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hose clamp flange replacement
Sunday, September 26 2010
Gretchen drove down to a prison on this Sunday to take part in some sort of poetry program in which she would serve as a judge.
I spent much of the afternoon fixing the Subaru's rotten exhaust system, which is related to the fuel fill pipe problem only insofar as they are both the result of years of corrosion. One of the flange sets on one of the pipes in the chain of pipes that carry exhaust from the engine to the tail pipe and corroded away, allowing a break to appear in the chain. My job today was to clean up an existing good flanges (by cutting out the old bolts hanging uselessly in it) and then replacing the functionality of the bad flange using two pieces of angle iron held in place with a screw-tightened hose clamp (one the most useful and flexible attachment devices to result from the industrial age). For removing all the old rotten steel bits, I mostly used the angle grinder and a pair of bolt cutters (though it was difficult to open them sufficiently wide in the cramped space beneath the car).
I've found that furnace cement works well as a hole sealer both in woodstoves and in car exhaust systems, and I generally fashion a donut of it when attaching two exhaust pipes together. Today, though, I found that the huge tub of furnace cement I've had since soon after moving here has started to dry out and become unworkable. I added some water and that seemed to help, but it remained lumpy and troublesome. Also, whatever chemicals it contained burned the several little injuries scattered across my hands.
In other car repair news, I began the process of fixing the holes in the Subaru's fuel filler pipe. In the past when attempting to fix the larger holes, I'd used a quick-hardening epoxy, which hadn't always adhered very well. This time I took advantage of my ability to work slowly and methodically. I cut out little patches from galvanized sheet metal, slathered them with JB Weld, and then clamped them in place over the rotted-through parts of the pipe.
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