sidepipe mounting question

[CheeseSteakJim]

I have duals exiting right in front of my rear wheels that I made with 60* elbows, a hacked up stock H-pipe, and some Dynomaxes. I love the look of sidepipes on my Townie.

I've been wrestling with one bullshit problem since the car went on the road, though. I can't really figure out a really secure way of mounting all the shit up firmly in the undercarriage. Because of how I located the mufflers and mounted the pipes, the Dynomaxes give very little clearance, to the point that I have to take some speedbumps and some hills verrrrryyy slowly or I'll bottom out. I've already had one whole side fall off while I was driving the car, and since I remounted it, with a little stronger stuff, it's been okay.... but last night we got a shitload of snow and today we had freezing rain all day, and I went off the highway and into a tree. No real damage, but both of the hangers that I had holding the pipes up in the body got pulled out by the snowbanks.

My question here is: those of you with sidepipes on your cars, how did you firmly secure them? I have no access to a welder so while I'd ideally weld them in place, does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do? Mounting them to the frame might work... so I might drill and tap the rails if I have to.

[Pesty351]

Heres a pict of how i did mine.

[Enigma]

looks good. Although, I'd mount the u-bolts upside down or sideways. Negates the chance of the exhaust snagging on something and being pulled off. (been there, done that) Makes assembly abit more tedious, but worth it.

[CheeseSteakJim]

Did you mount that with just a single hanger where that tip begins? That's how I mounted mine but the fuckers keep falling out. What'd you mount the hanger to?

[Enigma]

are you saying the pipes pull apart, or the hangers fall off the body.??? Once you slip all the pipes together and put on the u-bolts, it should be one solid system. If the pipes pull apart, the u-bolts aren't tight enough. I crank mine down until the pipe starts deforming. Also, make sure you have about 1-1/2" of slip fit and the u-bolt is right in the middle of the joint. I had a quick cobble together exhaust once where one of the joints was only about 3/4" slip fit, and that one came apart a few times.

[CheeseSteakJim]

The hangers fall out of the body, then the passenger side muffler and sidepipe fall out. The first time I installed it I admit I didn't really tighten the U-clamp as much as I should've, so that I could disassemble it easier later on when it came time to upgrade. After the first time it fell out I put the pipe inside the muffler as far as it'd go (probably about 1-1/2" like you said) and then cranked down the clamp really tightly. It hasn't fallen out so far but after today's 'accident' both hangers have once again come out of the body and I can wiggle the right muffler on the H-pipe by putting a small amount of pressure on the sidepipe. If it falls out and I run over the tip and flatten it again I'm not going to be a happy camper. I really should've gotten underneath it tonight to check the situation out but I've been soaking wet with freezing rain since helping tow truck guy pull my car out of the woods this morning... really had to get into warmth so I could feel my toes again.

The woman's expecting me to spend all of tomorrow (ugh) after work with her, but I guess hopefully tomorrow I can order a nice big tap and a good cobalt drill bit through my job and start thinking about mounting this to my frame once and for all. Then I can crank down on those U-clamps even more just for added insurance.

I'm just interested to see if someone's figured out a better way than I did because I didn't really see many options available the last few times I've been underneath the car, and the way I ended up doing it seems pretty shoddy to me.

[mrltd]

That's why the stock exhaust tucks up in the body.... So it doesn't get dragged on the ground.....

Get some wagon cargo coils and have a huge rake...should help the ground clearance.

[CheeseSteakJim]

Oh, I'm not worried about ground clearance. It's not so bad as to be a nuisance, I just have to go slower after select few extra steep speed bumps. It hasn't happened (besides today, but that's because I smashed through 150ft of 3-4 inches of snow) since I replaced my badly-sagging rear coils with brand new variable-rates. After I replace my also-badly-sagging front coils I should be more or less all set.

[Archangel]

Jim, in the front faces of the brackets welded to the frame where the lower control arms attach to there are two holes (well, one per bracket), I used those to bolt the hangers for my sidepipes - sliding the nut inside the bracket can be a bit tricky, so you may wanna actually put the bolt from the inside out, but tis doable either way. Bolt the hangers like that, then make sure your pipe connections are clamped tight, I even double-clamped mine - once I reefed on both clamps there was no way in hell the pipes will split! I actually still have to double-clamp my current exhaust in the truck...

[Enigma]

Yea, there really is no disasembly of exhaust for later upgrades when you use clamps. Discovered that eons ago. Just crank em down the first time.
I was lucky enough to re-use the stock hanger on the right, and tapped where they should have been on the left, and made a custom frame tap for the rear left, that seems to be holding up pretty good. If you do go into sheetmetal with weight like that, you need to through bolt it, and use a couple of big fender washers on either side. Then it won't come out.

[CheeseSteakJim]

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some time to throw it up on one of the lifts at school and see what I can figure out. Will post with updates. Thanks so far, guys!

[Archangel]

I'd still not attach the exhaust to the sheetmetal, with one exception - the way I have my exhaust now (in the Townie that is) the H-pipe is bolted to the manifolds at the front, the glasspacks run alongside the tranny, then there are two hangers (one per side right) behind the glasspacks that are attached to the inboard bolts the hold the front of the front seats to the floor pans - tis still a long bolt with a nut on the under side, so hangers ain't going nowhere. Behind that point I have only like 3ft or so of H-pipe, but since my exhaust is all welded that don't need no supports at all.