GSX 1100 EF exhaust autopsy

[Cooler]

I was born in Oradea, but moved at the age of 5 (1982) to Alba Iulia; I studied in Cluj-Napoca from 1997; right now I'm struggling to finish my phD in electrical machines (motors). I'm an electrical engineer.
As for the baffles at first the right one was making some noises but now the left has started to make noises too so.. I have to open them both. I thought also about removing those aluminium "bolts" but I don't know if I could screw something on them.. would be nice; however the problem might be that the filters could be too large to remove through the other side, as the "tubes" are getting smaller towards the motor.
I wonder if anyone hasn' done anything like this? It could help me quite a lot. I think I'll talke the exhausts down about 2 weeks from now.. hopefully someone could help me.
Have a nice.... ride!

[posplayr]

Cooler,
Nice to see you are working on your education. When you say you work on electrical machines do you mean theory of electrical motors/generators or is your emphasis more in the way of controls of such?

Since no one seems to have first hand knowledge of the dissection of the tail pipe (I had a chance on my GS750 exhaust that was hastily discarded) so I will elaborate on my recent experiences with Yoshi exhaust. Yoshi is arguably one of the best of breed; well there is not much to it .

Those rivets are likely holding a flange on the base of the baffle. The end plate was formed with the outer skins. If you drill the rivets the baffle will really be loose but still wont come out . The whole assembly was likely inserted from the wide end and the machine (bent) to close the end.

U will need to cut the end to remove the baffle. Moderate welding skill will be required to restore to any level of cosmetic appeal.

Pos

[Stefnwolf]

Cooler,
The whole assembly was likely inserted from the wide end and the machine (bent) to close the end.

U will need to cut the end to remove the baffle. Moderate welding skill will be required to restore to any level of cosmetic appeal.

Best not to cut I think. If it were mine I would grind away the metal at the very end of the pipe where it is bent over the end plate. Grind a little bit at a time and keep stopping and cooling the metal with water. If you don't let it get too hot it shouldn't discolour the chrome. If you do this carefully, it wont damage the end plate (with the rivets on it) either. The whole baffle assembly could then be drawn out and fixed.

The main problem as I see it is welding the end back up will spoil the finish on the pipe.
Maybe this as an alternative?
Make 3 "L" shaped brackets and weld (or rivet, or screw) to the back plate on the inside, positioned on the edge so they slide against the pipe metal.
Slide the assemblies back into the pipes and drill through the pipe and L brackets, and fix with 3 nice stainless headed screws.
Might need some kind of sealer on the end plate, maybe cut a "gaskett" from some aspestos type cloth.

[Cooler]

Best not to cut I think. If it were mine I would grind away the metal at the very end of the pipe where it is bent over the end plate. Grind a little bit at a time and keep stopping and cooling the metal with water. If you don't let it get too hot it shouldn't discolour the chrome. If you do this carefully, it wont damage the end plate (with the rivets on it) either. The whole baffle assembly could then be drawn out and fixed.

The main problem as I see it is welding the end back up will spoil the finish on the pipe.
Maybe this as an alternative?
Make 3 "L" shaped brackets and weld (or rivet, or screw) to the back plate on the inside, positioned on the edge so they slide against the pipe metal.
Slide the assemblies back into the pipes and drill through the pipe and L brackets, and fix with 3 nice stainless headed screws.
Might need some kind of sealer on the end plate, maybe cut a "gaskett" from some aspestos type cloth.

Thank you for your suggestion. I think that's how the cans were closed, by plying the outer shell metal over the end cans. It would be very difficult to extract it and weld it back properly. I'll see what I can do.. and maybe consider other's opinions. Maybe someone has by accident an original exhaust in very bad shape and could do an autopsy. That would help me enormously.
Thanks everyone for your input!

[Cooler]

Well.. after looking carefully at the back of the exhaust it appears the end round part of the can was forced on the "plied" exterior sheet of metal (the tube part). It was just like a (can't find the word) on a bottle of wine.. Theoretically if I extract somehow the whole pack from the outer "tube" I should be able to weld the edges when I'll put it back in.
What do you reckon?
Here's a newer picture:

[Jethro]

I'd drill those rivets and see what happens. You might get lucky, and if you don't you can always just run a self tapping screw through the holes you drilled.

[Calvin Blackmore]

-the right one:

the bumps or ripples in the cone are likely discs with holes in the centre used to align one or more pipes in the baffle.....
if the baffels were held in place just by the tail end of the pipe vibration and bouncing conmined with corrosion would make the internal fall apart rahter quickly.....

do you see any spot welds anywhere on the underside or inboard side of the mufflers?

[Cooler]

the bumps or ripples in the cone are likely discs with holes in the centre used to align one or more pipes in the baffle.....
if the baffels were held in place just by the tail end of the pipe vibration and bouncing conmined with corrosion would make the internal fall apart rahter quickly.....

do you see any spot welds anywhere on the underside or inboard side of the mufflers?

Yes.. you are right. I was afraid they turn out to be like that. The Yamaha had a middle disc for alignment. It had a 3-tube system connected trough a disc. However this EFE seems to have more discs and I'm quite afraid of what I might find inside.
I attach 2 more pictures with the "dots" (for welding I suppose). There are 2 small holes (one of which is visible in picture 1).
There would be an option to cut the "tubes" in length, where they were joined (the long line in the middle). It would prove maybe a little difficult to weld them on such a length; still have to think about that. If I do that I might end up deforming the tube when I'll have to crack it open to let the elements inside come out.
It's such a pity no one has done such an autopsy.
The pics (last ones I hope before the surgery):

[Cooler]

and second picture (upside-down... sort of):

[Calvin Blackmore]

and second picture (upside-down... sort of):

ok so i took a grinder ot my old pipes in order to have a buddy practice welding on them

I really doubt if Suzuki reinvented any assembly processes so mine are likely a good example of what they did in all....
mine had the end pieced rollled in
i cut away a panel encompassing the outer perimeter of the spot welds
and lo and behold the three pipe baffle core came out ( it had rusted off the exhaust end or broken due to a support disc coming loose.

sadly this is your production set of pipes and going at them with a grinder is tedious at best
I only did mine cos they were throw aways and I needed a real world welding problem......
OK guys someone work for the FAA got a set of these they can get x rayed?

[Odinist]

Hahaha, I actually *do* work for the FAA... but I'm in IT, and there isn't an x-ray machine in my building. ;-)

[Cooler]

Anyone else? It appears there's a long tube ending in a round plate. However I have no idea what's between the first and the second round plates as it appears the noises are coming from there.

[Matchless]

I would drill those pop rivets out and see if the internals will not come out!

[Cooler]

quote from a reply on oldskoolsuzuki:
"In the back of the exhaust is a plate rivetted in (four rivets) it's connected to a tube about 100-120mm long, this slides into another plate, it's an empty chamber, if it's rattling drill out the rivets then rotate the plate, drill new holes and re rivet...Make sure there's no leaks in the collector box or when you shut off from high revs it'll blow the baffles out"
It's not the rivets or that tube that are making noises.. but something from the interior..