Just went through this myself.  The rear y-pipe has to be fished through
the carrier bar and to do so it must be separate from the "collector pipe".
It sounds like you still have it attached. It will fit.  You removed it out
of the vehicle, probably after the carrier was removed?

                                                            Jay

Buffy & Philip Simmons <buffy-philip1@COX.NET>@gerry.vanagon.com> on
04/23/2002 11:13:31 PM

Please respond to Buffy & Philip Simmons <buffy-philip1@COX.NET>

Sent by:    Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>

To:    vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
cc:
Subject:    Exhaust Mounting question PLEASE HELP!

Well, this is an odd one for me.  I installed the engine but can not get
the exhaust back in. Let me try and explain.

I had the engine rebuilt and pulled the motor myself.  I pulled the
exhaust after the engine was dropped and kept it in one piece (that is
the 2 "header pipes" connected the collector pipe).  I disconnected the
catalytic converter and muffler.  BTW, this is a 1.9 watercooled motor.

Engine was rebuilt and I have it in the car, mounted to the tranny and
engine mount bracket.  So far so good.

Trying to mount the exhaust, and I don't think its possible.  ON the
passenger side, the header pipes line up to the exhaust port on the
heads fine (I have them come in from behind the motor mount bar on the
rear.  BUT on the drivers side, the rear exhaust header pipe will not
fit.  It will not fit behind the motor mount bar (it falls ~3" short of
the head) and it will not fit in front of the motor mount (the pipe
needs to be in the same physical location as the motor mount bar on the
drivers side).

Cant believe this will not bolt up.It came out ok.its almost like the
installation is different than when I pulled, but I bolted it up and the
tranny is mated to the motor.

Anyone else had this problem?  I really don't have any Idea what to do,
short of towing it to the dealer.