A note about the joint up stream of the CAT. There is 5 special washers,
that act as springs, and one special washer made of what looks to be
cast iron, on each bolt. With out these the joint will not make a
good seal.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, John-Reed Maffeo wrote:

> FWIW,
>
> I replaced the muffler and muffler brackets on my Syncro this past
> weekend. It was a pretty easy job once I had all of the parts I
> needed to complete it.
>
> I started off by ordering a new muffler and gaskets, It was not
> until I had removed the muffler that I noticed that the brackets
> were both broken:(
>
> The local VW dealer took my order on Monday and I picked them up
> on Wednesday (US$53 each:( ) just in time to start work on
> Thanksgiving Day.
>
> Reinstallation was pretty straight forward. There is an interesting
> connector upstream from the cat that makes adjusting the plumbing
> easier. It is similar to a universal joint in that it allows the
> exhaust pipe to be rotated around for adjustment.
>
> I mounted the brackets looseley, then I set the muffler up on them.
> I moved the muffler back and forth a few times while playing with
> the adjustable plumbing bit and found what I thought was a good
> alignment.
>
> I tightened the straps that hold the muffler to the brackets and
> then tightened the brackets. In the process of doing this my good
> alignment got less good so I loosened things up and fiddled around
> a bit.
>
> After several iterations of tightening and loosening I acheived what
> I think was a very good alignment. I tightened up all of the nuts and
> then double checked them all. My test drive indicated success and the
> next day I went on a 200 mile trip and all was well.
>
> John-Reed Maffeo '86 Syncro - Glacie
> Mesa, AZ
>