i think i have had this leak for a while to because i noticed heat coming in my rear window when i was sitting in traffic once and at idle i can hear something rattling under my truck. i finally got confirmation because it was 5 degrees out yesterday so i started my truck and let it sit for a little bit and noticed that i had tons of exhaust coming up from between my bed and cab. gave a quick glance under the truck and noticed thats were the spring connector is.

i replaced the gasket a little more than a year ago but the two flanges were showing a good amount of rust then, so i have to assume theyre in pretty rough shape right now.

can i just cut the flanges and weld/clamp a solid piece of exhaust pipe to connect the intermediate pipe to the pipe off the cat? the flange has the springs which im guessing is so that the pipes can flex with the truck. will it be a big deal if it cant flex?

any help would be great, im not looking for the perfect OEM fix, just something that will work until i can get a new truck

 

i dont see why it would be a bad thing to just clamp a piece of straight pipe on there if you really want to do it yourself. Ive also seen little flex couplings you could use to replace the stock one

 

it wont hurt anything to just put a solid piece of pipe in there

 

can anyone confirm the o/d of the two pipes. the intermediate should be 2 1/2 but i remember reading the cat pipe is larger