Both Flowmasters came apart?

[Grit dog]

@CalSgt

Even more great ideas!
You know, I typically never want to try to remove exhaust parts/bolts/clamps etc due to rust and the certain cussing and difficulty of it. So my brain just automatically skipped past that option, lol.
But this is 10 bolts total. Non rusted and no clamps. Unhook at collector and 2 sets of mounts.
If I do it myself and don’t haul it to the shop that is THE way to go. That will be way simpler.
I’d just hack em and use v hand clamps like you did but half of the support comes from hangars welded to the mufflers.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@CalSgt Great suggestion!
I was looking at creative ways of not destroying the pipes and was thinking of this. Then could zip a little slice off the new muffler flanges and weld them on right next to the old welds.
It’s more about having the time TO do it myself. Vs the amount of time to take it to a shop and pick it up.
I generally don’t trust shops and it’s a crap shoot to spend time taking it somewhere to find out they want $500 to rnr a couple mufflers. (Typical around here, everything costs twice as much. Not enough tradespeople to service all the non hands on people so they charge FU prices to everyone.)

I’m really considering pulling the bed off and just getting after it.

I will admit a dump bed kit makes that kind of work so much easier!

One other little thing I've done that I'll toss out there for you. If you want to be able to relatively easily remove the mufflers in the future, it's perfectly fine to clamp it in place and if you think it'll rotate or something you can tack weld the muffler to the pipes.

That cutter tool Casey shows is a must have. Don't even think about just buy one. It's super easy to cut just one layer in slip joint like on a muffler without hurting the pipe under it. They are $30 at HF and will make removal so much easier for you.

 

[TotalyHucked]

@CalSgt

Even more great ideas!
You know, I typically never want to try to remove exhaust parts/bolts/clamps etc due to rust and the certain cussing and difficulty of it. So my brain just automatically skipped past that option, lol.
But this is 10 bolts total. Non rusted and no clamps. Unhook at collector and 2 sets of mounts.
If I do it myself and don’t haul it to the shop that is THE way to go. That will be way simpler.
I’d just hack em and use v hand clamps like you did but half of the support comes from hangars welded to the mufflers.

That's definitely what I would try to do. Mark where you want your cuts/v-bands while it's still on the truck, then drop and cut. Personally, I'd add 4 v-bands total, make the exhaust into 3 sections for serviceability later down the road.

That's what I had done on mine, that way trans work is easier and I don't have to hack up my exhaust every time something happens. Or if I change my mind on the mufflers/routing, it's only the rear section that has to be redone. I just need to mark and pull the headers/X-pipe to get V-bands added there to get rid of the band clamps. They leak just enough to be annoying.

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[Grit dog]

^ That's slick!
And my mistake when I was talking about V bands, I was thinking regular band clamps. If I have to weld 4 connections, it may as well just be to the new mufflers. And even then, the H-pipe would prevent taking it out in pieces.
With the exhaust system already being several years older than the driver of the truck, I think any future major modifications would probably just include a new exhaust from this century!