You know what I've been thinking, before that last post (quoted above). I've been thinking, leave the cat. And it looks like the heat shield is eaten away to a significant extent, but apparently not significant enough yet that I've noticed any looseness or rattling noises, so I'll probably just forget about that until I do. And been thinking I'd look around and find a better deal on the parts, although figuring I probably won't because $hipping bulky items is almost always an i$$ue. But I do have time to check that all out. That's about what I've been thinking.

 

Update: Found a decent deal on the parts. Amazon happened to have both the muffler assembly for $64.16 and the "long" or "resonator" pipe for $77.46. Total $141.62. With free shipping, believe it or not. Got it ordered and on the way.

And I'll get my two new gaskets for the repair project at good ol' Car Quest (part numbers 9080 and 9024). Best deal there for those, even beats Amazon.

 

Glad to hear you are getting the parts on the way, I would use PB Blaster instead of WD-40 on the nuts and bolts,,that stuff makes wd look like water, good luck.

 

I can't seem to figure out how to get the top nut loose on the mid-pipe flange to the cat. The flange is triangle shaped with the three nuts, two on the bottom side and the one at the top. Can get a 14 mm socket or box-end wrench on the nut but no way that I can see to get clearance/leverage to even begin turning the wrench. any suggestions welcome/appreciated about that.

 

I seem to remember using a swivel or wobble extension to gain access.

good luck

 

I'll see if I can come up with one or the other then. See if I can manage that way. thanks Tex

 

Yea, on my 95 I had to use a swivel nd a few extenions to get back and to the side far enough. Or if you want to go all in, use a sawall and cut the pipe a inch or so back from the flange

 

Yeah I ended up fighting with it quite a while with a wobble/swivel and extension. I'd applied PB Blaster to the nuts/bolts (all three of them) and let it sit for half a day, then PB Blasted again and let them sit/soak. Still not one of the nuts still would begin to budge for me, even using box-end wrench on the bottom two nuts, and all the extra leverage I could muster under there. Even applied heat with a torch, PB Blasted again, and tried wrenching again. No budge, still. Finally all my reefing ended up just breaking the badly rusted mid-pipe off about 5-6 inches from the flange. Went ahead and removed that pipe along with the muffler (just lifted off the hangers). So catalytic converter is just hanging there loose on that end now (well I at least wired it up temporarily), with the broken pipe section/flange still rusted tight to it. I'll need to get it off somehow without ruining the cat studs so I can install the new pipe/flange to it.

 

Somewhere I think I stated that getting those nuts on my 95 was two hours of fun.

Jack one side of the car as high as you can get get as much room as possible to the nut on that side and maybe the top. A good six point socket and that....see if you can get the ratchet in a place where a piece of pipe will slip over it and see if that will give you enough to break it loose.

Got a few more ideas but we can start with these.

 

My "problem" now seems to be that I cannot figure a way to hold the cat firmly/solid enough to be trying to apply so much force/leverage to turn the nut(s). Because as I mentioned it's just basically hanging, unsecured on that end. And in my previous post this thread (post #38, sheesh!) I called the cat bolts "studs" when in fact that's not what they are, are they? Or are they actually just bolts, with the nuts?