capt_furious Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 I didn't really have this issue 'til I tore the exhaust loose on a friends super steep driveway last month. Now I can't get the thing to stay on. It's a slip-fit system, the ends of the pipes are tapered to slip inside each other and are held together with an exhaust clamp. One large clamp in the middle at the crossover / collector keeps coming loose and letting the exhaust rattle and sag, and it came completely off while dragging on a speed bump last week. My car is too low and I really need to ditch the unknown lowering springs that dropped it much too far(that, and I really need to stay away from killer speed bumps), but springs are far more expensive at the moment than finding a way to keep the %@&$! exhaust from coming loose. Would another clamp at a 90 degree angle in the same spot help? I'm hoping the distortion in the pipes will work against each other to lock it up tighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau M Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Run a screw or a rivet in where the pipes overlap? Back in my youth I had a simmilar problem on an 81' Fairmont. I put a clamp on each side of the joint, then used some bailing wire and pulled the clamps together. It was ghetto, but held and was cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_furious Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 Interesting fix. It would require another clamp same as my solution, but that's not a bad idea. I'm just this side of giving up and having a exhaust shop rebuild the whole system from the header back with an x-pipe and new pipes, bolt flanges, glasspacks and tips and tuck the whole thing up closer to the car so I won't have to deal with this again. It's driving me mad. 'course, that would kill my savings that I've been working at for the past few months and put me deeper into debt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Properly support the pipes off the back of the transmission with a strap and hanger from the supplied tailshaft housing 'ears' and you will never have this issue again. It is my most outstanding complaint about the MSA systems: they do not utilize all the stock Nissan Hanger locations. They went and redesigned the damn 2.5" mandrel bent system to use three bolt flanges when they had a perfectly good (and tweakable) slip-fit system. I don't know how many of those I installed, and NEVER had a problem after I hung the center of the piping from the trans tailshaft like Nissan did on the stock systems. Those Engineers at Nissan knew their stuff. Weld a bracket between your twice pipes, and run your hangar to the tailshaft from there. Put the system up using a jack so you have it where you want it, then tighen all your clamps---THEN install that strap and hangar onto the tailshaft. That should solve it permanently. I tend to put the clamps on in a "U" configuration as well: nuts up. That way when something drags or hits them, they don't booger the threads, or have anything substantial to snag on and pull the system apart. Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_furious Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 Woohoo! Thanks, Tony! I've got a hanger and clamp ready go, I just need to crawl under there with a proper size bolt and lock nut for the trans ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.