Freeing Up Seized Cobra Baffles
by Charles "Ratdog" Greene
Mon, 17 Mar 2003
Cyclops wanted his old baffles pulled, so
he could install some new ones (to be cut first). We found
that there are at least two versions of Cobra baffles. The version
on the left are what came with Cyclops' bike. Carbon build up
and rust had seized them into the pipes, so some creative
"persuading" needed to be implemented. The version on the
right (purchased from a VRCC member) came with a cross bar welded to
the mouth of the baffle to grab hold of during removal... much
better design !
The pulling tool I ended up having success
with was 1/8" wire rope, looped through the hole which the mounting
screw is threaded through. A loop is created by fastening the
two ends together with some cable clamps. As you can see, the
toughest baffle to remove required a second hole to be drilled
through it for final removal. My tool ripped clean through the
first hole initially.
Here's how the "tool" affixed to the baffle
would look (but without the hole already being ripped
through)
At the business end of the job, I looped
the wire rope around the handle and head of a hand sledge (red
handled one), pulled it tight, then proceeded to BEAT the hand
sledge with a longer handled sledge. NOTE... you may need to
insert a screw driver against the baffle's edge and beat it inward
with a sledge to "break" loose the baffle. Having ripped
through the first hole, I drilled up through the pipe's mounting
screw hole to create another hole in the baffle to pull from.
After getting the baffle about halfway out
I had ripped through the second hole, but was able to work it in/out
until finally removing it completely. This was the most
stubborn of the six baffles, most of the others were much easier to
extract. You may be able to simply grab hold of the baffle
with a long nosed needle nose plier and pull the baffles
out.
The next job was to hone out the pipes,
removing all build up of carbon/rust, and returning them to original
inside diameter. This allows the new baffles to slide in/out
with ease. The tool of choice here was a 1 1/2" wire wheel and
a 12" long bit extension attached to my heavy duty drill. All
six pipes were honed out thoroughly. Note... the rust appearing
on the outsides of the pipes is simply the residual dust from the
inside honing. A good wiping down afterwards returned them to
their brilliant luster of chrome.
Each of the new baffles were also honed
clean on a wire wheel before their flanges were coated with
anti-seize compound, slipped into place and their mounting screws
snugged into place (threads coated as well).
Now... once we can locate some muffler
packing material, we can "play" with his new baffles... or simply
REMOVE them altogether when some HD's need a little "in yer place"
spankin'.
Final note... a similar method of removal
could be used for removing the oem baffles from a Valk's system if
you've previously cut your piggies "flush"... instead of leaving
yourself an inch or so of pipe to work with
later.
