Today we started out for a drive, and the tail pipe muffler on my 1987 4/4
fell off backing out of the garage. I simply loosened the clamp that held
the 12 inch piece on, removed it, and we continued on our way, without any
noticeable difference, including exhaust sound.
My question to the list -- is this secondary little muffler necessary, or
can I just weld a straight pipe to the end? The primary muffler is just
beneath the drivers seat (left hand drive). The exhaust pipe then wraps
above the rear wheel and out to the secondary muffler, which is what fell
off. There is still about a foot and a half of tail pipe after the wheel
wrap around remaining. There is absolutely no rust whatsoever, and all the
pipes seem pristine. Appears the weld just failed.
One British car mechanic friend (he is from Ireland) tells me this little
muffler gives more power to the car in some "blow-back" fashion. However, I
could find no difference after driving all day during a beautiful
Pennsylvania day. My car is due for state inspection next month. Is this
something I should replace, or just run a straight-thru pipe to the end? I
could never figure out the reason for two mufflers in the first place. Of
course, the first larger one may perhaps be some kind of catalytic
converter, but it seems to be the primary muffler, and since my car runs on
propane, a converter seems unlikely. I have looked through books and all
4/4's seem to have this double-muffler deal going on.
Any suggestions welcome. We only got two days driving for the British Car
driving week, due to miserable rain all week, but made the most of them.
Spotted some beautiful big Austin 3000's tooling around in my town this
week. Can't tell if they are real or replicas, but they looked great.
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