How are you supposed to remove the muffler bolts on the passenger side of the truck? There is no access for an impact wrench? I was thinking the only way to get at the bolts is to cut off the muffler about 5 inches from the manifold. Bolts are too rusted to get them off with a wrench.

I can get the bolt on the left off with an impact wrench, the one on the right
side is the one I'm having trouble with. To make matters worse the idiots who replaced my muffler 13 years ago used a 3/8 inch bolt (right side) instead of the 10 mm bolt they should of used.

I have a 92 F150 XLT with a 302 cu inch engine.

Any help?

[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/jwly4ij][/URL

Regards,
Larry

 

302 and 351W used 7/16 x 2.5" exhaust manifold studs. No metric bolts here. You need a swivel impact socket to get those off. Looking at the condition they need to be replaced. Since they dropped a bolt in the one hole makes me wonder the condition the manifold.

The way I would do it at work would be to torch the bolt off, weld the nut on the other one, heat the manifold and remove the stud. Run a tap in both holes and install new studs.

If you don't have a torch, your best option would be to break both off and remove the whole manifold then take it to someone who can change the studs as I guarantee you won't get that stud out with a torch.

Just last week I changed two manifolds and installed a entire new exhaust on a 1989 F-150 with a 5.0.

 

I second the swivel socket or maybe a swivel connector for you extension/sockets to access that nut. If it's a bolt and nut, stick a big cheater bar on the ratchet and it will either loosen or break. If it's a stud, you'll want to be very careful not to twist it off. From the looks of your pictures, it looks like a stud.

 

If you've got a torch heat the manifold around the stud cherry red and the use a IMPACT swivel socket and back the stud out. Don't heat the stud. In another life I worked at CarX and we did this almost every day. We had a guy that could blow the stud out of the manifold, with a torch, but I never got that good.

 

Dropping the starter might give you more room too.

 

Finally got that nut off. Had to angle the extension-( a long one too) bar more towards the read of the vehicle and used a different universal swivel.

The problem was that the idiots as Hose's Garage used a 3/8 inch threaded rod instead of the correct 10 mm bolt. What they further did made it even worse, by installing a 17 mm nut on the 3/8 threaded rod. Now if you don't know (and I didn't till now) that a 17 mm nut will screw on a 3/8 inch thread rod (poorly) because the 3/8 rod and 10 mm bolt both have approximately 16 threads per inch. They did the same thing on the other side of the manifold. Talk about making me steaming mad !!

Also I had to get a special extractor (Mayhew extractor) to get the rod out.

Finally, got all the old brackets cleaned up, bead blasted rust off and refinished with top quality epoxy paint and new rubber for the hanger.

Thanks to all. Love this site for all the top quality information and top notch people.

Regards,
Larry

 

Thanks the gods for not having to do all that. I got the nut off with a friend's compressor tank. Mine was too small to get the cfm right !!!


Regards,
Larry

 

Would not help. Got it off anyway.

Larry