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12 Posts
Can I get to this thing to secure it without dropping the exhaust? Planning to try to work on it Saturday, but I'm concerned that I'm going to damage either myself or the FJ in the process.
Muffler Heat Shield - I have the tools and washers, but no experience and a bum shoulder
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5,290 Posts
All but one of the fasteners is accessible without having to remove the exhaust. What I did was add the large washer to all of the ones I could get to and that's worked well for quite a while.
If you don't have a clean, smooth driveway, lay down a sheet of cardboard to slide on. I find it works as well as a mechanic's creeper and doesn't take up any headroom.
The nuts use a 10mm socket. Be careful to wire brush off as much corrosion as possible from the exposed threads, and apply liberal amounts of PB Blaster / penetrating fluid and let that soak in, over a few days, to reduce the risk of snapping off a stud.
At first, I coated the washers with anti-seize in an attempt to prevent their carbon steel from reacting with the aluminum heat shields.
A few years later I found these washers which are zinc-nickel plated to specifically protect them from reacting with aluminum:
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If you don't have a clean, smooth driveway, lay down a sheet of cardboard to slide on. I find it works as well as a mechanic's creeper and doesn't take up any headroom.
The nuts use a 10mm socket. Be careful to wire brush off as much corrosion as possible from the exposed threads, and apply liberal amounts of PB Blaster / penetrating fluid and let that soak in, over a few days, to reduce the risk of snapping off a stud.
At first, I coated the washers with anti-seize in an attempt to prevent their carbon steel from reacting with the aluminum heat shields.
A few years later I found these washers which are zinc-nickel plated to specifically protect them from reacting with aluminum:
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12 Posts
Thank you for this, I've got the penetrating fluid out and ready to go, and will hit it in the morning. I have to admit that I don't think I can generate the torque to snap a stud right now, but better safe than sorry!
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10 Posts
I tried this yesterday. I got one fastener off. I couldn't get the other forward one loose even with a small Milwakee impact and I couldn't get my big hands in to the back location. I finally took it out.....Good luck
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12 Posts
I ended up putting a pork shoulder on the smoker at midnight, and had to sit awake all night babysitting it - it's cold up here in NE Indiana, and I had to make sure the fire didn't burn out. So essentially, I was up till 6, slept till 9, and have decided that the shield can wait another couple of days. I work from home, so I don't need to go anywhere in particular at all for a while.
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12 Posts
Mission accomplished.
For anyone looking for this in the future: Congratulations, you're about to learn how to be flexible,
On my '14 FJ (Offroad package, if that counts at all), I was able to shimmy under the frame while parked in the driveway. Many will have an easier time than I did; I'm 6'5", 340#, and old/brittle. I found that there was only one area on the muffler heat shield that had given away, the one roughly centered at the rear. The nut/stud was in good shape (Krown treatments help), and I was able to use a 3/8 drive rachet with a 10mm deep socket to remove it. I then used a 1/4" x 1 1/4" OD Stainless Steel Fender Washer to hold the shield in place, and retorqued the nut into place.
The hardest part was figuring out how to reach. I had to go in left handed between the drive shaft and exhaust output pipe. While not HARD, so to speak, I think that someone a little more bendy/skinny than me would have had an easy time doing this.
All told, I was into and out of the garage in less than 20 minutes.
For anyone looking for this in the future: Congratulations, you're about to learn how to be flexible,
On my '14 FJ (Offroad package, if that counts at all), I was able to shimmy under the frame while parked in the driveway. Many will have an easier time than I did; I'm 6'5", 340#, and old/brittle. I found that there was only one area on the muffler heat shield that had given away, the one roughly centered at the rear. The nut/stud was in good shape (Krown treatments help), and I was able to use a 3/8 drive rachet with a 10mm deep socket to remove it. I then used a 1/4" x 1 1/4" OD Stainless Steel Fender Washer to hold the shield in place, and retorqued the nut into place.
The hardest part was figuring out how to reach. I had to go in left handed between the drive shaft and exhaust output pipe. While not HARD, so to speak, I think that someone a little more bendy/skinny than me would have had an easy time doing this.
All told, I was into and out of the garage in less than 20 minutes.
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