The right way (as far as the Vanagon is concerned) is to remove the cat
and inspect it.  If pieces are indeed broken therein, punch out all of
it so that you have a hollow shell and reinstall it.

Leaving broken pieces inside can cause the cat and/or the muffler to
clog and cause problems.

Mike

Florian Speier wrote:
> soooo, I got the brakes back up and runnning (stopping like a dream),  and
> then we really had to  run off fast for our roadtrip.  knew i had to still
> install the new distributor rotor and cap, since it looked like this:
> http://www.outdoorinsider.blogspot.com/  but since i cleaned it it ran
> fine,
> so i decided to wait till campsite tonight to exchange it. we really had to
> go.....
> on I580 richmond-san rafael bridge the rotor burst.
> took me a few seconds to realize, pulled over, bridge staff and cops
> immediately got me off the bridge and called AAA, I tried swapping the new
> rotor in on the side of the road but was just too nervous. Home two hours
> later, obviously took me five minutes and it runs like a champ.
>
> ...BUT THERE IS A HUGE RATTLE IN THE CAT....
> ...did i kill it from flooding it with unburnt fuel after the rotor broke?
>
> thing is, I am gearing up for subie conversion, which anyway comes with a
> new cat. I know I am killing trees by the dozens without it, but is
> anything
> bad gonna happen if i let it rattle for a couple hundred miore miles? or
> shall i get a straight piece welded in?
>
> thanxxx
>
> flo
>