FmF Q4 Exhaust Repack - Melted Coupling Spacer?

So I've taken to repacking my Q4 today.

Roughly 8000 miles on stock packing.

Guess what I found as I got started....





WTF?????

Looks like the mating spacer for the stock header has deformed from the heat and fused the muffler section to the header pipe.

Anybody with an FmF pipe and stock header might want to check theirs. How does THAT happen?

Any way - can't get the muffler section separated from header so I'm attempting repack while exhaust stays on bike.


Here's the progress so far.









Easy part done......removing old stuff.

Difficult part set to begin. Putting new stuff on and reassembly while exhaust system stays on bike.

I'll let you know how that goes......

That sucks Moto.

Remember, do not try to force that shell on. The inner section must clear the flange in the end cap to go the last few cm's.

What??? This isn't going to be fun. Where's the nice smooth outer layer of stuff to make this more "pillow like?


Looks like a killed and skewered a small fuzzy pupy


Start wrapping and wrapping and squeezing tighter and wrapping....



So it was way to hard to control the spaghetti strings, and slide the canister cover on, and take a picture.

The hardest part of the reassembly on the bike is getting the two bolts in that are under the fender.
Getting the holes lined up so the bolts can screw in was a bitch.

At any rate.....here she is, all buttoned up.




Not sure what I'm going to do in the future about that coupling piece between header and muffler.

At this time I can ride again, and that's most important.

I might order a new coupling piece, and then perhaps borrow a dremmel tool and cut the old one off.....very delicately.

motokid wrote:

What??? This isn't going to be fun. Where's the nice smooth outer layer of stuff to make this more "pillow like?

On the pillow packing.

So I bought this:

"FMF 4-stroke Performance Packing" (Product # 011393)

Per HighFive's repacking instructions.

Is there more than one P/N: 011393

motokid wrote:

Is there more than one P/N: 011393

Dunno. Did it say "pillow" on the package? It's a particular design.

There's "pillow", "pressed" and apparently "spaghetti string". The pressed looks like felt.

Click >>

Pillow

If you use masking tape to hold it all together, it's a little easier to manage.

I still have to re-pack mine, might do that in the next couple of days if it's nice out. We had a bunch of snow come down friday. Haven't had a long winter like this in the last 25 years..

mucker wrote:

If you use masking tape to hold it all together, it's a little easier to manage.

Yep...the actual packing instructions on the FmF bag say to use masking tape as well.

The idea of using something that's easily flammable on the very outer edges seemed like a last resort.

Plus, I would have been tempted to mummify the entire "silly string" mass of baffling material.

I decided to give it a shot with no masking tape to see if I could get it.

And I did.

By the way - the material "missing" in this picture was not completely burnt away.



I should have taken a picture of what was at the other ends of those strings hanging down.

Almost all of the baffling material was still present , just a section of it was charred black and starting to disintegrate.

The end of the factory material that was in the end-cap with the spark arrestor was in perfect shape.
It was only that one section about 2/3rds of the way up the pipe that was actually a mess.

I'm guessing that's about 8000 miles worth of riding.

A caveat though is I do lots and lots of shorter rides. My commutes to work and second work are no more than 10-15 miles each way.

So many rides are not subjecting the pipe to intense heat for very long at all.

The occasional, but not regular, hour or more rides for the sheer fun of it are there, but not the bulk of my riding.

I'd assume that might help the longevity of my packing over some others who might ride for longer periods of time on a regular basis.

I had a very similar experience pulling the PO's FMF off my WR. We ended up slitting it and then cutting the spacer. I really am not a fan of the whole thing, so I won't be buying an FMF for the WR anytime soon, despite how nice they sound! I have a full FMF exhaust on my SV650, and they're all slip fits, no crazy nonsense like that spacer!