Hmmmm.   That might be worth trying.  The rubber layer in those diesel
mounts, that may be contributing to the fairly common exhaust fatigue
problems we see on the inline gas conversations.  I wonder if eliminating
that rubber would add noise and vibration inside the van?  Might be worth
experimenting.  Maybe when I get off the desert trip I'll try that.
On Feb 8, 2014 7:59 AM, "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> One thing I would do is get rid of the rubber mounts on the muffler. They
> didn't work for VW. All the Waterboxer have the muffler firmly attached and
> moving directly with the engine. One sold assembly.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
> Of Neil N
> Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 3:54 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Exhaust Bushing Inner Weave Premature Failure
>
> No doubt. I can see that movement even after one tack onto two plates.
>
> I aligned and mounted the muffler-cat assembly first then built the join
> between downpipe and J pipe. On the muffler brackets I made, some of the
> holes were enlarged to allow adjustment. This certainly helped the recent
> repair done in the muffler shop in Florence.
>
> The challenging part in making the exhaust, was making accurate marks and
> keeping them aligned during fabrication. I would make marks, then remove
> cat and downpipe, tack the parts in basement, mount and check fit, repeat
> as needed. A real PITA. Welding parts in situ is best but not really
> feasible in my case.
>
> Part of what I attempted to do was use parts that might be found in the
> junk yard. (eg total downpipe-cat assembly). This was done to help others
> as my WAG is that these parts can be found in good shape and had for a good
> price. IIRC, I paid $50 for this near new part:
>
>
> https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q8RL7ZfES7A/Tt1_miL9h3I/AAAAAAAAFb4/SrFznBdv3wg/s1000/Jetta%25202002-2003%2520Downpipe%253Acat.jpg
>
> assembly before bushing install
>
>
> https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2tXy_bqA1SQ/UPYtUkEbT2I/AAAAAAAAGlY/2JwxaYgZm-8/s720/ABA%2520Downpipe%2520To%2520Cat.jpg
>
>
> https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xEuPuiwGAWY/UboIAjZB2cI/AAAAAAAAHuI/13iua_Y1m2s/s600/flex%2520pipe%2520install.jpg
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/7/14, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Welding something can induce stress and misalignment.  I was shown
> > this....pretty large movements were apparent as the welder worked.   On
> > something as long and obviously vulnerable to stress as the exhaust
> > systems on in lines seem to be, I'm guessing that it is common to
> > screw up the exhaust with careless welding and leave it with welded-in
> > stresses that lead to fairly quick cracking in a lot of cases.
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca
>
> '88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p
>
> '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"  http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej
>