I ordered new bands and rivets from Dan Kyle, and at LDH and roktbox's recommendation, I went with Silent Sport packing, which is a loose fill material consisting of multiple strands of material, rather than a single mat of packing.
First, time to pull the tail section and the exhausts
Then, time to get everything ready. The kitchen scale is for weighing the packing material--the overall amount needed can be determined by running the equation on Silent Sport's website. I ended up needing 1150 grams total, 575 grams per can. I ended up with a small handful left over from each can.
Drilling out the rivets--a pain. Use too small a bit and the rivet will jam and spin. I broke 2 smaller bits and went to the hardware store for 5/32" high-speed steel bits.
Later, I switched to some old heavy-duty nippers I had around, which did the job more quickly.
I marked the position of each cap with sharpie so that I could line it up when I reassembled
With the rivets out and the bands off, I soaked the end caps and rivet holes with PB Blaster and let it absorb for a while, then worked off the end caps. It was quite difficult--I had to tap each one repeatedly with a mallet around its circumference, add more PB Blaster (which is also good for removing old RTV, corrosion, and gunk), and even leave one can in the fridge for a while before I was able to slowly walk off the end caps.
But at last, the end caps came off. What a mess...
Slid out the packing material, and realized that the internals must be in really bad shape.
Yup--the baffle material was falling apart, and the flared cones on each end had disintegrated. Yikes.
The original baffles were toast. Thanks to the efforts of LDH and Dan Kyle, Sato has agreed to replace the gunked-up baffles for folks who can take pictures of their cans and show a receipt from Dan Kyle. I wanted the cans back on right away, and don't have receipts, so I went for a different solution.
With the advice of WT folks, I ordered spare perforated baffle tubing from LA Choppers, and cut it to length (each can is 15" long, and each inner inlet cap is 2 1/5" in diameter).
And at last I was ready to repack. Since the material is some kind of fiberglass and I could see little silvery strands shedding from the Silent Sport material and I didn't want it to tear up my skin or lungs, I covered the floor with sheets, wore long pants and sleeves, and a dust mask. Everything got tossed in the washer afterwards.
I weighed out the packing material on the kitchen scale (575 grams per can) and twisted it up into loose bundles, as recommended by Silent Sport. Each bundle then gets wrapped around the baffle and pushed down with a stick, sort of like a stack of donuts around the baffle.
I taped over the ends of the baffle tube to prevent strands of packing from hanging up on it, and inserted it into the can.
Packing the can...
all the way up! You need a little bit of airspace at the end to allow the end cap to slide back on
Then I RTVed (Permatex copper) the end caps, taking care to leave the lowest section of the end cap RTV-free, to allow condensation to drain.
Tapping the end cap back on with a mallet
I then wrapped the bands back on, and riveted them with the stainless rivets and my rivet gun.
All done!
I put the cans back on this evening, and started the bike up briefly--sounds growly but much smoother than before, closer to the way they sounded when I first installed the Satos.
I wonder how much dyno time Sato put into the development of the diameter of their baffle core size and design - I'm not sure any loss of power could be measure by using another size core, bottom line -
Seeing the job and reading it through provides invaluable help for when I try it. I was going to wait until summer, but your write up makes me want to complete it now.
Well, I'll try to get sound clips, but it's been monsooning and hailing here all week, so may have to wait. Supposedly the new packing quiets a decibel or two after a couple of rides. Definitely less harsh.
I'm still hoping to get some replacement cores from Sato, and would put them in the next time I repack. I would rather have the flared cones on the end than single-diameter cores--I believe that may increase noise, no idea what it does to horsepower.
I'm still hoping to get some replacement cores from Sato, and would put them in the next time I repack. I would rather have the flared cones on the end than single-diameter cores--I believe that may increase noise, no idea what it does to horsepower.
From what I have read the standard core is a 2 incher and I presumed you ordered a 2 inch one as well. I'm running the same stainless steel 2 inch cores in the mufflers I am making for my Hornet.
If you want to you can easily flare the cores at the end or have a muffler shop swell them out for you.
One other thing - I think you short-changed the packing - they are usually over filled and then compressed when the end cap is replaced (the inner fitting will slid over the cover with a bit of a wiggle). By not doing this I suspect you'll find the inner packing will get a bit of blow through it, making it a bit louder that a nice tight packing.
Is there anything better than packing it in really tight?
I have a question regarding all this repacking stuff...Obviously These Sato's are substandard with the cores rotting out like that, but...Is it normal to need to repack mufflers? if so how often is it supposed to be done? how long should a muffler last? I always figured they should be good pretty much forever, unless they rust out or something.
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Well, fire the engines! Spur this iron space-pony on!
Inline fours tend to be fairly easy on muffler packing for normal road use – race track use will wear them out quicker due to the extra heat.
Twins wear out the packing a lot quicker – something to do with the exhaust pulses of a twins exhaust gasses pounding the poor packing to death. Unlike the refined pulses of a four.
When to repack? Generally when it starts to get a lot louder. This may be 5,000 or 50,000 miles, it depends on the bike, pipe and rider.
Hi All
I only come on here once a year or so when I need to search for advice and I'm never disappointed. These instructions worked like a charm. I would only add that when drilling out the rivets, save the one that overlaps the band ends last. If you do that, the bands will come off like new. I also didn't want to spend the money on silent sport packing and shipping to canada, so I went to the Home Depot and bought a large bag of Roxul home soundproofing insulation for $34. There will be enough left over to repack every exhaust on every bike you will ever own. It is is made with basalt rocks and has a melting point of 1100 degrees C. With new packing, the bike sounds less like an F1 car in the red and more like a large angry dog. It should satisfy the motorcycle noise bylaws that are coming to Calgary soon.
I went to the Home Depot and bought a large bag of Roxul home soundproofing insulation for $34. There will be enough left over to repack every exhaust on every bike you will ever own. It is is made with basalt rocks and has a melting point of 1100 degrees C.
Got to watch that stuff though, most of it is not dense enough and the fibers just blow away in a short period. Sort of like packing it with high temp belly button fluff .........
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