Exhaust Fell Off...

[ramsesosirus]

Took my stock 76 280z out yesterday for the possible final ride of the year, added some stabil and gas.     aaaaaand it snowed today....

Anyways, as I was driving, I hit the accelerator pedal pretty hard, and then I heard clanking and it was loud, it was clearly dragging something.  Pulled over, and the whole exhaust had nearly fallen off the car, it was only being dragged under the car thanks the the rear hanger.

I took the hanger off, put the exhaust in my car, and limped home.  It was very loud.  I was lucky I had just tightened one of the hangers, or I'm pretty sure I would've ran over the exhaust and left it in the road... which would've been much worse lol!  Of course a cop was driving right next to me, but I was content knowing that my exhaust system was sitting next to me in the car, surely they would just warn me in that situation haha

What happened is the weld at the resonator broke.  So what I have on my garage floor is the resonator and the pipe inside the resonator (which is now separated, due to the weld breaking) and the pipe that goes to the muffler, with the muffler still welded to the pipe.

I can re-use the pipe/muffler section just fine.  BUT the resonator is obviously done for: Unless I can weld it back together?  Anyone have a pic of their stock resonator?  I can't figure out which side has the protruding pipe?  I could have it welded at work.

I can either try to find and install a replacement resonator, which I can't seem to find?   Or some use a section of pipe or flex pipe from the parts store and clamp it together.  I mostly just don't want to run it  as is with the gas tank being right there where the exhaust is currently exiting.... BOOOM!

Any advice here?  I don't want to ruin the sound stock Z's have by not installing a resonator.  I don't care if it's a little louder, this just my fun project type car.  I also don't want to spend much, really just looking to keep it going as is, I'm happy with it.  What about some sort of glasspack? They're not too expensive.

Would replacing the resonator with a pipe ruin the sound/performance?  

I also have presumably the entire winter to fix this, so I have time to consider the best options.

Thanks!   

Edited October 14, 2018 by ramsesosirus

[Zed Head]

People use "glass packs" all the time to replace the resonator.  If you replace it with pipe you'll probably get drone.  Glass packs are pretty cheap.

If you post a picture of the damage we could probably tell you how to put it back together.

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=MqfDW5KcAoSv0PEP96WAoAE&q=glass+pack+muffler&btnK=Google+Search&oq=glass+pack+muffler&gs_l=psy-ab.3.1.0l4j0i10l2j0l4.1477.8563..8751...3.0..0.116.1042.22j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i131j0i22i30j0i22i10i30.Mq2b0NCN5cY

[ramsesosirus]

1 minute ago, Zed Head said:

People use "glass packs" all the time to replace the resonator.  If you replace it with pipe you'll probably get drone.  Glass packs are pretty cheap.

If you post a picture of the damage we could probably tell you how to put it back together.

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=MqfDW5KcAoSv0PEP96WAoAE&q=glass+pack+muffler&btnK=Google+Search&oq=glass+pack+muffler&gs_l=psy-ab.3.1.0l4j0i10l2j0l4.1477.8563..8751...3.0..0.116.1042.22j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i131j0i22i30j0i22i10i30.Mq2b0NCN5cY

Thanks.  Yeah I just stumbled upon glass packs while doing research, they're definitely affordable (and not much more than it would cost to just use a pipe etc...).

I'll post some pics tomorrow morning, my apt. lost power due to the snow (heavy snow dropped a power line?) so I can't open my garage right now.  (I'm at the library).

I think retaining some sort of pre muffler/resonator is the best option, might even improve the sound a tad.

[ramsesosirus]

Here are some pics I got showing what broke, and what is left under the car.  

Also, a bonus picture of my new custom painted Michael Myers mask, to get everyone in the spirit!  (New movie comes out on Friday!)

 

[ramsesosirus]

Well just an update;

Went ahead and bought a Glass Pack from Jegs for under $20.  Had to use various exhaust fittings/clamps to get it in place (the hardware cost more than the glasspack....).

 

Only drove it once last fall after the glass pack, but it seemed fine, maybe a little bit of exhaust leak, but that could be from the broken manifold stud as well...

Once these potholes are fixed, the Z is ready for some cruising!   

Example of our road conditions this year (worst I've ever seen, just bent my DD S10 rim on Saturday on one.... the Z would get high centered in some of these no joke!)

They actually closed a mile stretch of road cuz it was so bad.  Some guy took this video as well

https://geekologie.com/2019/03/holy-smokes-omaha-nebraska-road-thats-mo.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geekologie%2FiShm+(Geekologie+-+Gadgets%2C+Gizmos%2C+and+Awesome)

 

[siteunseen]

Holy moly, that's as bad as I've seen.  I will never complain again about our roads. 

[ramsesosirus]

4 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Holy moly, that's as bad as I've seen.  I will never complain again about our roads. 

Lol.... I'm not kidding, these are atrocious!  I literally dodge and weave all over town... if you don't, prepare to pop tires and bend rims!!  (and the city will NOT pay to fix your car...)

Imagine a Z going over that road... not gonna happen.

We get bad potholes every year, but this year was real bad with the winter etc.

Supposedly our potholes are so bad because we have a high number of freeze/thaw days each year, something like 40 days.  But it would be nice if they could get to fixing some of these...  I literally caught some air the other day on a stretch of road that barely qualifies, and should be closed!

[wheee!]

Spring in Alberta is the same. Cops can tell the drunk drivers because they’re the ones driving straight. Sober people weave through the potholes....

[w3wilkes]

Here's one from a couple days ago in Salt Lake City

https://kslnewsradio.com/1903064/i15-pothole-john-gleason/

[siteunseen]

5 hours ago, wheee! said:

Spring in Alberta is the same. Cops can tell the drunk drivers because they’re the ones driving straight. Sober people weave through the potholes....

What about the "potheads"? 

They weave really slowly. 

And motorcycle riders? Woof!

[wheee!]

What about the "potheads"? 
They weave really slowly. 
And motorcycle riders? Woof!

They can’t afford cars and they have no jobs to go to, so not an issue...
Motorcyclists don’t dare appear on the roads till after April, unless it’s motocross!

[ramsesosirus]

On 3/28/2019 at 7:15 AM, wheee! said:

They can’t afford cars and they have no jobs to go to, so not an issue...
Motorcyclists don’t dare appear on the roads till after April, unless it’s motocross!

I've actually seen a few motorcyclists out and about in the past 2 weeks... must have a death wish!

Aaaand last Saturday a pothole finally got me.... ruined the tire AND bent the aluminum wheel on my DD S10... and the temp spare was flat... but it seemed fine until I lowered the weight on it...   so now I have 3 matching wheels, and 1 87 Monte SS wheel.  Oh well...