“I sold muffler parts over the phone when I was a teenager.”
Maura Tierney
On the way to my dentist the last time I heard some scraping, followed by a clunk and a very loud engine. I looked immediately in my rearview and watched my muffler bounce down the highway and into the ditch I was running a little late, so I decided to pick it up on the way back.
The dentist is right across the street from the Police station, so I approached them from uphill and coasted past two blocks and walked up the hill, to avoid any entanglements. My old van was Sherman tank loud. I managed to get a tooth fixed and sneak home before getting a ticket. I did slow for every oncoming white vehicle.
Two days ago I snuck back into the local town taking side streets and back roads, I need a few groceries and managed to get a muffler and parts for the job. Again I sneaked home got my old van back in the garage.
Today the temp was warmer and it was time to get the new muffler on. When I say muffler I mean a Thrush glass pack, which is really not more than a steel tube powder coated red with a smattering of fiberglass inside. My friend at the auto parts store tried to tell me it was going to be quiet I chuckled about that. I grew up in the muscle car era. I had many a v8 with dual glass packs. I knew what I was in for. The fiberglass would wear out and the muffler would get louder over time from the heat.
So I laid out the parts and the muffler, used a floor jack to lift Gracie high enough to slide in two ramps and I left the jack under the rear end as a safety. I got to use my new Ryobi light. It was awesome. I can run it on battery or with a power plug. I used both.
There was a rusted-out old ubolt on the exhaust pipe. I knew the only way that was coming off was grinding. I needed the generator running. After gassing it up, and pulling the starter rope the old gennie fired up.
Back down to the job, I grabbed the grinder which already had a cutting wheel on and cut off the ubolt. There was a lot of rust from the bolt. So I got under there and ground that off. That took an hour, for a man with a broken neck and back it felt like six. Did I mention arthritis and fracture in my elbow?
Next came the muffler it was still a tight fit due to the leftover rust, I had ground off as much as I could in the cramped quarters under the van. I had to use a big crescent wrench to hammer it the rest of the way. I clamped one end on.
Onto the back of the muffler, I was excited to see there was already a hanger there. All I had to do was to adapt the universal bracket, that my friend Eddie suggested I buy. Thanks, Eddie.
After a few bends using my vice and a little foraging around I found a bolt and a couple of fender washers. I had it all tightened down. The only thing I didn’t do was to fire it up to hear how it sounded. I could wait, I didn’t want to fill my shop with carbon monoxide. I was just happy the job was done. It’s not perfect but it should hold. Thank God for the help today. I could not have accomplished it without.
before
3 hours later grinding hammering and a little swearing and even a prayer or two.
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