[spankey]

I have a question and a kinda of a rant... I have a 96 4.0 Grand Cherokee.. I have been battling an what appears to sound like an exhaust rattle while driving and when I turn the jeep off... Its at the rear of the jeep and is very annoying and emabarising... Any rate.. DID jeep ever improve thier exhaust set ups on the newer jeeps.... Why I ask this is last night I decided to climb under the jeep and take a look see at the exhaust and sure enough found the problem.... I think poor design and thus contributing to alot of peoples "Can't seem to find rattle and clunk"... I noticed that my muffler after the cat is turned slightly.. What I mean is if you look under the jeep from the rear you can see the muffler not sitting flat horizontal with the rest of the exhaust.. Its kinda turned.. So I said that would not be good to hit if ever off roading.. So I placed the jeep on ramps... After alot of looking at the exhaust design I was somewhat disapointed with its setup.. You would think on an SUV which is fully capable of some serious off roading would have more connect areas for the exhaust..What I mean is more support areas when I say connect areas..

The only physical mounting brakets for the exhaust is at the transfer case infront of the catalitic converter and the second at the exit pipe by the gas tank... NOTHING in the middle where lets face it, thats where most of the weight is.... Cat and muffler and pipe runnage...

So after looking at this I decided to look at where the week spot is... At the muffler and cat hookup... Thats where there should be a support point... Any rate from no support there my muffler clamp is so worn out (From supporting weight and flexing) that I had to loosin the clamp push the muffler more straight and into the cat and retighten the clamp... Sure enough its gone the rattling and rumble when I hit bumps and shut off the vehicle.....

I also noticed due to the muffler being not level or horizontal that it was hitting my gas tank strap.... So now after twisting the muffler straight again its far clear of the Gas tank strap... Thats where the rattling was to begin with... The strap is worn down from the exhaust pipe hitting it... But looks ok to not damaged or anything... Seeing how the muffler and rear pipe seem to be one piece the re-twist seemed to move the pipe away from the gas tank strap....by about 3 inches. Before it was only about an inch away if a tad smaller than that...

So to all that seem to have that "Ehaust rattle" either at shut off or bummpy roads.. Give the muffler and cat conect a look and see if its falling apart or sagging and loose.. Mine was so giving that it was saging at the conect area.... Again did Jeep ever improve on this area on newer models????

Thanks for letting me rant a tad and offering some help to some others if needed...

Spankey