[TR] TR4 Exhaust

[Brian Jones]

At last, my silencer is silenced!

Thanks to Bob, Geo, Jim & Jeff. I learned that my gearbox-bracket is  
in place on the car. How I'd not noticed it in doing prop-shaft u- 
joints, I don't know. But it's not helpful to my downpipe because,  
inexplicably, my pipe crosses under the gearbox to the left side of  
the car, a good 5 or 6 inches from the bracket. As provided by TRF,  
17 years ago, my PO told me......I think things have improved since.

I ended up recruiting a local custom exhaust guy to help with a  
couple of brackets. Afterwards, I was half-happy on the way home. The  
drumming of the exhaust had stopped, but I still had a clunking over  
rough road that bothered me. Bothered me a lot, actually.

Under the car, I could see that Alex of Alex's Exhausts had done all  
possible to secure this plumbing. The remaining 'clunk' was not this.  
I remembered a post in the archives about moderately tight suspension  
fittings causing a surprising amount of noise. So off with the rear  
wheels, and I set about my task. Last year I had removed the rear  
dampers to clean them out and refill with fresh oil: what came out as  
pretty ugly, but they still worked. So now, I find myself hoping for  
a loose bolt. None were loose, but the bolts holding the dampers, and  
the u-bolts holding the axle to the springs, got a real waft on a  
long spanner........making fairly tight bolts much tighter.

And guess what? Bingo. This feels like a different car. No more  
drumming. No more clunking. Oh boy, this is even more fun now!.

Best to everyone.

For some reason, best known to my better-half, I'm driving us  
tomorrow from Valley Forge, PA to Manassas, VA to see friends, and  
then have the joy of the greatest road congestion day of the year  
from VA back to Valley Forge on Sunday. I-95 anyone? There is a joke  
in there, with Man and Ass, but it won't help me here to find it.

Pip, pip,

Brian