Exhaust Packing

[andyp]

Hi folks.

I'm looking for a bit of advice on a daft query.

I have an Arrow race pipe that was "quite loud" when I bought it 3-4 years ago. It's now a bit more like "hellish loud". It's off the bike at the moment as it was MoT time this week so I want to take the opportunity while it's off to repack it. I have a couple of queries that I could use some pointers with:-

• Arrow packing is gonna set me back £20 delivered. Ebay packing looks to be about £8 delivered. Is the ebay stuff gonna be shite? I am thinking to just get the Arrow stuff using the logic that it should be a lot better and a bit more trustworthy.
  
• I am wanting to do this repacking myself but don't feel confident about drilling the old rivets out and fixing the new ones in place without possibly wrecking the pipe. That and I don't have a rivet gun.
  
• I could get a mate who is a mechanic to do it but he lives 50 miles away and it seems daft to spend anotehr £20-£30 on labour that I can maybe avoid.
  

Is it that difficult to do? If I'm doing this I want to do it properly so it lasts another year or two but at the same time would like to do it myself unless it's one of these simple ideas that ends up being a nightmare and me having a ruined zorst.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

Andy

[alexp5]

I re-packed my Remus Powercone which was a bit of a mare TBH, due to the fucking awkward cone shape. I butchered an old Micron can I had for the glass wadding inside, and got a bag of loose fill stuff from a local MX place. The Remus is a titanium cone with stainless rivets and the rivets were hard work to drill out. If yours are stainless - get a cobalt drill bit, use a slow speed on the drill and plenty of cutting fluid.

The packing that Remus used was good quality stuff, almost like fibreglass rope that was zig-zagged around the perforated tube inside, but had started to burn where there was a hotspot in the exhaust. The Micron packing was also good quality stuff - thick woven mat wired together in a tight fitting tube. The loose fill stuff was crap and mostly burned off and blew out after a few hundred miles leaving the can as loud as it was originally. This was after wrapping it all in stainless steel wool. Grrr...

You pays your money-you takes your choice, etc.

If it's a staightforward shaped can, I'd do it myself. Mine was bloody awkward so I'd pay for the Remus re-packing if I need to do it again.

[andyp]

Cheers. That's helpful stuff. I think I'm gonna speak to my mate and maybe get a price from a zorst specialist too.

I want it to be done properly so think it sounds like a pro job.

Thanks.

Andy