I'm Half-Baffled! Need advice.

1978 KZ1000 LTD (B2) w/Stock 4-2 exhaust.

Last summer, the right exhaust baffle corroded and fell out. Being the cheap DIY sort that I am, I thought I would try to fab up my own replacement baffle.

I took a 12" length of 1" steel pipe, drilled some holes through it at 90 degree angles relative to each other, then took it to my dad, who has a welder, and had him weld a 3" washer onto one end.

I then shoved the assembly into the exhaust pipe, and had my dad tack-weld it into place. My dad is not a professional welder, and his experience is more with welding steel pipe casing for wells (he's a well driller). He seemed a little nervous about this project, and wasn't sure he had the right type of equipment. When tacking the baffle into the exhaust pipe, the chrome exterior of the exhaust pipe glowed red-hot pretty quickly, and so he tried to be "gentle" with his welds.

Well, the baffle seemed to work pretty well. The bike sounded and ran nice. I was a little nervous because the pipe I used was slightly narrower than the stock exhaust on the left side (1" vs abt 1 1/8"). But it was the closest "off the shelf" solution I could find. Not sure if having a different size opening between the L and R exhaust would cause any problems, but the bike seemed to run well.

Flash forward to last week. I took this bike on the Oregon 500 (a 500-mile motorcycle rally sponsored by a local riding club). After finishing the rally, while riding home on the freeway, suddenly my engine noise got really loud. For a few seconds, I thought I had cylinders cutting out--maybe a coil failure. But then I realized that I had no loss of power. Since I was close to home, I just kept going until I got home.

After looking around the bike, I saw the problem. My rinky-dink homemade baffle had slipped out and was gone. Gee--I hope it didn't hit the car behind me. :blush:

Anyhow, now I'm trying to figure out if I should make another baffle, and try to secure it better this time, or if there are other options available to me. I've looked online for baffles, but can't seem to find one that will fit into my megaphone-style pipes with a 3" diameter at the rear, and tapering down toward the front.

Any ideas, suggestions?

Here's a rough sketch of what my homemade baffle looked like: