i have the same problem, i always break bolts... and the stainless steel bolts into an aluminum piece doesnt sit well with me... but they have been ok. The dealer snapped those pieces that hold the front axle on my bike before i even brought it home. and they fixed it and put good stuff in.

How do you know what your packing looks like with out just replacing it?

 

With the end cap off I can see the packing. Seems to be mostly white and tight so I'm figuring it must be ok. I'm sure if I pull out the old packing I will find out it is all chewed up. Is there a way to check it and re-insert it if it's ok? I think if I yank the stuffing out it will be impossible to stick it back in.

 

BTW - during my attempt to quiet down the muffler (before the insert was delivered) I ended up modifying a 3inch piece of 1-7/8" diameter exhaust pipe as a home made baffle.
didn't work out too well.

I hammered one end into a small clover shaped opening, it looked pretty good. I then whacked the whole baffle thing once to purposely make it not so round to kind of wedge it into the Evo-X baffle. That part worked fine but it didn't help the noise much and I discovered a problem this caused.

The shape had reduced the output flow so much that the header pipe was glowing red hot. I noticed this during my ride home the 2nd day while in stop and go traffic. My right calve felt like it was melting. I couldn't keep my foot on the peg for more then 10 seconds unless I was moving at 50mph or more.

Got home, closed the garage, the header was glowing red hot by the port. My calve was also glowing red. I learned that I'm not a baffle builder.

 

You seems to run lean, that's hot (not good). Get some more fuel into her.

 

+1.

Yorgomiami, compare your home made baffle to the opening in the stock muffler. Which one is more restrictive?

Sounds more like you opened the airbox without a proper rejet.

 

The home made baffle is way more restrictive then the OEM. The header overheating was likely due to exhaust gasses not being able to leave the pipe fast enough and kind of backing up in the header. The jetting is fine on this bike. It has a unit air filter and was jetted by the previous owner. The spark plug looks nice and tan so I'm pretty sure jetting is right on. I've since taking that home made baffle out and everything is back to normal. I'm only using the vortex insert I recently purchased to quiet things down a bit.

One thing I noticed since the vortex insert is that the bike seems quieter during the morning rides to work. On the way home it gets louder and sounds like something is vibrating back there between 4000RPM and 6000RPM. I've taking it apart again and made sure everything is tight.

The excessive heat build up problem I had before could have damaged the baffle packing material I guess. Brown stuff was coming out of the seams when the pipe was extremely hot.