tricks for removing rusty exhaust?

[peller]

Hey guys. I've gotta remove my drive shaft and to get there, the exhaust needs to be dropped. Problem is, upfront just below the manifold it's rusted and the limited wrench space doesn't help. I've tried hitting it with PB Blaster multiple times, letting it sit for hours, and it's not seeming to help. Any other methods of getting this bitch off?
Thanks!

[FredK]

I feel your pain. For a car from the Northeast, DO NOT SCREW AROUND with unbolting the exhaust.

You don't NEED to drop the exhaust to get to the driveshaft.

What you do is unbolt all of the heatshield bolts and slide the heatshield forward a bit, then pull it out to the side. Now, there is a sweet spot where the heatshield will come out with minimum fuss. You want to massage it out.

You may want to unhook the exhaust hangers in the rear in order to drop the exhaust an inch or two to make heatshielf removal a little easier. You might be able to remove it by pulling towards the rear of the car if you do this.

Now, you have a partially dropped (or maybe not even dropped) exhaust, and a driveshaft that is difficult to get to. Unbolt the flex disc from the transmission. Loosen, but do not remove, the four bolts holding the rear of the driveshaft to the differential.

Now, push the driveshaft towards the rear of the car until the front half of the driveshaft compresses at the spline joint (where the two halves of the driveshaft meet). Now, remove the two 13mm bolts holding the center bearing to the transmission tunnel. Massaging the driveshaft towards the back of the car and lowering the center section of the driveshaft, there should be enough play to remove the driveshaft. Remove the driveshaft to differential locknuts that you loosened earlier.

If you do decide to remove the exhaust, you'll likely have to heat the locknuts using a propane torch until they are hot, then use a ratchet and extension to get those suckers free. Make sure you wirebrush the manifold studs before removing the locknuts, as the studs have a tendency to snap if the locknuts get caught on a whole bunch of rust. Then you will be really hating life.

[AndrewBird]

You are talking about the nuts that are at the exhaust manifolds, right? Best way to get those out is from under the car and a few long extensions on a ratchet. You'll probably need a swivel joint also. Just get under there and give her hell!

[peller]

FredK, thanks for the advice! Knowing that I can do this without taking the exhaust out is so huge. I dropped the rear of the exhaust as much as I could, took the heat shields out and started to undo the flex disc when my trouble light decided to shit the bed. I was already pretty frustrated from trying to get my front shocks out of the struts (they're rusted too where it threads in )... so yea, that was the kicker. I need to sleep it off and finish tomorrow. Thanks again for your help

[browntown]

1.) On my eta I took everything out the passenger side above the fender for extra room to work. Actually unbolted mine with a 1/4 drive hand ratchet and pb blaster.
2.) impact gun and extensions from under the car. great place to use a butterfly throttle type impact. If you dont have one, you'll want one after using it.
3.) when all else fails : SAWZALL <--My favorite tool.

[Mr Deagle]

1.)
3.) when all else fails : SAWZALL <--My favorite tool.

SAWZALLYOUNEED

[mops]

yes, these bolts are torqued in two stages up to 55ft/lbs. And then + the rust. I did actually snapped one while attempting to remove it. make sure you use heaps of copper grease upon reinstallation. I advise to clean up the threads before unscrewing and lubing them with some grease wouldnt hurt either.
to get them off I used a 1/2" inch breaker bar with appropriate extension - so you can use 1m of leverage and they will unscrew or snap the stud :)

[AlarmedBread]

I used the blue wrench. Replace studs with the nifty torx head ones and copper nuts.

[gearheadE30]

Ah yes, the mythical Blue Wrench. Unfortunatly, the gas tank is right above the exhaust midpipes. You knew that, right ;)