When Ariel called me on her cellphone yesterday afternoon to inform me that, “Ringo is really loud, Dad,” I cringed with the dread of an exhausting (yes, pun completely intended) job for that evening. I assumed the loudness was being caused by an exhaust leak given that Ringo was still running fine. After dinner, I pulled him into the garage and jacked up the left rear. After securely supporting body, I slid under and discovered that the driver’s side exhaust flange had broken. Great, I thought. Removing these nuts is going to be a nightmare as usual. I’ve got at least three exhaust manifolds on shelves with busted studs because the nuts had seized. To my amazement and joy, the four nuts came right off without any effort whatsoever. I would bet the previous owner sprung for the stainless steel fasteners at some point. With that hurdle crossed, I climbed up on a stool and pulled down a spare exhaust assembly (so nice to have usable parts on-hand). After coming up with two usable exhaust gaskets, the reassembly went easily. With everything snugged down, I started up the engine and slid back underneath to listen and feel for leaks at the joints. All the exhaust sound was coming from the tailpipe - the joints were good. Off the jackstand, all four wheels on the ground, and the swap was finished in about an hour. A new record for an exhaust job for me.
Since it's important that those joints stay sealed to prevent any CO from entering the salon, I got on the phone this morning to Jeff at the Corvair Ranch and ordered new gaskets as well as a muffler support strap since I'd noticed the current strap wasn't going to last much longer.
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