Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 10:10:31 -0500
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Subject: Re: Was: Exhausted, but quite...finally! Now Dremel!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Alan and Listees. I,too have a stash of the cut off wheels but haven't used
a one since I discovered a dremel accessory called a carbide router bit.
Retails for about $8 and I'm sure alan went through abot that many
dollars-worth of cut off wheels. a straight 1/8" shaft with the cutting
flutes similar to a drill but with a blunt end. This tool has lasted
through my last 2 Dremel tools and is still as sharp as the day I bought it.
Larger Wal marts used to stock it, but I found mine at a model train hobby
shop.
I have cut multi layer kevlar/glass/carbon laminates with it, stainless
steel, rusty bolts, plastic, you name it. Since you don't have the diameter
of the cut off wheel to deal with, this cutter gets into very tight places
also. This won't help Alan, but maybe the next guy or gal.
Dimwitted Moose and Flying Squirrel
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Bosch <arbosch@RA.ROCKWELL.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, June 04, 2001 9:29 AM
Subject: Exhausted, but quite...finally!
>Volks,
>Took the weekend to replace my exhaust system on Phred. What a PITA!!!
>
>The muffler has been going bad for some time now. Last Tuesday, the J-pipe
>separated from the Y-pipe -- the result of rusted-through bolts. Phred
>sounded like a Harley on steroids, but wouldn't run worth a darn.
>
>Ordered a muffler from BusDepot last October, and all the fittings and
>gaskets for Vanagain this past week. All arrived in a timely manner
>(thanks, Ken!). Spent Sat. morning running from FLAPS to mega-home-center,
>pillar to post, tracking down the correct stainless steel bolts, nuts,
>washers, and springs necessary to get the system assembled. Mostly to no
>avail, as no place had ALL the hardware I thought would be needed. And the
>clock was ticking...
>
>I drove Phred up on my ramps around one in the afternoon and walked
>underneath. Horrified, I could not see one good nut or bolt on the entire
>system. Jumped in to the wife's car, off to the local Mega Home Center to
>pick up a Dermal tool and sixty cutting wheels. More time lost...
>
>Starting about 2:30, I proceeded to cut the bolts holding the Y-fitting to
>the headers, the J-pipe to the Cat, and the support brackets for the
>muffler. With the muffler and cat down, I was able to unbolt the remaining
>portion of the support brackets. However, separating the j-pipe from the
>cat turned in to a real chore as the two were welded together with rust.
>At eight o'clock, frustrated, I packed it in for the night.
>
>Sunday morning dawned rainy and dark. Not the ideal working-on-the-bus
>weather. The first thing I did was get the Y-fitting off the headers.
>This required a copious amount of elbow grease, and a few strategic blows
>from a mallet. Once separated, I then had to take the y-fitting in side to
>the work bench in order to get the rusted bolts out. Putting the flange of
>the y-fitting on the side of a vice, I had to tap way on the bolts using a
>punch and a mallet. Next came separating the cat from the old muffler. I
>couldn't get the Dermal cutting wheel in the correct position to cut thru
>the bolts. So I had to cut the muffler flange ninety degrees to each bolt,
>being careful not to hack into the cat flange. A chisel and mallet were
>used to bust out the bolts once the flange was cut away.
>
>A word about the Dermal tool. If you have on, you know these little
>buggers are great tools. But you also know that they eat up cutting wheels
>for lunch. If you don't have one, Home Depot has a 51-piece kit, with the
>flexible extension, for something like $79. Worth every penny. But make
>sure you pick up extra cutting wheels -- and the small wire wheel, that
>does not come with the kit.
>
>After separating the cat and old muffler, the next step was to clean up the
>mating surfaces on the parts being reused. The exhaust system on Phred
>appears to have been something other than original. There was exhaust goop
>liberally applied to ALL mating surfaces, probably from a failed attempt at
>sealing the system rather than replacing the leaking parts. Again, the
>Dermal tool, with the wire wheel, turned out to be a great advantage.
>However, in retrospect, a bench grinder or drill with a courser wire wheel
>would have made this an even easier task.
>
>Finally, at around four o'clock Sunday, I could install the new parts.
>First came the new muffler brackets, then the new muffler. If someone has
>an easier way to install the muffler, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe,
>again in retrospect, the muffler needs to be bolted strapped to the
>brackets, then installed, because the way I went about it, it sure wasn't
>easy. However, once bolted up in place, attaching the cat, J-pipe,
>Y-fitting, and tail pipe were cake.
>
>I'm certain a more experienced Vanagon owner would have made much shorter
>work of this whole procedure. Indeed, if I were not bent on cutting
>expenses I would not have used any existing parts over again, thus saving a
>great deal of time and labor cutting everything off. I should have bit the
>bullet and just purchased new everything -- y-fitting, j-pipe, cat, O2
>sensor, muffler, brackets, straps, and tailpipe. It was not an
>insurmountable task, and I feel great having tackled it.
>
>Note to list vendors, if you're reading this: You may want to offer, for
>sale, the following... (1) a stainless steel mounting hardware kit; (2) a
>complete gasket kit (vs. picking and choosing from a list of available
>gaskets).
>
>Oh, one last thing... If there's a list member in Rochester that had a
>Grey-ish van at the Meineke shop on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road on
>Saturday, p-mail me. The guy doing your exhaust, when I spoke to him, was
>talking about "...making it work with whatever parts (he had) from
>stock..." Nice bus, BTW...
>
>Exhausted....
>
>Alan Bosch
>& Phred ('88 Wolfsburg)
>...shhhh
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