Trying to install a PacBrake exhaust brake on my 06, can't get the stupid exhaust elbow off. In fact, I'm stuck at removing the 2 band clamps. Bolts are loosened but the clamps seem like they're welded to the exhaust & turbo. Everything is stock.

Any help is appreciated!

 

Did you soak them in Liquid Wrench or PB Blaster? Soak and let sit for awhile, then lightly tap with a hammer.

MikeyB

 

There are locater pins between the turbo and elbow, so you have to pull it apart to seperate it. A little liquid wrench and some light raps with a hammer and block of wood will get it.

 

Same advice as above. I prefer PB Blaster.....
Just light taps should be good w/o messing up the alignment pins.

 

Yep, some elbow grease along with some penetrating oil and it should come loose. What came of your situation....did you get it apart?

 

Did you remove the inner fender and go through the wheel well to get at it? That's how I did mine last week and it makes it easy to get tools to the clamps to get them loose. They are v-shaped and have 3 segments that lock on a little tight so you have to get them to move in about 3 places to break free.

Good Luck! You'll love the brake!

 

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I followed this advice and it worked like a charm! Got me that PB Blaster, about a minute of soaking and a couple of gentle hammer taps and bingo - stuff started sliding around.

However, the rest of the install was not so easy, no thanks to the poor directions from PacBrake. Directions look good from a casual reading, but when you get out there, suddenly you have no idea where the camera's were situated when photos were taken. Must have taken me several days of looking on forums, looking at truck, sleeping on it, etc. to figure out where they want you to put the stupid air cylinder and air filter. They don't even show the air filter after it's installed.

Yes, I removed the fender and skirt and am glad I did. Would have been impossible without. Getting the brake in was a trick. I followed advice elsewhere in forums to loosen bracked on downpipe. My interpretation of this was to take the first pipe hanger off the transmission. It was enough to jimmy the brake in. But the jimmying shifted the downpipe enough that the trans hanger no longer aligned over its holes in the tranny. Had to go further and loosen the U-clamp bolts at bottom of the downpipe, and use a jack and some force to coerce everything in place. Just loosen all the bolts right up front.

Another note - there was no hose labelled "intake hose". I deduced it was blue because I reasoned the black tubes probably belonged on the 3 high pressure lines.

I'm still not done after about 14 hours last weekend - only electric remains. I work methodically, but I also took on the install of an AFE intake manifold which complicated things with the Pac air compressor. For those that want to combine these, it works, and it fits like a glove. The trick is to just chop off the compressor's tab for the rear bolt. Just use 3 bolts instead of 4, it is plenty strong.

In case anyone from PacBrake is reading, your unit looks very well engineered, but I challenge you to observe an unacquainted amateur mechanic perform the install from the directions. Larger and more pictures or diagrams or at least wording that explains the diagrams would be appreciated. A callout list w/ pix of all the parts would also be nice (check out how DieselManor writes the directions for their gauge packages). There need to be more arrows showing clearly where the tubing connects.

In hindsight, the install is really not that bad if the instructions had been clearer.

I'll post again when done. Thanks again all-