1965 Dodge Dart Charger
While finally been able to work on the exhaust system I found out that the muffler has a cut out from the oval format they were made in. Does anyone know if this is for keeping space towards the left rear frame or towards the prop.shaft? I'm not sure which wayit should be bolted!:banghead:
I also wonder about the nuts on the U-bolt clamps should be pointing up or down?
Thanks FABO for all the help.
ahhh now I see, they originally were supposed to have that cutout to keep heat away from the brake lines. I have seen them both ways from the factory and was once told by the manager of the dealership that they went cutout =out towards frame.
the majority of cars we saw had them facing in towards the drive shaft though and we were told to change the cutout side if they hit the brake lines (or were closer than 1 inch) when we shook the pipes to check for tightness. I hated winter time, it sucked doing this since all the road muck would fall in your face when you shook the pipes.
B- bodies also had the cutout but only for 4 doors for some reason and they went IN. I know that most 67 cars did not have any cutouts on the muffler but big block Chargers had a piece of L shaped metal on the same corner that the brake line bend was.
I did exhaust (lots and lots of them),shocks, short block builds and transmission R&R only (another guy rebuilt the transmissions) I was too slow rebuilding the transmissions so I was just "grunt the mule" for the trans guys putting them back in.
If I got 5 exhaust jobs done in a day I would get an extra 5 bucks in my check for every day I did that.
as for the paint daubs
the paint markings were something the dealer would do. that's to make sure we tightened up all the nuts and sealed the system. That was every car that came in,you would be shocked on how many cars had just 1 nut tightened on the exhaust. now it's called dealer prep or some such thing. we caught hell if we missed anything.
I saw the factory (jefferson assembly) putting the exhaust from the Y pipe at the engine to the muffler if it was in front of the axle in while it was in one piece. it was upside down in a jig and then the over the axle pipe was installed and hung. took 2 people to do that. 1 holding and one bolting it up then swapping places so they didn't do the same thing each time. (still looked sucky to do):D
that sure brings up some pretty good memories. I had lots of fun until they changed owners. Then it was money ,money, cut costs, do more and nope I'm not paying you more for doing it. I left after that.