March 2, 2009

Start the MIG Indy teardown! I got my MIG from a 'big lister' quite a few years ago, after he had low sided his '98. He indicated it had never been repacked, so I purchased a bit of KaoWool from another 'big lister' about 5 years ago (yes, I've been meaning to repack this for about 5 years!).

My new bolt & clevis are away being welded and painted (thanks RoBoots21!)

My better half and the two boys are out getting haircuts and I have my 2YO daughter. It's not bed time yet.

What to do, what to do???

Start the MIG Indy teardown! I got my MIG from a 'big lister' quite a few years ago, after he had low sided his '98. He indicated it had never been repacked, so I purchased a bit of KaoWool from another 'big lister' about 5 years ago (yes, I've been meaning to repack this for about 5 years!).

This shouldn't be a tough job, or so I thought!

I brought Julia down to the basement for a little wrenching lesson. She loves to sit on the tall chair and whack my vise with a box-end wrench saying 'Perfect. Perfect Daddy!'.

My Little Wrenchess

So, where do we start tearing down a CF can? Drill out the rivets of course!

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Once drilled out, I used a small drift pin punch to clear the holes of the rivet dunnage.

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The straps essentially popped right off. Now we're in bidness! That was easy!

Well, that's where easy ends. Pull, pull, puuuuullllll. Wedge wedge wedge. There was no budging the end caps. I then noticed a bit of silicone between the CF and the end caps. I X-Actoed the silicone to separate the end caps and the tube.

Pull pull pull, wedge wedge wedge. No budging.

Hmm...

I put the up pipe to end cap bolts back in.

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Then flipped the can up so the ingress end was pointing down. Then I dropped it on the bench several times. This wedged the ingress end up into the can. This is when I noticed that the egress perf pipe ends were flared, holding the end cap in place.

A little twisting with a flat blade screw driver 'unflared' the ends.

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Pull pull pull... wedge wedge wedge WOOOHOOO!

Egress end cap is off! To reveal... what is this?

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It looks like toilet wax ring, but it is some sort of silicone. I assume it is to direct the exhaust to the tips.

It's now time to remove the daughter-unit from the basement. I don't want the fibers getting into her lungs. I set her up with a DVD and headed back the basement.

A dead blow hammer and block of wood separates the perf tube and ingress end cap from the CF and it slides right out.

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X-Acto knife back in action, I separate the original wool from the perf pipe. Nice wrapping job!

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For a 10ish year old OEM packing, it doesn't look bad at all!

Here are the parts.

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Just one question... The original rivets were stainless. Since I'm using KaoWool, I shouldn't need to do this again. Should I use rivets or screws?