I'm trying to get my stock exhaust off, and there is a cross-beam that has to be removed first (see the 4th & 5th picture in this thread ). Apparently, when I had my accident, this cross member was replaced and was over-torqued and/or loctited into place. Now I can't get it off! I've tried using my torque wrench (biggest wrench I have), and at 80 lb-ft of torque, I still can't get it off.
The wrench that I'm using isn't big enough to get good leverage, and my big wrench has a 1/2" drive (and I don't have a 14mm socket for it). Even with that wrench, I'm not sure I could get enough leverage to break this thing loose. Anyone local (Plano area), have a portable impact wrench or something that can generate enough torque to break this thing loose?

 

Nevermind... I used the handle of my jack as an extension to my ratchet and got them off. What a PITA!
But, now it's off and I just have to wait for my new exhaust to arrive (should be here tomorrow!)

 

BTW... anybody have any good ideas of a way to store the stock exhaust? It's huge! I was hoping that it would disassemble into 3 pieces, but it doesn't.

 

Well, you could take the shiny tips off so they don't get bent, set it on the outlets and lean it against the wall.

(I know what you mean about those bolts - I had to use my really big breaker bar to get 'em off.)

 

Yeah, I took the tips off before removing the exhaust (just in case), and it is setting against the wall right now. I need to buy a house so I can store all of my stock parts in the attic or something, my little one-car garage just isn't cutting it.

 

By the way, when I got them off, I found that they did have red loctite on them. I never realized how much heat is generated when you remove a bolt with loctite on it. Not sure of the physics of the whole thing (maybe the friction of the loctite in the threads or something), but the bolts were extremely warm to the touch when I got them removed.