protion off then finished welding them in place. After some finish work and paint you can hardly tell there were ever holes there.

[fredintoon]

Wouldn't a quick shot from a MIG welder be much easier? A zap over each hole, then you could even grind them smooth and paint them.

Hi 'Bug,
not everyone has access to a MIG welder and anyway muffler steel is too thin for most folks welding skills.
Cut a sheet metal ring to fit in the end of the muffler to block off the extra holes and hold it in place with pop-rivets or self-tapping screws.

[James England]

I cut a circle from a galvanised steel sheet about a millimetre thick and used four screws and some exhaust jointing paste. I drilled small holes in the circle, marking the baffle plate underneath. I then drilled small holes in the baffle plate where the marks were, so that all the holes lined up. I covered one side of the circle with the jointing paste (the type that expands when it heats up and cures) then screwed it on using screws slightly larger than the hole diameter. It worked perfectly and never leaked. Looking at the pic, I could have been a bit neater with the paste and wiped it off before it cured!

[buickyouth]

So, I took the exhaust off and brought it over to a local welder that's going to close up all 8 of those 5/8" holes for me. They're charging $68 for the whole shooting match, which sounded reasonable to me. I'll post a picture of his handy work when it's all back together.

[STEPPENWOLF]

I just hope you are not talking about an original exhaust..these things sound like a Porsche when rolling it on...........

[buickyouth]

Oh yeah. It's stock... Or at least it is now that he closed those holes up. My neighbors are going to be so happy.

[buickyouth]

[natemoen]

Just an FYI, those are not stock pipes.

[buickyouth]

They're not?
They looked it to me.
What's the tell / how do you know?

[natemoen]

I may have to retract that statement. I though all the XS's has the same shape muffler at the end with the reverse bell. I might be wrong after looking at some pics.

[buickyouth]

I know the shape you're talking about. I'm pretty sure that they were unique to the 1100s.