Hi

Fitting a sports exhaust to a ef fairmont soon and wondered what size nuts and bolts bolt the flange on the cat converter to the mid exhaust. And what size sockets needed to undo the cat converter to mid exhaust bolts and the mount that bolts the cat converter to back of gearbox

Need to know so everything is ready

a basic socket set would be needed

im not 110% sure but i believe they are a mix of 13-15MM sockets a cheap 3/8 set should do well ,

oh and if its all rusted out and your changing the cat back obviously , just grab an angle grinder and cut the pipe near the diff, so much easier then forcing a stock exhaust to come apart

your kidding right??

I've just today bolted up a Berklee system to my EF. I'm not sure if the bolts and nuts were original tho - maybe the ones at the cat section flange are - which were 14mm (but 9/16 fitted easier).

I don't know if the ones on the removed 3 inch system at the muffler were original - but they fitted the Berklee flange ok (it's 63mm ID with holes 105mm apart) - they were 5/8.

Something to remember is that - loosely - metric and imperial roughly line up as follows - with the size on left being the smaller with it's rough "equivalent" on the right being slightly larger which relationship is handy for nasty rusty hardware:

1/2" to 13mm
14mm to 9/16"
15mm to 5.8"
5/8" to 16mm

ie. ideally have two each of all those - else one of each of those "should" get you by.

And if you ever are unlucky enough to work on a pommy car - GOOD LUCK!!

Something to absolutely do is use WD40 or something similar LIBERALLY on the rubbers and the hanger "pegs" for getting the hangers in and out of the holes etc.

Your always wondering Fairmont1. Do you know a bloke on here named Jewy ?

Oh! - if the new exhaust is a slip joint connection at the main muffler - with U bolt - the nuts on that most likely will be something like 14 or 15mm or 9/16 or 5/8...

hi

fitted a berklee 2.5 inch exhaust with a rear muffler today and the cat converter flange bolts (mid exhaust side) are 13mm and the nuts for those bolts are 14mm.

the 2 smaller nuts for the gearbox mount are 12mm like my penis

Ah - yeah, I wondered about mine because the bolts looked newer than the nuts so I suspected that when the 3 inch was fitted they'd changed the bolts but not the nuts. Possibly bent their heads that the 14mm fitted the nuts but wouldn't grip the bolts...

Yes because people that work with nuts,bolts,spanners,sockets everyday can't work out what fits...So they just change the bolts to fit the spanner..

...makes sense...

Yep - exactly... - I have to say we're talking about exh shop people here not actually mechanics - tho I've had my share of crap outta mekanix as well. There are quite clearly mechanics such as yourself Tickford6 (respect) and mekanix - but at a proportion of about 1:10 from what I can make out.

I'm a Licenced Aircraft Maintenance Engineer myself and have been qualified since 1989 - that DOESN'T make me unreasonably picky or critical - I'm actually very tolerant - but things like having the outline of a rack of sockets stamped in my bonnet, or getting the car back after having the valve guide seals replaced and being told part of a chain guide broke off (yeah, they suicide regularly those things) but it's ok cause it's in the bottom of the timing case and only rattles occasionally, or having the car run badly again after three days from new coil and leads being fitted because a lead simply hasn't been pushed onto the coil properly - tend to annoy me... Finding things like bolts being changed to match their associated nuts is merely amusing...

The guys who would have changed those bolts also gave the car back with the system just about dragging on the road too - I had to spend three hours under the damned thing getting it all fitted up half decently. The rounded nut I found on the forward collector clamp / flange stud was a clear demonstration said chaps might have been a bit short on actually coping with which spanner fits what nut or bolt (I had that nut undone previously when I did the head and I can assure you it wasn't rounded then)...

It just getting old seeing the same stereotypical comments by the same people over and over and over. Yet most of these people would never have turned a spanner on anything but the falcon they own and would never get anywhere without a draw full of internet in their tool box.
In fact IMO %90 of the people on this site don't seem to able to even take a s**t with out asking for advice first.

Yet they are happy to run down on trained and qualified mechanics who they no nothing about, other than that based on biased and twisted stories that get told by vehicle owners.

I good number of my friends are mechanics and a few of those also own workshops. They are ALL very good at what they do and they are ALL honest people.
Our biggest problems in the trade stem from having to work on cars that have been worked on, changed, damaged etc by some one else. The second is the unrealistic expectations of vehicle owners, the third is the straight out lies we are told everyday in regards to the actual cause of problems and the level of previous maintenance.
The forth problem that the good, honest mechanics have to deal with is the stupid useless dishonest ones.
But after being in this trade as long as I have, my opinion is the vehicle owner in most cases is his own worst enemy and is the root cause of his own frustrations.

I'm not saying this includes you, With the qualifications you have, you are probably one of the few exceptions.

I agree entirely with you there and I understood where you were coming from - I was being pretty specific per se - which you had no way of knowing - but I do have to admit that nonetheless I used it as an opportunity to take quite an unfairly broad swipe - the point is taken without prejudice or offence...

For what it's worth I have to be honest that in spite of my kind of similar to auto mech trade background I have to admit to sometimes being just as shonky as the next punter (ie. result of trying to do workshop jobs without workshop facilities or equipment - exactly what you've spoken about I'm somewhat embarassed to say). I do make sure tho that if it must be rough it is at least safe and I try not to do anything outright stupid We get the same thing to some degree - altho having a few thousand feet to fall instead of being able to just pull over tends to make most owners and pilots keep their hands off things they know they shouldn't touch