Annoying noise

The V&H oval slip ons that I have are also a "slash" cut (as they all are I think). After I took out the two screws I took a short piece of 2x4 and pressed it on the top side of the slash, then with one hand on the 2x4 and one hand on the muffler, holding it all vertically, I raised it about a foot off the floor and slammed it down on the ground. It took about 2 or 3 tries and it was moved enough where I was able to pull it out with my hand. I didn't slam it too hard since I did not want to wreck the chrome or bend the pretty end of the pipe.

Both of them came out doing it this way. Putting it back was a little trickier since I had to line up the insides just right and then bang it down on the wood to go back together. It was easy to line up the screws again with the ovals since they won't rotate.

There you have it.... shade tree style.

I use to have a dent puller and was already thinking along the slide hammer terms. I don't have it anymore so I made one from some center drilled 1" roundstock, a couple nuts and washers and a piece of all thread. I can't wait to try it but I'm going to wait until the new baffles get here before I pull them apart. I sure hope this is the answer to the noise I'm hearing.

Hello,
Back from vacation. Tried to pull the baffles out and there was nothing to hook to. So... for anyone else that is going to pull baffles out of V&H oval slip ons, here you go. I had to come up with a new strategy. First I cut the 90 off the end of my homemade puller. There is a short round piece of exhaust pipe inside the oval part. Put the rod next to that and clamp on hard with a vice grip plier. It mangles that pipe inside a little but you would never notice it. If it's still hard to pull, shoot some wd40 where the baffle is against the muffler outside piece.
Unfortunately, the new baffles didn't solve the problem. What the heck is causing this noise??? To recap, It's a noise that is similar sounding to like a compression knock noise. I hear it at idle, when giving it a little throttle while cruising and at low rpms especially under a little load. It doesn't matter if the bike is hot or cold.

I tried the octane booster. It seemed to quiet it down for two days. It never went away but I was noticing it less. What do you guys think about it possibly being a headgasket going bad or a loose headbolt? Would that make a sound like this and would it still run good?

have you tryed a compression check yet?

I haven't done a compression check. I don't have a tester. The bike is running really good though. It was just recently dynotuned at the dealer. They didn't say anything about any compression issues. I would think if there were it would have showed up then wouldn't it?

Thanks Chuck...I notice there seems to be a lot of compression going on in your latest avitar, but then again, I guess you should expect that with bigger jugs!

Thanks for the link Chuck. The chart on page to is very interesting! What is detonation? What does it sound like?
Hotroadking, thats a good idea and I've been doing that for days. I took the metal rod off, put in a hollow brass tube so I could listen air leaks too. I listened to all the exhaust connections, the rocker boxes and the intake seals, nothing.

Thanks, my engine sounds good. No pinging or knocking up there.

Hello,
Now it's looking like the noise could possibly be a bad valve seat. The other latest possible cause would be a leaking intake seal. I sprayed them with some carb cleaner while it was running to see if the idle would change. It didn't seem to change at all. so now I'm possibly looking at the valve seats. I won't be doing anything on it until the end of the month. I promise to keep you informed, you have been very helpful to me and I greatly appreciate it. I only hope I can find this freakin noise before I end up rebuilding the entire bike! Talk to you later, 66dodge

10-4

hello friends,
sorry for the long delay. my old computer crashed taking all links and bookmarks with it. here's an update... I took the bike to the dealer. they checked it out and everything is ok mechanically. they have come to the conclusion the noise is in the exhaust. sorry again for the long pause