At 06:40 PM 8/4/2001, Dart 330 wrote:
>things go wrong. The pipe coming from the front two cylinders cracked where
>it bolts to the pipe going to the CAT.

Probably because of the missing struts...

>this happened, I noticed the muffler strap was broken. 40 bucks from BD and
>$52 locally seemed pretty high for a strap, so I got some sheet metal and
>pop riveted mine back together and it is working well.

Keep an eye on it and on the bracket (025 251 519) that holds it and the
short little strut (025 251 349) that holds it up -- they all get hot and rust.

>Now the only other
>problem I see is that I have none of the metal support bars on the drivers
>side like I do on the passenger side. I think there are supposed to be 3 of
>these,

Yes.

>and two of them bolt into the engine case and the other one bolts up
>higher.

Collector pipe to left-rear case (same bolt that holds the bottom corner of
the tin on) 025 251 243 A
Collector pipe to exhaust "J" pipe at left-rear cylinder. 025 251 245
J pipe to catalyst-collector junction.  025 251 227 A

The second and third are about $18 and $27, not sure which is which.  First
one I don't know.

You can get them from the dealer, you can get them from a parts van, you
can make them.  If you get from a parts van the ends will probably be
heavily rusted away -- you can build them up with braze or weld metal and
re-drill.  If you make your own, think about stress relief at the ends --
I've seen home-made ones from tubing that broke where the tubing was mashed
flat to make the  ends.

You need them, though.  That exhaust has to be a rigid part of the engine
or it fails.

david

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"