The muffler shop sounds like a good idea, I'm located on Long Island if anyone knows of a shop. And to answer some of the questions, my uncle has some welding equipment, I'm not exactly sure what, but I would have access to that, the crack is totally around the circumference straight through, it's in two pieces. I'm not really sure why it cracked, my guess is just from rust and age, it broke right on where a support bracket is.