90 Exhaust Probs - thoughts please..

Rear box of my tdi 90's exhaust fell apart at the w/e. Bought a new section
today and prepared to remove the old...

Working from the back of the l/r I could see the rusted bolts through the
compressing rings holding the middle and rear sections together and thought
sod them; I'll just replace them. Thirty seconds with the angle grinder saw
them sorted and the old bit of exhaust on the ground. Then I discovered
they are studs, not bolts.

Now I've got a free floating circle of metal on the middle section of the
exhaust with the remains of two stud bolts very firmly jammed / welded /
whatever into it. For the time being I've wired the new rear section and
old mid-section together but that's not going to last more than a few days.
Why couldn't they just use bolts; I'm sure they were just bolts on my old
l/r...

Any suggestions for a remedial sort out? I suppose I should really remove
the mid-section, put it on a firm surface and drill out the studs... How
easy are they going to be to drill - any better method? I was wondering
about trapping the heads of two new bolts with a jubilee clip on the mid
section which would then let me tighten to the disc on the new rear section,
but I doubt this would be strong enough.

Does anyone have any advice. Worst case scenario would be to replace the
mid-pipe which will no doubt cost a further £70... (

TIA,

M.

McBad wrote:

> Rear box of my tdi 90's exhaust fell apart at the w/e. Bought a new section
> today and prepared to remove the old...
>
> Working from the back of the l/r I could see the rusted bolts through the
> compressing rings holding the middle and rear sections together and thought
> sod them; I'll just replace them. Thirty seconds with the angle grinder saw
> them sorted and the old bit of exhaust on the ground. Then I discovered
> they are studs, not bolts.
>
> Now I've got a free floating circle of metal on the middle section of the
> exhaust with the remains of two stud bolts very firmly jammed / welded /
> whatever into it. For the time being I've wired the new rear section and
> old mid-section together but that's not going to last more than a few days.
> Why couldn't they just use bolts; I'm sure they were just bolts on my old
> l/r...
>
> Any suggestions for a remedial sort out? I suppose I should really remove
> the mid-section, put it on a firm surface and drill out the studs... How
> easy are they going to be to drill - any better method? I was wondering
> about trapping the heads of two new bolts with a jubilee clip on the mid
> section which would then let me tighten to the disc on the new rear section,
> but I doubt this would be strong enough.

I think that you'll find that they were pressed-in headed studs. What
remains should knock out with (not so) gentle persuasion. If you have
the means to heat up the flange where the stud passes through it might
be easier. You could drill them out but as you have already realised
this will be a bit of a juggling act. Replace with bolts and nuts.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dougal" <DougalAThiskennel.free-online.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.landrover
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: 90 Exhaust Probs - thoughts please..


> McBad wrote:
>
> > Rear box of my tdi 90's exhaust fell apart at the w/e. Bought a new
section
> > today and prepared to remove the old...
> >
> > Working from the back of the l/r I could see the rusted bolts through
the
> > compressing rings holding the middle and rear sections together and
thought
> > sod them; I'll just replace them. Thirty seconds with the angle grinder
saw
> > them sorted and the old bit of exhaust on the ground. Then I discovered
> > they are studs, not bolts.
> >
> > Now I've got a free floating circle of metal on the middle section of
the
> > exhaust with the remains of two stud bolts very firmly jammed / welded /
> > whatever into it. For the time being I've wired the new rear section
and
> > old mid-section together but that's not going to last more than a few
days.
> > Why couldn't they just use bolts; I'm sure they were just bolts on my
old
> > l/r...
> >
> > Any suggestions for a remedial sort out? I suppose I should really
remove
> > the mid-section, put it on a firm surface and drill out the studs...
How
> > easy are they going to be to drill - any better method? I was wondering
> > about trapping the heads of two new bolts with a jubilee clip on the mid
> > section which would then let me tighten to the disc on the new rear
section,
> > but I doubt this would be strong enough.
>
> I think that you'll find that they were pressed-in headed studs. What
> remains should knock out with (not so) gentle persuasion. If you have
> the means to heat up the flange where the stud passes through it might
> be easier. You could drill them out but as you have already realised
> this will be a bit of a juggling act. Replace with bolts and nuts.

Thanks Dougal. You are right about them being pressed-in studs, but I
decided after some thought that I was not going to take off the middle
section of exhaust and then try and force the studs out. Too much potential
for things going wrong and I still couldn't guarantee getting the studs
out... No way to get the studs out with the exhaust in situ.

My solution has been to cut the old section of scrap exhaust that I was
removing so that I could recover the compressor ring off it. I then cut the
ring in two places so that I was left with a horse-shoe shaped piece with a
bolt hole at each end, the gap in the 'horse-shoe' just wide enough to slip
onto the exhaust pipe. I then got a piece of scrap steel and cut out
another horse shoe shape with drilled bolt holes, so I could slide them both
around the exhaust with the bolts joining the two horse-shoes to create a
complete circle. This was a pretty tedious exercise with the angle grinder
and a hack-saw. However, it seems to have worked and will hopefully hold
together until the middle section of the exhaust blows and has to be
replaced.

All the best,

M.