Broken exhaust bracket blues

I seem to be having some issues with my 89 XJ’s exhaust. There is a bracket that bolts on to the front of the transmission and hangs down to support the section of the exhaust by way of a clamp around the tube and the foot on the bracket. This &#$!* bracket breaks in the same spot about two to three times a year. I mentioned this to the Jeep dealer parts guy and he said it was a known problem and they only sell the same crappy replacement part. I can’t leave it off because there would be nothing supporting the exhaust between the manifold and the cross member. “see pictures”

Broken bracket in place:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/kletter/CIMG0663.jpg

New bracket:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/kletter/CIMG0664.jpg

Old broken “soon to be Frankensteined” bracket.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v371/kletter/CIMG0666.jpg

Has anyone else had this problem? If so have you been able to fix it or do you keep replacing it like me? I still have the old bracket and I was going to weld a rod down both sides to give it a little more strength. I also can’t figure out why this keeps breaking in the first place? I rebuilt the motor, tranny and t-case and all of the mounts were replaced with OEM parts. Everything has been checked for excessive play and it all looks fine. I am assuming it is just a cheap part and does that when exposed to heat.

I have yet to see an XJ that has that part intact. Probably a good idea to have it, would put less stress on manifold, but mine's missing too! I was gonna order one, but since they just seem to break immediately (according to you) I may jus save my money.

Yeah I am getting tired of replacing it with crap so I am going to weld some more steel to both sides of the narrow part that cracks to try and beef it up a little. I am thinking the metal gets weakened when they bend the foot. I'll post pictures of the new and improved one when I get it finished.

Have you by any chance inspected the motor and trans. mounts? I have a '92 and it's still holding. Sounds like you have some engine/trans. movement maybe.
.02

Man I feel ya. I have the same year as you '89 and I have exaust gremlins myself :doh: . Darn thing rattles and squeaks like its possesed. Very annoying, I'll get around to fixing it eventually. First thing on the list though is a new pressure coolant bottle . I hope you get yours fixed soon good luck.

Semper Fi

My '92 doesn't have that and there's no sign that there ever was one. It's fine without it, maybe yours will be too.

AFAIK every jeep exhaust that I've looked at did not have one of those. I know that the two that I currently own and the one that I previously owned did not have it, or any signs from what I can tell, that it ever did have one.

Why not just remove it and be happy? As long as your trany mount is good and the mount that goes in by the Xmember is intact, your exhaust should be fine. The exhaust have to move around a bit, and hard mounting it like that probably isn't all that great for it. It may be more of a problem than it is a help?

Mines was broken and I fixed it. But in redoing the exhaust I added a flexible joint just after that bracket. I think the bracket help keep stress off of the already prone to cracking exhaust manifold. Theoretically now my exhaust manifold should have very minimal stress from engine movement etc. I guess I'll see over time what happens to it.

I have a mount on my crossmember but doesnt look anything like that.

88xjchief said:

I have a mount on my crossmember but doesnt look anything like that.

Click to expand...

Because it's on the crossmember?

I honestly can't recall whether my '89 had that bracket, but I know the '96 doesn't. Lose the bracket and make sure you have one on the crossmember - add one from a later year of needed. The idea of a flex-section sounds like a real good idea; I've been planning to do that with mine next time I replace the exhaust manifold.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

I used pipe tape (the thin flexible metal with holes in it) and wrapped it around the pipe, and drilled into the bracket and bolted it into the bracket. Of course, the middle exhaust hanger on my 95 XJ is slightly different than yours.....but I believe a similar method would work!