Since installing the body lift and the UCF extra clearance skid, the exhaust pipe is contacting the passenger side upper control arm mount (see “Exhaust clearance” in 038). It is not noticeable in any way except at very low engine speeds when it rattles loudly. Not a huge deal except for (lazy) starts in first gear and especially in low speed crawl situations off-road. There are solutions. UCF sells a low-pro transmission mount, but increases engine vibrations in the cab. Another option is to take it to an exhaust shop to fab something up. Others have cut and welded the factory hanger to lower it back to the normal location with the factory skid. Really none of these were appealing for different reasons.
Recently, this same scenario was described on WTJF. I followed along and will be replicating the solution. It is similar to the cut-and-weld, except its a cut-and-bolt thing. The original inspiration for this fix cut and slotted one side and used bolts to reassemble at the desired height. In a subsequent post, he suggests an improvement would be cutting bracket closer to the lower hole. The second gentleman’s exhaust hanger mod takes that into account.
The cut, drill, paint and reassemble was just as simple as described and the results solved the problem. No rattles at low RPM.
The muffler clears the ucf skid.
The exhaust clears the front passenger UCA mount.
The rubber hangers aren’t back to their factory positions, but have much less binding than before. More tweaking could possibly improve here.
