y pipe

[Jersey John]

How do I get the Y pipe out of my AWD? I have a couple of broken studs on the exaust manifolds and I cant get the y pipe out of the way to drill them out ](*,) . I am about to cut the cross over pipe and weld it back together. Just want to know if there is a easier way before I get cuttin!!

[LiftedAWDAstro]

You'll have to pull at least 1 of the torsion bars.

[meetthespeakers]

I was afraid of that, what a crappy design. I let someone else do my cat 2 weeks ago, and I am kind of glad I didn't deal with that.

[Jersey John]

That's what I thought #-o , I think I will just cut the cross over pipe and just weld it back together.

[1996astro]

I took mine out in one piece to remove the cat and weld in a nice peice of pipe. This is on my 97 AWD. It took some doing, swearing, and thinking but I got it out. I took the bolts out of the cross member, using a floor jack to hold it. Jacked the front of the van up on the frame, not on the control arms and pryed down on the cross member and stuck a wedge in each side. Then if you pull back and twist and turn it came out. You need to get the van way off the ground. A hoist would be great but I did it with a standard 3 ton floor jack. Its messed up I about cut the thing also. Its like one of those nail puzzles where they are bent a certain way and only come apart just so.

[meetthespeakers]

Is this how far you had to lift up the van to get the pipe off?

[1996astro]

No #-o But thats when I should have done it. When I had the sub frame out and put the new engine in.