Ruby, Exhaust Downpipe touching chassis

[Ilmoro]

My exhaust downpipe is touching the nearside chassis rail (Ruby MK2) . Presumably it shouldn't be. Is there a simple way of rectifying this? Should I bother?

Thanks

Ian

["Slack Alice" Simon]

It shouldn't be touching the chassis.

Not desperately important, but I'd hate it if it rattles.

Are your engine mountings ok?   Maybe it has moved due to worn rubber mounts, or a previous owner drilling holes bigger.

Or the front pipe isn't quite right, they do vary a bit.

Assuming they are all ok, if you slacken the 4 manifold to downpipe bolts you should get some movement sideways, so then you have to hold it there by moving the other rearward

mounting(s) a bit.

[Derek Sheldon]

Try slackening all of the exhaust fittings to see if you can get any movement. Lock it all up whilst holding it away from the rail. Worth a try.

[Denis Sweeney]

Is the exhaust pipe new?

The only reason I ask is that I had an issue with a new front end section that clashed with the flitch plate. I spent a lot of time fettling the flitch plate to allow the pipe to clear only to find it then clashed with the chassis. Fortunately I had a spare flitch plate but in the end I stuck with the original pipe front end and just used the new tail end and box.

Denis S

[Ilmoro]

No it is not new, put on by previous owner(s). Flitch plate has been slightly relieved, but it is just and so touching the chassis. I tried loosening the downpipe bolts and pushing the pipe over, but no real change. I am reluctant to bend the pipe, or file 2mm off the chassis rail as that would not really be in the spirit of locating and fixing the problem. The downpipe/manifold joint has a 1/16" steel spacer between the gaskets probably in an attempt to rectify the fit. I think you may be correct in that the downpipe shape is slightly wrong. I was just wondering if others had had the problem...and how they sorted it?

[JonE]

Is the engine number fairly close the to the chassis number?

[Ilmoro]

Chassis-270584,  Engine-271816.

[JonE]

ok - so nothing to do with wrong position as a result of a different crankcase seating.

[jansens]

If it's only a couple of mm clearance could you just flatten the pipe slightly where it touches.

Simon

[Colin Morgan]

Whilst this isn't a picture of my car (the picture is from the Dorset club website), it shows the same size gap as my Ruby - the exhaust is nowhere near the chassis rail.