Repack = empty completely and start new.
I can fill the hopper with coals / chunk / coals / chunk all the way to the top. And at the end of the cook all the chunks are burnt, all the way to the top. But the coals are not lit. Evidently, it gets hot enough to burn the chunk but not hot enough to light the coals.
So I empty it completely and start fresh, or else I won't have any wood chunk smoke at the start of the cook. Especially, since it takes a while for coals to fall down into the ash pan and get those chunks smoking.
I just bought a mod from LSS that looks like it will make emptying the hopper easier and less of a mess. I possibly could've made something to accomplish this, but I was placing an order with LSS and threw it in . I'm taking out the charcoal grate now and letting the coals drop into an empty ash pan and that works if there's not too many in there. It still involves getting the shop vac to get all the pieces and dust.
https://www.lss-mods.com/product_details.phtml/hopper_dropper