The exhaust on my white Special snapped just in front of the torpedo last week. No excessive corrosion, so I'm assuming that there must have been undue pressure at that point over a period of time.

Is there a common cause for this? Badly set up crossbox? Crap suspension? Going over sleeping policeman too fast?

Any ideas?

Is it on a joint? My 106 keeps doing it. Only 2 left to go. Im convinced its going through puddles too deep too fast. I keep welding it back up and carrying on.

Have you got a van tailpipe? Ie, it comes out in front of the rear wheel? If so, it should have an extra means of restraint at the rear hanger. ECAS website says that this can cause premature failure.

There's been a discussion on the 2CVGB forum recently about this situation and I posted the following but so far nobody has responded. Some feedback would be useful please.

The AK vans have an upside-down U shaped bracket welded to the bracket that supports the hanger at the back of the torpedo. This prevents excessive sideways movement of the torpedo, which would put more strain on the swan-neck and crossbox output pipe. This van bracket won't fit a 2CV (as the mounting holes are much further apart).

I'm currently looking into getting van ones made and also ones that will fit the cars, (most likely in stainless steel), and would be interested to know what people think about this. I'm hoping to be able to sell them for around £12 each, but that would depend on numbers made. I don't anticipate selling many of the van ones but hopefully the ones made to fit the cars should sell well enough to make it worthwhile(?) There are a lot of 2CVs around with short pipes and although I have used the cable-tie option myself as a temporary fix/bodge, IMO it's not a very nice solution. I think Citroen's simple method is much better, so why not do it their way?

What do you all think?
Is it worth doing?

Daras

a van tailpipe is a possible culprit, if you've got one! I also wonder whether this isn't sometimes caused by the swan neck being pushed too far into the torpedo? A couple of times after replacing a crossbox I've found that the torpedo is being pulled forwards by the swan neck, which is likely to put a lot of strain on it over time. If you can break the rust-seal between the swan neck and the torpedo, and get the joint to slide again, you can usually get it all to sit right again.

I made my own U shaped bracket that follows the shape of the big rubber torpedo mounting rubber and 2 Dyanes later and many kms no problem. You can buy an ugly one from cassis for Mehari that does the job. (Rear mounting rubber only)

At somewhere around that price, I'd seriously think about one van, one car.

Thanks Adrian.
The price for the standard half-bracket from our favourite 2cvparts supplier is £11.85, so £12 would seem quite cheap for a stainless steel version that also has the upside-down U attached, but I'll try to get it done for as close to that as possible. That way people can choose between doing it the cable-tie-bodge way or the Citroen original way for about the same money. While I'm about it I might as well see about getting the other half-brackets done too. (Unless anyone else is already doing them in stainless??????).

Yes - van tailpipe.

It is not a single reason for the swan neck pipe snapping.

Normally it is the torpedo muffles lack of movement which can cause the pipe to snap. It is very common for the torpedo muffler to be fitted wrong in the O shaped rubber mounts. If fixed to one side of the O rubber mount, the muffler can not flex to either side. The distance on the O rubber needs to be the same ( _ ) on both sides of the little L shaped holding bracket underneath the muffler. This will put strain on the swan neck pipe. Add buggered gear box and/or engine mount and the pipe can snap, regardless of using short or long rear exit pipe.