Exhaust contacting drive shaft when flexing

I am running a pace setter header. I have a 5" lift with long arms.When flexed out once in awhile the Y pipe will contact the front drive shaft and have a hole ripped in it. Is anyone else having this problem? Short of making my own custom Y pipe I am not sure what to do. There is not alot of room or clearance in this area. I am basicaly being lazy about doing all of this custom exhaust work and wonder if someone else has an easy solution or experience with this. I have seen alot of people with bigger lifts and they don't seem to be having any problems. Why?

The stock downpipe is flattened somewhat to clearance the DS, usually not a problem after lifting, maybe you need to flatten the Y pipe.

Well, Joe gave you the easiest solution. The only downside is you are technically limiting exhaust flow by flattening that pipe. The effects of this are pretty debatable. Chances are, you will not notice a difference.

Your only other options are to bumpstop your axle a little lower so it cannot get high enough to do this, move to a low pinion axle (not only would that be a lot of work, it would be a downgrade and give you some different issues to work out), or have the exhaust redone to be higher, IF possible.

Make sure your motor mounts aren't busted. This would allow the motor to jump around under certain circumstances, with the front u-joint making contact with the down pipe. It happened to me!
Just looking may not show the separation, you may need to pry the engine up on the driver's side to see the movement.

Thanks for the help guys. :wave1:

I think you either need to bump stop lower, your axle may be shifted to one side too much (adjustable installed?) or as said your engine mount are toast. What about your shocks? Are they correct for your lift? If everything else is up to snuff I find it hard to believe that your are hitting your y-pipe before bottoming out the shocks. I have a 3.5" lift, un-dented y-pipe/down pipe and never had a problem under flex with a HP d30.

Another thought to consider is that your exhaust is just hanging too low. Pace setter isn't known for their quality control.

I have seen oval shaped exhaust tubing and fittings but they were very expensive. This would, however, be a good fix as it would allow plenty of flow and provide more clearance.