Cheap Sturdy Muffler Mount

Well ever since I, in my youthful ignorance had the local Midas put on a muffler on my car I've had nothing with trouble mounting it. They didn't properly bend the pipes so the muffler is difficult to locate and wants to hang down. The mercedes exhaust system is heavy as hell given it has dual exhaust and this reaks havoc on the mounts. The reinforced mount from mercedes completely started to fall apart down to the rubber and chain inside. The chain acts to reinforce the rubber. The unreinforced rubber muffler hangers have a life span of about 5 miles. My muffler was a damn mess, I actually had it bailing wired up so the muffler would contact the rear valance.

A few weeks ago riding my bicycle I found a crusty broken bicycle chain. Well today I got bored and wondered if I could replace the dead mounts and bailing wire with something better. I took out the hammer and berylium copper drifts and started pounding on the link pins in the bicycle chain. You gotta whack em hard but they come out pretty easily. After adjusting the lengths I made two round chains which custom fit the exhaust where Iiked it. On one I had to "permanently" install the pin as the chain was a bit short for install but was the correct length.

The exhaust now fits much better than it did and the muffler is very firmly attached to the car. Don't ask me about how many times this damn thing has broken mounts. If you need a cheap custom mount consider using bicycle chain if you find a broken one it is basically free and easily customizable to various lengths. Hopefully this helps someone!

So you basically looped pieces of chain around the pipe to the frame?

How does this work out for vibration?

Even better you could tack weld the chain together once you have it in place to add some rigidity to it once it is mounted adding further customization to the mount.

I've seen a very sturdy muffler hanger made from Home Depot steel cable and ferrules. The ferrules need to have the bejezus squashed out of them to grip properly.

every time I read stuff like this, I turn my eyes towards the heavens and thank god I have a mig welder.

Coat the chain with RTV gasket stuff, and it will never rust, and will likely damp some of the vibrations.

Also

FTW

I don't see where a welder would get you here as the hangers on the car body are recessed making access very difficult.. I like that the chain has some flex to it so the muffler does have some if very limited degrees of freedom. I don't think you want the mount to be totally rigid. My rear muffler hanger problem is from both the overall weight of the exhaust and the lousy Midas workmanship. I figure is the small chain from mercedes was strong enough this chain will be much stronger. Knocking the pins out isn't difficult and anytime you get the opportunity to hit yourself in the hand with a hammer. I'll try to get some pics up later as they say a picture tells 1000 words. Hopefully this helps someone.

welder helps because you go to the junkyard and get some rubber donuts to absorb vibration, then to to home depot and weld steel rod in for a hanger, and you have a perfectly working exhaust hanger custom made for your application that you don't have to ghetto up or work around! Also, you don't pay some shop to do ghetto work welding your muffler up at the wrong angle in the first place. win win.

I don't pay shops to "geto weld" things for me. I am good enough at geto welding things my self.