2005 Highlander CAT -- one lousy manifold stud.....

[goodfellow]

.........is all it takes to ruin my day.  . For a guy that has thousands of dollars in hand tools at his disposal, I ran into a brick wall on this exhaust manifold bolt. No wrench, socket, adapter, crowsfoot, or specialty tool in my inventory would get on this flange nut. The nut was too tight against the outlet pipe and at an extreme angle that was blocked by the AC lines.

I finally got the torch and knocked a side off it and then heated it to cherry red. That's the point when I decided to take the stud instead of the flange nut. Almost two hours in and this little 1/4" flex ratchet and a small Torx socket pulled the SOB free.

This particular flange nut in this location has ruined many a technicians day -- they're that notorious.

Tomorrow I install the new CAT -- wish me luck!

[oldnslo]

Nice job on bringing it over the line for the win. Its always a great feeling once the pain is over. 

[goodfellow]

Nice job on bringing it over the line for the win. Its always a great feeling once the pain is over. 

Thanks OnS, I got it done today and used a Rock Auto sourced OEM quality CAT. That said, even a good OEM quality part never fits exactly like the original, but Toyota CAT's for this model and year are supremely expensive and on backorder. A few very slight modes here and there and I saved a bundle going with Walker on this repair.

[muddy]

Great job Ray

Sent from my twisted mind of the mudman

[slip knot]

Great save for sure.

My luck, it would have broken off in the head.