Exhaust Bracket to tranny needed,87 5kcstq

["Doyt W. Echelberger" <Doyt@nwonline.net>]

OK listers, my 87 5kcstq exhaust system was banging around under the car
(at the rear) when I went over bumps. I found out why, and so....this
posting. It may help others with shaking exhausts, and it may help me get a
part to fix it.

I put the car on a lift and found a broken rubber retaining ring about the
middle of the system. Easy replacement, which required pushing the whole
exhaust system up a few inches. It moved up and down rather easily.  Too
easily. I looked further forward for missing rubber rings in the first
third of the system, from the corrugated branch of the turbo exit back to
the rear of the cat.

No visible means of support, but discovered a broken bracket between the
rear of the cat and the tranny. Difficult to even see, but I glimpsed it
while moving the exhaust system up and down.

This 2 or 3 inch cast aluminum alloy bracket holds the converter to the
transmission housing.  The bracket is a triangle with an "L" shaped foot
across the bottom of the triangle. This foot has two bolt holes in it that
allow the bracket to be bolted to the transmission housing. Another bolt
hole at the top of the triangle allows several 5 inch straps to be bolted
to the rear end of the cat. This was designed to be a fairly solid support
point.....all metal.

The triangular casting was fractured, so the cat and all the rest of the
front exhaust system flexed up and down about an inch, which levered out to
about two inches around the rear wheels.

The bracket is shown on 26.13 of Bentley. It is essentially an "L" shaped
bracket with two bolt holes on the bottom line of the "L" and one bolt hole
at the upper end of the vertical part of the "L."  The fracture is above
the bend in the "L" but not at the upper bolt hole. Hard to describe. 

Any BTDT's or alternate solutions are appreciated. It isn't a crisis yet,
and the car will probably run just fine for a long time without a repair,
but it puts stress on the corrugated pipe between the turbo and the exhaust
pipe, and that could be serious. And the rubber retaining rings at the
middle and rear are taking a real beating and will fail again.

Maybe someone has traveled this path and can be my type 44 exhaust bracket
guru. Position is open. Everything looks very confined and the connections
to the converter are corroded but probably could be broken loose. Creative
welding and alternate support points are worth consideration. Did anyone
fix this bracket, or replace it with something else in some fairly direct
manner? I have visions of my mechanic saying "....well, to fix it right
will take a new cat to begin with....and....a new bracket, and a new pipe
to the cat, and a new pipe from the cat to the ....and a new tranny would
help.....and....." (end of terrified fantasy.)

At the same time, called the parts counter of my local US Audi dealer and
found  I can order the bracket for $33.05, part # A53253253. Anybody got a
used one sitting on a shelf, waiting to escape to a new life in my old car?

Doyt Echelberger
86 4kq
87 5kcstq