[OpelWagenGT]

About a week ago I decided I should get a muffler for my car that doesn't have holes in it and isn't 20+ years old. So I took a trip to the local pull apart to see if I could find myself a little rice muffler or something just until I could afford to re-do my entire system. After removing two or three mufflers and finding them to be better off as maracas I found a complete exhaust line laying on the ground. The muffler looked pretty fresh as it didn't have any rust and didn't appear to be stainless. After 10 minutes of straining and swearing I had it cut off with the old hack saw I had brought with me.

Jump forward a couple of days, I decided to bite into installing my mystery muffler on my car. I went about cutting the exhaust behind the muffler with a “saws-all” and then remove the axle over tube. I then cut the front off and removed the muffler from it’s mounts. About this time something peculiar happened, the very long pipe running to the front of the car proceeded to tilt and the end of the pipe was now touching the ground. Interesting in how this could happened I soon learned that there were no other hangers except the ones at the back of the car. Also I had know that there was a leak in the exhaust line right after the headers but now it was a tear. By tear I mean that about 3/4th of the way around the welds/metal had torn. Now incredibly disappointed with the state of things I proceeded to put in a straight pipe where the muffler was and strap the whole system up tight.

Soon after I took my car to the shop to see what he could do about my headers and I decided to try and buy a muffler while I was at it. He was busy that day so told me to leave the car and my number and he would take a look to diagnose the situation. Three hours went buy as I waited and prepared myself for the worst, when I finally received the call. The good news was that he could in fact help me fix my exhaust system. The bad news on the other hand was that I need to buy new headers, because it turned out that they broke at the collector.

As soon as I got home I started researching headers for my car and found the one company in the United States that still makes them. I had recently put away $250.00 for coil-overs for my car but, just as it always happened I pulled the money to buy the new headers.

Jump forward now to today (Jan. 6), I decided in the mean time while I wait for my part to arrive that I would put my muffler that I still had on and try to give the headers on my car a temporary fix. The procedure went well with some speed bumps just like any at home car project but in the end I thought that I would be ok until my new headers came. Along with patching up my header crack with header wrap, gorilla tape, hockey tape, and aluminum tape I also had a car that was much quieter. I had been driving straight piped for a couple of days, which was cool until you needed to drive at night.

My friends came over and we decided to go visit our friends working at the mall. I volunteered to drive as I wanted to hear what the car sounded like under load. We get to the mall and circle around the parking lot to get to our usually parking place. As we pull up to one of the stop signs we all hear a grinding sound. Immediately we all knew that my exhaust had come off at the headers and I pulled over into one of the lots. Sure enough we got out and the manifold end of the pipe was laying on the ground. Fortunately for myself the pipe was curved up at the end and we were also going under five miles and hour when it came off. I knew that I had to get home somehow and I only lived about 2 or 3 miles from the mall. I scrounged through my junk and was delighted to find and old towel in the back. So with my small broken pocket knife with a 1 inch blade we cut the towel into strips and used it to tie up my exhaust pipe. During the whole charade all of the passers by were able to watch us put together one of the most sketchy exhaust hangers systems together. Although we received many odd looks no one felt the need to offer help or ask what happened.

To finish up what should have been a much shorter story, I am waiting now. I am waiting for my headers to come in the mail and to get paid again so I can buy a real muffler. I walk away from this situation learning many things but I think the most important is that there are many things that you have to experience once in your life. Even if one of those things is having your exhaust fall off in a public parking lot and scrape on the ground as a Japanese family wonders what is wrong with the strange white kids car.

[h2theizzo]

lol

[lynchfourtwenty]

on my way to canby 07 my muffler fell off.. was on the freeway an the pipe broke right where the cab an bed meet, all the sudden the engine got really loud an i didnt even hear the muffler scraping until i slowed down lol, un bolted what was left hangin drove the rest of the way to canby

[ggzilla]

For a minute there I though you were gonna say stuffed the towel in the pipe....

The Datsun 1200 muffler is mounted with two rubber donut rings at the muffler, and a rubber hanger at the tailpipe. When fitting a newer muffler, make sure they put a strap around it and hang it off the donuts.

Finding an original size muffler is nearly impossible, they don't make one that small anymore (12x3.5 oval), all the small engines now have huge mufflers (even from the factory). I finally found a used one out of california, it is much quiter than a turbo muffler. You can get a new turbo muffler that small with 1.75 pipes.

[OpelWagenGT]

ggzilla, on 07 January 2010 - 11:23 PM, said:

For a minute there I though you were gonna say stuffed the towel in the pipe....

The Datsun 1200 muffler is mounted with two rubber donut rings at the muffler, and a rubber hanger at the tailpipe. When fitting a newer muffler, make sure they put a strap around it and hang it off the donuts.

Finding an original size muffler is nearly impossible, they don't make one that small anymore (12x3.5 oval), all the small engines now have huge mufflers (even from the factory). I finally found a used one out of california, it is much quiter than a turbo muffler. You can get a new turbo muffler that small with 1.75 pipes.

I'm going to have to do some searching for something because the previous owner of my car outfitted it with a 2inch exhaust system, and I would like to keep it.

[ggzilla]

A similar story: Back around 1989 one day I decided to take my 1200 sedan "four wheelin". Went out on the logging roads and stuff and had a great day going through ruts and mudholes and the like. On the way back home, after about 10 miles of highway, I heard a sudden very loud exhaust. I looked around for the culprit, but there was only my car. Turned out the exhaust pipe just broke clean in two halfway between the mainfold and the muffler. Almost as if cut with a hacksaw. Needles to say I soon got it fixed, but not before driving that way for coupla days just to hear the music of a Datsun engine "unplugged".

That was on a brand new 1.75 exhaust system, just about a week old. I figure they mounted the muffler a bit off, and had to twist it to get the donuts on, so the system was under some torsion that caused it to fail? Anyways the muffler shop fixed it for free. Good shop that was.

[DTP]

ggzilla, on 09 January 2010 - 12:00 AM, said:

Good shop that was.

Sorry ggzilla , couldn't help myself !

[Pumpkn210]

The goon has a muffler at the very end of the system. I mean it is sticking out as far as the bumper. Funny thing to me is that it is way louder when the choke is on

[moparvwfreak]

i had exhaust come off on me before. my 72 Plymouth Valiant. the sound of an uncorked V8 is so sexy, but pricks cops ears REALLY quick. my car was quiet witht he factory exhaust. i was heading into a grocery store and the bump caused the muffler to come off. as soon as it did a cop hit the lights and started bitchin me out for driving without exhaust for WEEKS. which was untrue. luckily i told him i would have it fixed the next morning and i got out of a ticket.

[kamakazi620]

I was driving the old scooby van when the engine started to sound real nice,anyway i heard a skrapin' and a tink tink tink them BAM!!! the muffler came undone and it and tailpipe were jumpin around then the rear tire caught it ripped it off the hanger and flatend it....i kept cruzin' at 55 and didn;t replace it for 2 years 250 sixer+straight pipe sounds like big block (at least thats what everyone thought i had hahahah)

[OpelWagenGT]

nice stories. I don't think I could have gotten away with running straight much longer than i did. If I learned anything it is that an A12 with a side draft carb, headers, and a test pipe sounds awesome under load but is loud as shit!