I am having trouble getting to the stock muffler hangar bushings. Most of the bolts seem to be at a weird angle or are so cramped up you cannot get enough leverage to break them free. What would you guys suggest doing to make this easier?

 

Spray the rubber hangars with PB Blaster to lube them up and to make them slide off easier then drop your exhaust.

 

WD40 or PBblaster on the nuts/bolts.

 

Some of the nuts are in such awkward places I can't even get to them.

Do you mean if you lube them up good enough, You can just slide the metal pieces out of the rubber hangers?? I tried but I didn't have any luck with that one.

 

WD40 and let it penetrate in.

 

Yes, douche everything up and you should be able to slide all the hangers off. Use a long screwdriver or prybar. The passanger rear hanger sucks.

 

take the entire bracket holding the rubber hanger off thats on the driver side, then remove the rubber hanger thats next to the mid pipe. Let the left side of the muffler hang, this will stretch out the rubber hanger which will make it easier to slide off

 

As stated previously, lube up the hangers with WD or PB and they should pull right off.

 

just to clear up: you don't have to unbolt the bracket holding the rubber bushings in, the stock exhaust hangers slide into the hole in the rubber, and then hold themselves in place by the head at the end of the metal hanger.

The only places the exhaust is held in place by bolts are at the headers. To get the exhaust out you had to have disconnected it from the headers, or the catalytic converters so you can maneuver it to slide it out of the bushings. If the header bolts (there are three) or the cat bolts (there are two) are your problems, I can understand the header bolts, they are a PITA. but the cat bolts are right out in the open, and they really shouldn't be a problem... clarify if this is what you meant.

if this step has been done (and you probably removed the cat bracket that bolts to the transmission, and the W brace the exhaust sits above) then as everyone said, lube up the bushings good and try to leverage some weight on the rubber to deform the hole so the head fits back through. start at one side and work away from it. alternately you could stick a screwdriver in to pull open the hole and push the hanger out, just don't gouge the rubber... use it as a lever, not a piercing weapon. lol.

it should be very easy to get it out, but I don't know exactly what pieces you are trying to remove.

 

The right tool normally helps.

Im still a fan of removing the metal hangars off the car and then removing them from the exhaust while it sits in the driveway.

 

well, he was complaining about not being able to get them off, and if you have a lot of miles, i remember mine being rusty.

better to not snap a bolt if you don't need to : )

 

The good thing here about snapping a bolt on any of the exhaust hangars is that once you snap them the hangar will fall towards your face and youll be 1 step closer to getting you exhaust off. Now you just have to get the threads out.

To me though hes not talking about the hangar bolts. Those are all easy to get too IMO. For the rear 6 bolt you just have to remove some of the pieces that are tucked in the rear bumper.

Now for bolts that hold the exhaust together......use your foot and constant pressure with the largest wrench you have. Use a 6 point socket too, avoid a 12pt if your breaking a bolt loose or tq to something high.

 

yeah see I am confused as to the context as well. it could be a couple different pieces but you brought up a good point I forgot about: those two plastic covers infront of the rear wheels.

...doesn't one of them hide a hanger where the B pipe snakes into the canister?

it's been a while.

 

The nuts/bolts can't be in the wrong place. If they were, then how would they have been tightened? If it was tightened as part of the install, then you have to be able to loosen it to remove it.

You might be trying to remove the wrong parts or too many of them.

 

Hell i dont know. Ive taken off too many plastic pieces and not put them back on.

I get to help a buddy do some test pipes tomorrow. Gonna be fun breaking the header bolts loose....oh the memories of those bastards. 36" of extensions and the perfect aim FTW.

 

Well, I'm trying to do this without any jacks so it's not very easy to get to anything. i have disconnected the canister from the main pipe and disconnected the front exhaust hanger. everything else is still connected. I'm not sure what would be the easiest way to take this S.O.B off. I can't get to the rubber hangers good enough to deform them enough to get the hanger out.

 

Cux, I think I've talked to you before on the TDC forums, I'm from Spartanburg

 

magnetize the sockets!

and also: yeah... cut up hands and frustration, always with those damn things.

 

so you are removing the canister, the B pipe and the y pipe then?

the y pipe has no hangers, it is supported by the bolts, and the bracket if you have it.

the B pipe has one hanger and is otherwise supported by being bolted to the Y pipe and canister.

The canister has three hanger, one on either side and one on the right-rear (if looking from the rear of the car) of the canister.

in this picture, you can see that the third, rearmost hanger for the canister: you actually keep the rubber bushing on the hanger itself, you slide it out of the bracket that is bolted to the car. I hope the picture illustrates it clearly:



it is on the left. this rubber supports the weight of the canister, if you can sort of see it on your car.

 

Alright, Thanks fellas. This is helping a lot I've got two of the three hangers removed. I'll let you know as I go along