Another SPF design problem?
 

Since Mulv was soundly trounced with his post about the differential mount I thought I would put up one of my own to take the heat off. As we were leaving the second winery today I briefly heard a clanking noise that went away in about ten seconds but since we were driving past a piece of equipment I paid no attention to it. As we left the third winery I heard it again. When we got to the picnic grounds I looked around and found that the aft hanger for the exhaust pipe had broken. When I got home I pulled the pipe off the car, welded the bracket up, quick shot of high temp paint, hung the pipe and good as new in 45 minutes. You all may want to take a quick look at your brackets to see if they are cracked or breaking. Let the flames begin. :MECOOL:

Thats so bogus, an SPF exhaust mount would NEVER break!

,,,,,,,,was the flame hot enough for you? LOL

Ernie

tinker...

mulve wasnt trounced, he whined about a 7 yr old car as if his problem was a widespread catastrophic problem. egads, anything can break but dont jump to conclusions.

re exhaust hanger breaking : yep, that problem has occurred sporadically, the mounts between different series of cars differed in design and application. mine are trouble free and are different than many of the newer cars. but its time may come sometime too; how do ya know ? hey, mine is 7 yrs old too ! i recently changed egines with a hotter more radical cam and a lot more engine rocking and rolling at idle now and my sidepipes are dancing in their hangers much more than they did before, thus adding much more strain than before. so who knows.

sometimes the cause might be the hanger/bracket itself or the torque twist rotation of the engine within its mounts or vibration causing strain on the hanger which has less rotation ability or resilicency . some engines rotate more than others depending on mounts or who installed the package. some headers come thru the fenders too close to the bottom or the top cuz the engine has not been properly shimmed when installed so side pipes get stressed at brackets. no known pattern there either. some sidepipes may have been installed differently too by the installer. i have seen several different styles of side bracket hangers on over 70 spfs i have looked at, slight variability between some of them in mounting or construction.

no known breakage pattern to any specific serial ranges that i am aware of , or bb / sb influences. some have broken , most did not. some on one side only, some on both. some more than once ( depends on who did the repair). i have seen this on other brand cars too btw but admittedly have seen several on spf's.

easy fix as you have discovered, sometimes just adding some bar stock to the bottom can do it or reweld and reinforcing of existing break as long as the surrounding area is not harmed / weakened by the reweld. some are fixed in place without removal of the side pipes and some folks removed them to fix em. any alignment issues when rewelded need to be addressed so any flex/rotation/pressure issues are resolved, ie, less stress on the repair if possible than existed before.

i guess anything can happen to any of these cars...just gotta take it in stride and hope it is not life threatening. bill.

Ditto Bill
 

It's not that the cars have a problem here or there, they have had.

What keeps SPF owners loyal is the commitment of the dealers and factory to make the new cars better, and take care of an owners car.

Without knowing Tinker's car number, I can tell you that a "series" of cars were made with the support bracket thicker, yet with a "crimp" line. The crimp is where "some owners" have see breaks. I had mine break, and fixed like Tinker did.

The new cars have this issue addressed.

We owners have first hand in-put with the factory, and they support our efforts.

That is why you see us come out on threads like this. We love the product and the support.

Tinker, if you are not already a member, please join SCOF to get more support! :D

Eric :MECOOL:

Wow this must be some kind of trend developing here. SPF's just falling apart as they limp down the road. Better get rid of that POS before it just disintegrates.

As Bill states, I have heard of a couple cars that that has happened to. It is a known problem but not a widespread one. Some rescourceful owners have made their own fix as you obviously have. Some have posted pictures of their repair. I have inspected my brackets and found that SPF had already modified and reinforced the bracket. I agree with Bill that the motor mounts probably play a major role in that failure. There are a couple fixes for that too. The Olthoff's have made a urethane mount that really reduces engine movement, people that use them seem very happy. You can also get new mounts and have them pinned which will help.

Or you could just get rid of your crappy, poorly designed SPF and buy a different replica that is perfect and will never, ever, ever break! LOL.

John
spf1421 - with pinned motor mounts and factory reinforced sidepipe brackets!

Design flaw ? I don't think so - sounds like a broken exhaust bracket - which happens on many cars. If the frame cracked I would call that a problem.

Randy

No it is not really a disign flaw and yes it can happen to any make of car/pipes. I was only making a very slight joke. The break came where the two spreaders that are attatched to the pipe come together. It was the right pipe that broke. If it happens again I will, as Bill mentioned, put a reinforcement strap across the area. I decided not to attempt to fix it on the car because I figured an extra 15 minutes of work to R&R the pipe was easier/cheaper than fixing the paint when I screwed it up with the welder. While I had it apart I looked at the openings in the body and it does not appear that the pipes have ever contacted the body on either side of the car so it looks like this is just one of those things that happen. By the way, if you have to take it apart, when you go to put it back together make sure you reinstall the mounting bracket to the pipe first before you attatch the mount to the frame otherwise it won't go together. Ask me how I know this :LOL: At ease, carry on.