exhaust snapped

[pondy]

hello, the exhaust has snapped on my parents mitsubushi shogun today, its right on the welded flange where the to exhaust pipes bolt together,
being a jap car parts are very expencive so am going to weld it up, i do have some welding experiance, have a clarke 151en mig on argon mix.

i was planning to weld over were its cracked around then adding some gusset plates going from the flange down onto the exhaust to stop flex on this joint
is this a good idea or is there a better option?

 

[shenion]

Sounds fine. I'd grind the existing weld back some first and try for full penetration.

 

[clueless77]

just had exactly the same thing happen to my wife's nissan micra. check the flange on the other part of the exhaust also as this had cracked as well.

 

[piman]

Hello Pondy,

also check if the engine mountings\steady bar (if fitted)\exhaust supports for damage. If there is any such problem then it'll likely fracture again, at the weakest point?

Alec

 

[pondy]

the exhaust is7 years old now and take alot of vibration and seems to have just cracked around the weld and snapped, going to give it a shot tonight,
same thing has happerned on my punto twice now, same place, have a spare exhaust now, when it snapped i put the spare one on, and weld the other one, again....

 

[pondy]

all welded up tonight and rear to be fitted tomorrow, it didnt go as i had planned but im confident it wont break there again, before i welded the exhaust i did a few welds on an off cut of old exhuast to get the right setting, all was going fine
when i did the snapped exhaust all i got was blogs and splater, like it was a wire feed problem, after lots of adjusting i got it working fine, power may have been slightly to high but it didnt blow any holes, because the first weld was rubish there was no penitration on the other side, i was about to weld around the crack on the inside of the exhaust, then a a huge weld on the outside to cover all the blobs etc, then 3 steel plates going from the flange to the exhaust pipe stopping any flex, gave it a few large blows with the hammer and feels good, will see how it goes on the vechile

sam