Date:         Sat, 4 Jun 94 06:13:56 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         steve@molly.tn.cornell.edu (S.Smith)
Subject:      exhaust trick


I pass along a cute trick regarding exhaust systems -  first, the obligatory
whining about something.

Poor Richards (Idiot book for H2O VWs) says "the sensible person takes 
their car to Midas" when exhaust work is required. I disagree - the
guarantees are rigged against you in general (although they are banking
on you dumping the car after a short time, thus restarting their
waarranty 'cycle')

Btw - i presume that the chains dont carry anything along the lines of
Vanagon exhaust for you gas burners ????

The worst part of the chain experience is that if you hold their mufflers
and pipes up to the sun you can see through them - so you'll be back in
short order. Maybe you'll save some $ but the hassle ......

Anyway - enough bellyaching - somewhere in my literary travels i have read
a cute trick about using permatex gasket sealer on exhaust slip joints -
i put it on the short pipe on my Quantum about three years ago - right 
behind the cat - yesterday i was faced with replacing this pipe again.
chisel the nuts off, break the clamp off - now the usual problem - the 
piece of pipe is stuck in the slip joint - you have nothing to grab onto -
and worse, you are under the car unless you take your whole exhaust apart - 
risking damage to the rest of course.
The idea of the trick is that when heated up the permatex hardens and seals
well - but prevents the metals from 'fusing' together (no flames about
Pons and Fleischmann please) - when you want to separate them you just bang
on the slip joint with your hammer, shattering the hardened sealer.

Yesterday, i banged on the three year old joint and then pulled the two
innch piece of broken pipe out with my hand - thinking about the times i 
have spent trying yo dig out the last bit of pipe made me appreciate
this fully.

Update on the vanagon diesel exhaust saga - i have the header pipe off -
the tool that made this job nicer was a nut splitter - i couldnt get it
to completely cut off the nuts but it put a real nice step into the nut
so that i could knock them off with a chisel without slippage. Btw - if
i know i amgoing to use my chisels i sneak them over to the machine shop
and have the real pros sharpen them up - i can do it myself after hours
but i like to watch them work (does that qualify me for a govt job????)

bye for now ...