Vance & Hines Repack Kit

[Chad in Michigan]

Well, I decided that the vance & hines sounded a little too loud this year. I was actually pulled over late last year for it being too loud. It didn't help that the LEO HATED bikes too   
He let me off with a warning Anyway, thougt it may be helpful to post the part# for reference. I ordered from Dennis Kirk. Their p/n is #444302 ; Vance & hines p/n is 16106
from DK the price was $7.95/Ea X 4=$31.80 plus shipping of $7.99 to my house. I think they were quieter when I got them; I only rode about a riding season and a half with them. I'll post back when I take the old packing out and replace, assuming there is any packing left, lol. it either needs to be repacked, or i'm getting older, lol. (i think both)

BTW: the way the packing goes back in is the flat side down, around the baffle (cotton side up - see pic) and wrap a piece or two of clear packing tape around it to hold it together when installing. the tape melts off and the batting will fill out the inside diameter.

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[LIMagna]

I know this is an old post but having just tackled this job this afternoon, I thought I would add to what Chad had said when he did his.  I decided to go with the "Quiet Glass" version of the V&H repacking kit that I found here:

http://www.chrome-addiction.com/g-vance-hines-fiberglass-packing-31595.php

The confusion I ran into was that the replacement packing is about half the size of the original material I found inside of my pipes (see attachment).  My exhaust has been on the bike for just about two years now and has approximately 6,500 miles on it.   It probably wasn't necessary to do this at this time but I figured since V&H recommends replacement yearly (or at 10,000 miles), that I would give it a shot.  Given the relatively small cost of materials, it didn't seem like an unreasonable thing to do.  The other small issue I ran into was that when I pulled out the baffles, the packing remained inside the pipes.  No amount of pulling on what I could get my fingers on would dislodge it.  I found that if I took a broom handle and worked it between the packing and the pipe wall in a few spots around the pipe, that the packing would just slip on out.  Apparently the small amount of rust that coats the inside of the pipe was acting like glue and holding the packing firmly in place. 

With that little trick, the job was a snap.  I spent more time cleaning the chrome baffle end and inner pipe area than anything else.  I found it was easy to wrap the packing around the baffle and then slip the baffle in without using any tape at all.  It also was not difficult to tip the baffle up to center the far end in the pipe in order to allow it to slip fully into place.  Making note of the screw location before fully seating the baffle makes lining it up for the two set screws a simple matter.   The whole job took about an hour and that including trying to figure out a way to remove the seemingly stuck packing.  I would say the exhaust note sounds slightly deeper and only modestly more "muffled" than before, which is sort of "baffling" considering that there's less material in there than there was before. 

Anyway, hope this helps anyone else who may be contemplating this same task.

[LIMagna]

Replying to my own post since I've got some additional information ... had the first chance to really ride the bike since replacing the exhaust packing this past weekend and I can now say without a doubt that the system seems louder than it was before.  In addition, I noticed a bit of the fiberglass backing from the packing material blown out through the baffles in all four mufflers.  I seem to remember seeing that also when I first installed the exhaust system so it's probably normal but as for the volume, I'm not sure if I did something wrong during the repacking process or what.  Perhaps I should have taped the packing in place (I didn't as it wasn't necessary in order to get it installed) ... perhaps it wasn't the correct packing kit for the Classic II's or perhaps you need more packing material (like two packages per muffler).  I've got an email into Vance & Hines and will follow up with a phone call to hopefully clear this up.  I suppose that in the end, I can use other glasspack material to get things back in order but it would be nice if V&H would respond with some information on what they expect for this system since it's still in production at least for some other bikes even if it no longer shows up on their web site for the Magna. 

[LIMagna]

I did finally hear back from V&H and they said that despite what's listed on most vendor web sites, their part # 16108 is not simply the quieter version of part # 16106.  While it does contain denser material, it's much smaller and intended for use on some of their smaller diameter systems.  I ended up ordering the proper part, which I received today and it is indeed much larger (twice as large I would estimate) as the 16108 part.  I'll try to post a picture again once I get around to swapping things out but I think this pretty much closes this all out.  Hopefully this will help someone in the future not to make the same mistake I did. 

[arbadacarba]

The dimensions might be usefull as well.

[LIMagna]

I'll definitely post measurements once I pull the baffles to replace the packing but I think the numbers from the Motorcycle Superstore web site seem accurate for the proper item (# 16106): 375"T X 20"L X 12.5"W  ... my guess is that the "quiet" packing (# 16108) is only 10" long, which is why it was so easy to install without using any tape to hold it in place and why I felt the exhaust was louder after installing it.

[LIMagna]

I finally had some time to redo the packing job on my exhaust and it's pretty much what I had expected.  V&H part # 16106 is twice as large as part # 16108.  They are not equivalent kits with one being simply the "quiet" version.  16106 measures 12" x 19" whereas 16108 measures 12" x 9".  Pictures comparing the two products are attached.  I used some high temperature fiberglass tape to secure the packing material although normal packing tape should work just fine too.  Whatever V&H used originally was still intact and had not melted when I pulled first did this back in January.