Neil,

When I peeked under your van at Catherine Creek, I saw the potential
for exactly what you're experiencing.  The problem is the engine
vibration. The solution is rubber vibration isolators. You need to
develop a support system that has a bit of 'give' in it. You could do
what you've done in 1" plate and all you'll have done is lengthened
the time until it fails. Find someone local with a stock diesel
vanagon.  (Shawn Wright or Tobin Copley come to mind.)Take a look at
the muffler mounting. You'll note that VW did mount the muffler to
the motor (actually to the motor mounting system) and used
elastomeric mounts. One on the right and two perpendicular to each
other on the left. You'll need  to come up with a similar system.
I'll send you jpg of the relevant ETKA page p-mail. You might also
chase down Bjorn Ratjen. He has a TDI mounted at 15 degrees and IIRC
lives in Vancouver.

Jim

On Sep 23, 2008, at 5:29 PM, neil N wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> After repairing my exhaust:
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/JustForLaffs.jpg/JustForLaffs-
> full;init:.jpg
>
> (yes you can laugh now)
>
> I found yet more nagging details. Like broken exhaust brackets:
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/brokenexhaustbrackets
>
> I *think* the passenger side breaks are due to me bumping into a hill
> side whilst escaping from a logging road on my last trip. The driver
> side likely started to fail due to the increased motion. Plus upon
> disassembly, I realized I had mistakenly built a little tension into
> the design. i.e. inlet of cat needs to be pushed a little to line up
> with the flange on primaries.
>
> So I'm hoping engine vibrations aren't the culprit.
>
> But if they are ......
>
> Does anyone have some pointers on a better design for these parts?
>
> I like where they're mounted, and the material should be suitable
> (1/8" mild steel) but the design may be the fault here.
>
> FWIW, the welds held up fine. There is an flex bellows in the
> exhaust system.
>
> TIA for any pointers or pics of successful designs!
>