Separating centre of muffler on 190E 2.6 - advice please
 

I have done replacement on one of these before and it was a bit of nightmare!! The problem was freeing the twin joint in the centre section... It was easy enough to undo the clamps between the front section and the centre section; the difficult bit was undoing the joint where the male part of the front section enters the female pipe of the centre section. I spent about an hour chiselling away the solder ring... is there any way of separating this soldered joint easily? Thanks for your help and advice!:)

As I recall there are two pipes. One has a doughnut clamped between two bellshaped pipes. That one is just a matter of unbolting. The other one has the pipe 3-4 inches up inside the other with an asbestos seal around the small pipe clamped to the bell of the other.

I take my torch and cut all the bolts, wrench takes too much time. I then cut the slip pipe side about four inches after the union and the old stuff is carried away. I then take my impact chisel and cut into the remaining 8inch section with a sharp chisel while directing the cut to the rear. This usually just pulls the piece right out. Without the weight of the mufler binding the slip joint it usually pops right out. For those that don't come right out, I chisel till it starts cutting in a couple places and then get a dull chisel and continue hammering side to side.

If that doesn't get it, I get my torch back out and cut a slit up the inside of the pipe paying particular attention NOT to cut the outside pipe.

Getting old sometimes slows ya down but experience often replaces muscles. I can do an exhaust now in probably half the time I could 30 years ago. Probably took me a few years to get good enoughwith a torch to slit the inner pipe without burning the outer one :)

Thanks Steve... this is the second helpful reply you have given to one of my posts. I have a problem on my 2.6 with exhaust boom and I think it is completely shot... one of the seams on the back box has rusted through and despite paste still makes a huge noise if the accelerator is pressed. I am going to replace the two sections with one made by Ernst, which I think is OE.

You are right about the layout. I don't have a torch though.. will have to use a power saw of some description to get the old centre section off!!!! The doughnut joint if I remember correctly is the easy one to shift!

Thanks again and wish me luck!