It has been sometime since my last post.  Its not that I have become bored of my blog, I actually started a full time contract that is more than full time.  Actually working 60 hours a week has cut into my hobbies, thankfully it is almost over and things should return to normal in another month or so.

Meanwhile the commuter car, the “mighty civic” had a muffler problem.  What started slowly as a slightly loud exhaust eventually turned into something that sounded like a bad lawn mower without a muffler.  I could hear it over the radio in the car.  One day I look under to see the muffler complete separated from pipe coming form the cat and hanging only by the rubber mounts.

What is one to do? Buy a new one and install it yourself of take it to a shop?  I went with the former.  Amazon.com to the rescue, never thought I’d order from amazon but the parts were cheap and an exact fit.  The local places wanted to sell me multiple parts and pieces.  I didn’t want Honda dealer prices, its a muffler, how hard can it be to make.

The new muffler unwrapped from the bubble wrap.  I transferred the rubber mounts over. Come complete with heat shield.

I ordered a bolt and spring set as well.  When I removed the bolts I broke them both thinking, no bid deal the nuts will fall to the ground.  Nope, that didn’t happen.  Turns out they were welded to the cat pipe.

Plan B, remove whats left of the old bolts with vise grips from the back of the cat pipe flange.  This worked after a bit of penetrating oil.

The new versus the old.  Notice the springs are flat on the old.  This give that much needed little bit more room to install the bolts.  I used the old springs with the new bolts and all was good.

Ready with the new crush flange thing, order this separate along with the bolts.

Install was easy once I went with the original springs.  Maybe a c clamp would have helped but I was working on the street with one wheel up on the sidewalk and the wheels chocked.

All nicely connected.  Much quieter!!

Looks good.