Exhaust system question

[SharkPilot]

Last night during a full throttle blast my exhaust suddenly got much louder. Looking ubderneath the car I saw that the resonator had moved aft far enough to slip off the head pipes that come from the converters. The whole exhaust sustem had moved far enough back to pull the pipes apart. A closer inspection found some rather sorry looking welding that had broken there. I was able to slip it all back together and use some bailing wire to keep in place to get home. The head pipes probably slip 1.5" into the front of the resonator.
My question: Should that be welded there or did the factory install clamps there? The FSM doesn't illustrate that with enough detail to tell. This is at the front of the resonator right behind the mount that's attached to the transmission.

Thanks everyone, SharkPilot

[jonszr1]

how far is it from your cats . i have 2 zr1 exhausts sitting in my barn 90, 91 the only clamping is up by the cats on them .hope this helps

[tomtom72]

My 90's OE system has no clamps anywhere, save for the connection from the cat exits to the pipes leading to resonator's inlet. At the resonator it's a welded connection and all the rest of the connections from that point back are welded.

[QB93Z]

The exhaust from my 1993 ZR-1 is hanging in my garage. Here are some pictures I took a while ago. If you need more detailed pics, let me know, i can take them this evening.

Here are what stock manifolds and cats look like:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp152/QB93Z/Exhaust/DSC00468.jpg



This is the forward end of the stock exhaust system. These connections on the left in the picture connect to the cats.

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp152/QB93Z/Exhaust/DSC00478.jpg


here is the resonator:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp152/QB93Z/Exhaust/DSC00479.jpg

Here is the back of the resonator to the mufflers:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp152/QB93Z/Exhaust/DSC00480.jpg

I hope this helps.

Jim

[SharkPilot]

Thank you everyone. The photos pretty much answered my questions. It makes me wonder what was done sometime back in the car's past. The system looks stock but those welds that broke were certainly not factory work. Something must have been replaced along the way.
I'll just have mull over getting it rewelded or just using clamps. Does it really matter?

Thanks, SharkPilot

[jonszr1]

if you use the 360 band clamps like in his first pic showing the stk manifolds you should be good to go . i use them on my 90 as i am trying different mufflers for the sound i want