Muffler Repack

[racurley]

My 2003 came with a Two Brothers Racing exhaust from a prior owner. It's the type that eliminates the catalytic converter. I'd have to say that the volume/tone is one of my main gripes about the bike. For some reason, it just resonates with my head in a bad way. I saw on the TBR website that they recommend repacking the muffler every 5,000 miles. Since my particular can is out of production, I called and spoke with TBR and they pointed me to the proper repack kit was was roughly $21 on Amazon. They suggested this should result in a somewhat quieter/milder exhaust. The kit came with the fiberglass mat, a drill bit for removing rivets, new rivets, and a rubber gasket I don't need. They have a great video and instructions on how to do the task. Naturally, I seem to have a knack for turning every easy task into something longer and more frustrating than it needs to be.

So, here's my exhaust on the bike...


I drilled out the rivets and removed the two ends to the can. Had to use a punch to drive the rivets loose.


Inner perforated tube with a steel wool wrapping


The old packing the surrounded the steel wool wrapping. It was a bit of a chore to pull the packing out of the can but not overly challenging. You can see the old packing was well past its prime.


Packing material cut down to size with perf tube as a reference. I put the steel wool back around the tube and then rolled the packing material around it.


Wound and bound with masking tape. All you have to do is shove this back into the can.


Back in the can. You will notice that I managed to get the inner tube off-center somehow. Naturally, it was almost impossible to pull it back out in this state. It took me considerable time and effort to shift the inner tube so the caps would fit over the ends. The inside of the exhaust cap fits over the inner tube as does the cap that joins to the exhaust pipe. Finally nudged it on with extensive pressing and pulling and then using the rubber mallet. Then you get to line up the holes so you can rivet the caps back on. That should have been easier than it turned out to be but I eventually got it back together.


Ended up with the exhaust successfully repacked and back on the bike. Had one blistered finger from pinching it driving in a rivet, and black exhaust crap all over my hands and arms and shirt and face.

Did it have the intended result? I fired it up afterward and then took it for a quick spin around 10 o'clock at night. I would say that it has definitely taken the edge off. Still pretty loud with a nice growl but not quite so ear piercing or headache inducing.

Not sure I really want to do this every 5,000 miles but am willing to do what it takes to keep the sound agreeable. I'm sure someone can provide additional pointers to make this less painful to perform. It really shouldn't be that difficult to do.

[swamper]

Find another brand that is more agreeable and doesn't need maintenance. I'm not going away from the stock set up, don't want to get the headaches.

[timl]

I had a Two Brothers on my Rockster and never liked the sound. Last year I tried repacking. The can had been on for 50k miles and inside it looked pretty much the same as your pictures. However, I didn't notice much of a difference in the sound quality/level. So I removed the Y-pipe and put the cat back on but without the muffler. I like the sound much better now.

[racurley]

I would probably go with the cat and no muffler but, since I didn't replace it myself, I don't have one to replace the Y-pipe. Earplugs help but I find the foam ones drown out too much other noise.

[swamper]

Off Topic but I have learned to wear ear plugs all the time now. Mostly because of the wind noise from the helmet.