Rear Muffler Hangars: Which way is up?!

[Lengrep]

I'm struggling with my '73 tii rear muffler hangars.  The rear kept failing, and I discovered that the front had failed, so I figured all the load was being carried by the rear rubber ring...

 

I had my local shop replace the front rear muffler rubber hanger with insert, and now the tail pipe is banging the rear apron.  And the rubber hangar is already failing...

 

Here's my rear hangar and (failed) front hangar installation.  Which way is the hangar supposed to be oriented?  The parts book looks like the smaller space for the body mounted hangar arm is up.  When I installed the rear, I put it large side up, which seems to fit nicely.  Which is correct?!

 

Any suggestions on my "tail pipe hitting the rear apron" problem?

 

 

 

[dlacey]

Tailpipe hitting rear apron: slacken the exhaust clamp just forward of the rear subframe, assuming joint is free - rotate tailpipe to desired position...tighten exhaust clamp.

Your hangars look good quality...maybe an engine mount issue is putting too much stress on exhaust??

[Mark92131]

Transmission exhaust bracket installed?  Your exhaust must have a lot of lateral movement to shear the hanger like that.  I haven't seen the exhaust hangers with that much white material before.

 

Mark92131

 

Transmission/Exhaust Bracket Set – 2002 – Ireland Engineering | Racing & Performance Parts for BMW & MINI

WWW.IEMOTORSPORT.COM

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Each

 

[Lengrep]

I’ll double check transmission mount! 
 

These are current production BMW rubber hangers. 

[Lengrep]

 

It turns out I had two unrelated problems:  The rubber hanger on the front of the rear muffler was indeed mounted upside down, adding stress to the system; and loosening the exhaust clamps, and clocking the rear muffler assembly put the tailpipe where it belongs!  

 

Now we will see if the hangers are in a happier place and remain on one piece a reasonable time...

 

Thanks, team!

 

Greg

[JohnS]

I swear that I bought some of those same OEM hangers in the past and the same failure happened soon after I installed them.  I ended up purchasing aftermarket ones that were much more Heavy Duty and rubberized where you can't see the fabric in the rubber like the BMW OEM ones. Sorry, I don't recall the name of the aftermarket hangers.  Just saying...

 

Something like this:  

BMW 2002tii 2.0L L4 Exhaust Hanger

WWW.RMEUROPEAN.COM

 

 

Edited July 3 by JohnS