Broken Muffler Bracket.

[DMCVegas@xxxx]

While moving cars around in my driveway, I heard a nasty 
tapping sound in the engine compartment. As it turns out, the 
upper muffler bracket had broken. And the remaining piece 
hanging on the muffler was hitting the alternator blades.

I can't figure out for the life of me what caused the bracket to 
break. The crack that goes thru isn't a clean snap. Nor is it a new 
fracture. Only a small portion was clean where it had just 
snapped. The remainder of the crack was caked in what looked 
like years of road grime. So evidently this isn't new damage.

Since the DeLorean is my only car, I need to get this fixed. I've 
temporarily used a length of steel strap to hold the muffler up. I 
enlargened the hole to slide the welded post on the muffler into, 
and I bolted the other end to the coolant bottle bracket. It's not as 
high up as it was before, but at least the muffler is no longer 
resting on the rear portion of the chassis. In the meanwhile, I'll 
keep driving to a minimum, and will take it easy.

I don't know if I can weld the bracket back together. But it doesn't 
matter anyhow since I don't have access to any welding 
equipment anyhow. So it looks like I'll be ordering a new bracket.

Any idea as to what caused this? This wasn't a sudden fracture, 
it looks like it took a bit of time. When i get a chance, I'll go over 
the other brackets to check for any problems.

-Robert
vin 6585 "X"