I had been hearing some odd vibrations in the exhaust recently, and upon examination I found this:
Hmm… that’s not right.
I could probably order a replacement from Apexi, but that would be expensive, difficult to find, and I would have to wait for delivery. Besides, I never pass up an opportunity to practice welding.
The strap is made of stainless steel, which is mostly regular steel with some nickel mixed in. Ideally, it is welded with stainless steel welding wire, but I didn’t have any. Regular welding wire works fine, but you give up the benefits of the stainless part (it will rust). Oh well.
When welding anything you change the properties of the metal. Generally, this means that the area immediately around the weld becomes harder and more brittle. This is actually what caused the strap to break in the first place, as it broke right at a weld point, where an exhaust hanger was welded on the strap.
My repair may or may not last very long due to this same welded weakness, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
First I cleaned the area to be welded and give it a light sanding. Then I clamped it to my “welding table” (a cinder block) in the exact position I wanted it so I could tack weld it together. The first layup, before tack welding, is very critical. If it was off by even a little bit I would have to grind off the weld and start again. A block of wood put it pretty damn close.
After two small tack welds were added I could move the piece around to get better welding access.
I gave it my usual not-pretty-but-seems-to-hold welding.
And a bead on the inside where I couldn’t access it from the outside.
This inner weld would be in the way of the muffler, so it needed grinding. It’s generally not a good idea to grind welds as it takes away some of the strength, but in some cases it’s unavoidable.
A quick blast of BBQ paint would provide a little rust protection.
…then it was back to its intended purpose of holding up my muffler.
You might notice that it isn’t sitting exactly where it used to on the muffler. Its new location is where it naturally wants to be, so the fact that it wasn’t there before probably had something to do with it breaking.
Hmm… that’s not right.
I could probably order a replacement from Apexi, but that would be expensive, difficult to find, and I would have to wait for delivery. Besides, I never pass up an opportunity to practice welding.
The strap is made of stainless steel, which is mostly regular steel with some nickel mixed in. Ideally, it is welded with stainless steel welding wire, but I didn’t have any. Regular welding wire works fine, but you give up the benefits of the stainless part (it will rust). Oh well.
When welding anything you change the properties of the metal. Generally, this means that the area immediately around the weld becomes harder and more brittle. This is actually what caused the strap to break in the first place, as it broke right at a weld point, where an exhaust hanger was welded on the strap.
My repair may or may not last very long due to this same welded weakness, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
First I cleaned the area to be welded and give it a light sanding. Then I clamped it to my “welding table” (a cinder block) in the exact position I wanted it so I could tack weld it together. The first layup, before tack welding, is very critical. If it was off by even a little bit I would have to grind off the weld and start again. A block of wood put it pretty damn close.
After two small tack welds were added I could move the piece around to get better welding access.
I gave it my usual not-pretty-but-seems-to-hold welding.
And a bead on the inside where I couldn’t access it from the outside.
This inner weld would be in the way of the muffler, so it needed grinding. It’s generally not a good idea to grind welds as it takes away some of the strength, but in some cases it’s unavoidable.
A quick blast of BBQ paint would provide a little rust protection.
…then it was back to its intended purpose of holding up my muffler.
You might notice that it isn’t sitting exactly where it used to on the muffler. Its new location is where it naturally wants to be, so the fact that it wasn’t there before probably had something to do with it breaking.
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