Busted Muffler Hanger again... need suggestions

[Redsnake]

OK... so I had my wife drive my XJ to the grocery store the other day so I could do some maintanence on her Libby.... and I noticed as she was backing into our driveway the muffler/tailpipe seemed loose and wobbly. Good thing I had her drive my XJ as I'd never have known...

So I looked under my chasis and noticed the rear tailpipe hanger had rusted thru and busted. To describe it... there is what appears to be a heavy gauge rubber round tube that bolts to the frame, then has what appears to be two bolts that run thru, then that holds a metal bracket that is secured to the tailpipe via a large U-bolt. The 'two bolts' that go thru the rubber tube have rusted thru and broke. These almost appear to be welded or tacked in place. Any suggestions on how to fix this or change the set up to get it to not crack again? I took a pic this AM w/my phone to show what I'm talking about... but not sure it's clear enough to give really good detail.

Suggestions? I'm thinking I may have to pull the whole thing off and drill out the old 'bolts' and get a couple more bolts and just do that... but it sure seems like a LOT of work to get it all done. May be cheaper and easier to just go to the muffler shop and get them to do it... but I like doing things myself.

Thanks for any tips.

 

[winterbeater]

Motor mounts are always suspected for something like this, but maybe yours just rusted out. You could use a universal hanger with the rubber part, or even the "true universal coathanger".

 

[Redsnake]

My motor mounts are good... I've got a nice set of MORE Mounts. I think rust is the darn culprit on this one. Good thing I don't live up North w/the salty roads or I wonder where my XJ would be.

 

[XJEEPER]

Motor mounts are always suspected for something like this, but maybe yours just rusted out. You could use a universal hanger with the rubber part, or even the "true universal coathanger".

:confused1 Motor mounts have nothing to do with the tailpipe hanger rusting through.

I've repaired several of these, but they have always rusted through at the 90* bend in the bracket where it clamps to the tailpipe. I've simply bent a piece of 1.5" w x 1/8 t steel strap into a 90* in my vise and welded it on to the stock piece, then reinstalled it.

If the metal 90* bracket is broken loose from the rubber, you could repair do as I described above, but you would need to add a piece of steel to bolt to the rubber........or just do something like this http://www.quadratec.com/products/51405_06.htm if you don't have fab tools/skills/resources.

 

[Redsnake]

:confused1 Motor mounts have nothing to do with the tailpipe hanger rusting through.

I've repaired several of these, but they have always rusted through at the 90* bend in the bracket where it clamps to the tailpipe. I've simply bent a piece of 1.5" w x 1/8 t steel strap into a 90* in my vise and welded it on to the stock piece, then reinstalled it.

If the metal 90* bracket is broken loose from the rubber, you could repair do as I described above, but you would need to add a piece of steel to bolt to the rubber........or just do something like this http://www.quadratec.com/products/51405_06.htm if you don't have fab tools/skills/resources.

I have had mine break at the 90* bend where it mounts via the U-bolt... and just re-bent and used the leftover material to re-secure via the U-bolt.

I've got an old welder in my garage that I've not used before... I'm such a rookie on that. I think I may just order the part you listed f/ quadratec and go that route. It would probably take me the better part of an afternoon to try and fab something... so the cost of this makes sense economically for me. Thanks.