Exhaust removal help

[GA_RR]

I'm pulling the exhaust off my Thing to see if I can patch any leaks to make it last a bit longer while I throw money at other more important aspects of the rebuild right now. Can one of you vets help me out with this problem. Seems that the exhaust has a bracket built into it that goes up and connects in the engine bay but it's impossible to get to the bolts as shown in this picture....

Is there some trick to this system for taking it off? I know it's not stock(I'm guessing it's a bettle exhaust) but I thought surely someone else has dealt with this issue as well.
Thanks.

[kubelmann]

You are correct. You have a Beetle exhaust on your Thing.

Did you take off the lower exhaust clamps or are they missing?

IF you completely remove this exhaust I suspect some bolts will break. I have a few suggestions.

To remove the 10 mm bolts tot he heat risers you might need to remove the rear engine apron tin. These bolts will most likely break. You can try not to break them by soaking them wiht PB blaster prior to removal.

You have a gap between your heat exchanger and the clean air pipe. When you remove the nuts on yoiur head studs I suspect you wil also risk breaking studs. Get PB blaster take the time to soak and move the nuts asn bolts slowly. Take your time. Soak, wait, move a little, soak wait move a little. Otherwise you will have a mess.. You will need all new gaskets a standare type one muffler installation kit. You can get it from all the regular online VW parts sellers for around $10.. If you have leaks in the heat rises this has no effect on how your engine runs.. These smaller pipes send warm air into the carb to help bring the engien to operating temperature more quickly. A leak here does nothing to performance. Anywhere you can see black soot is an indication of a leak. You can also run the motor and put your hand near and feel the air escape. Do this prior to the engine gettng hot to prevent burning yourself. I hope some of this helps. I have a complete used Beetle exhaust system available for chaep if that will help you. Be sure and use a coat hanger wire to claen out the heat rise tubes. Thye are almost always plugged on an older rusty exhaust system. Feel free to pmail me if you have more questions. This is one of my areas of knowledge.

[GA_RR]

Thanks for all the help Kubelmann. The clamps aren't missing, I had already removed them. I didn't look at that bay well enough to see that rear apron came off. After pulling it off, the rest of the removal was a breeze. All the nuts came off fairly easily resulting in no broken studs. I just did this little bit this evening when I got home from the office, but next weekend I'll put some more time into her and might shoot you a question or two.

Thanks again.

[kubelmann]

If you decide to replace that air filter with a stock unit I have the parts you need. The black inside the exhaust indicates major exhaust leaks. Were ther any gaskets at all in there... I will be happy to help you all I can. Be sure and get a quality installation kit with copper nuts and all the good parts. Search the net at all the VW sites until you find the goods stuff... I have new tail pipes available as well as some other parts if you are interested..

[GA_RR]