67 Wolseley MkI 18/85

My father got himself a pair of Nylon joints back in the late 70s (rather expensive back in the day), as his rubber joints did never last that well. Since than not a single rubber joint failed

Regards,

Alexander

David is correct that the nylon joints are probably going to be too harsh on the drive train. Having said that, I used nylon couplings on my tuned Mini when I was a wild youth. It held together and I don't remember it being harsh. The way I drove it I doubt I had time to.

When fitting the rubber couplings I seem to recall there was an instuction not to have them too tight. I believe there should be a count of the thread showing on the clamps?

Regards Kels.

Ok, the secret is to let them know they aren't indispensable . Funny that seems to work with other items too, they only fail when they can cause you the greatest distress. A twist on Murphy's law maybe?

regards

David

For the first time in a long, long time, the car is now thoroughly civilised on the exhaust front. It has repeatedly and continuously blown at the downpipe to manifold joint. I have re-fitted and resealed the joint so many times that I can almost do it in my sleep. It's been annoying, because removing and refitting the carbs to get access is a two hour job.

Anyway, most recently, I had to reposition the pipe slightly because of the rubber crosspiece joints fouling. If anything, after redoing the manifold joint again, it sounded worse than ever. This was a bespoke stainless system built on the car not long after I bought it. As Theo is up for the holiday weekend, I had resolved to do something about it. I have had a brand new steel front section sitting in the garage for a long time now and decided that I would trim it to length and replace the stainless down pipe.

Ironically enough, I had a complete cow getting the joint apart, as it appeared (this time at least) to have sealed perfectly. Got the system off and apart and this was what I found.



Rubber coupling has worn clean through the pipe - no wonder it sounded awful! Interestingly enough, the genuine BL pipe had a smaller flare for the cup and the bends clear the rubber couplings by a sensible margin. The stainless exhaust makers obviously just bent the pipe enough to clear the HS universal joints.

She sounds sweet as a nut now. Only thing worrying me is that I now have a cast iron manifold, steel downpipe and a stainless rear system with silencer. Sounds ripe for some interesting electrolytic reactions to me.

Very pleased with the outcome.

Chris.

I have an MGB heatshield on mine. That's what really stops you getting at the clamp. I don't think it was originally included in the "S" spec, so you'd need to see what you've got. My own fault really, but hey! No fuel vapourisation.

Chris.

Nick - you are fine, no need to remove the carb. It is only those with the dubious pleasure of having twin carbs that need to remove them

David

Nick

In your post with photos from Burley-in-Wharfedale you noted



I would suggest that you look at this before trying to sort out the exhaust. If it is leaning back it may be worth double checking the the air filter box isn't rubbing against the hydrolastic pipe as this will quite quickly wear through. There isn't too much clearance anyway.

I found the best way for connecting the exhaust pipe to the manifold was to loosen the U bolt on the downpipe to allow the pipe to move easily, then using a bottle jack and block of wood under the pipe mate the two surfaces and apply a load with the jack. The exhaust clamp can then be fitted smeared with GUM GUM and you still have two hands free. I'm sure others have their own favourite tricks but this worked well for me.

David