Pontiac Firebird 1967-2002 - 2002 Trans Am Exhaust Removal

Ok, I know I am like the only person here with a stock T/A exhaust...at 90k miles. So, quit bashing me, my Magnaflow exhaust arrived today and I am anxious to install. I got under the car and looks quite easy....except one thing. I am not certain the stock exhaust will pull out even if the axle is at the max seperation when the car is jacked up. Will it fit and I'm just not seeing it? Do I need a hacksaw? Do I need to remove something to make it pass? Please advise before I start yanking shit all over the driveway just to re-install the stock exhaust because I dont have a hacksaw....lol

Gotta cut it or drop the axle. Wish I would have removed the axle on mine to retain the stock exhaust in one piece, but cutting it was a whole lot easier.

dropping the axle is not very hard either, unblot the shock and control arm, only have to drop one side and remove the driveshaft. or if your not going to re sell it just hack it in two pieces

Thanks GM for installing the fully-welded exhaust before hanging the rear axle....ok, maybe not :)

Thanks for the update. I am glad I posted before I started yanking. I will wait for my friend that knows how to drop the axle without issues. I am mechanically inclined, but not to the point that I will take my daily driver down without expert help.

Ok, I got the hacksaw, laid out all the parts to make sure everything was there. Got under the car and noticed.....hmmmm, the stock exhaust had a clamp connecting it to the Y-Pipe. Looked at my kit...and thought...daymn! My kit has a 3 inch cut out with the tri-bolt flange. Started doing a little measurement and realized, it was about 10 inches short due to the mod. So, I decided to bring it to the muffler shop down the street. When I compared the price of the modification as compared to the complete install, I elected to have it installed...wasn't much difference and I didn't have to sweat.

So, after the price was agreed upon....lol...they couldn't get the y-pipe clamp bolt to unlock, so they had to cut it. Then they had a hard time getting the over axle hump out, because their lift used the tires as the lift point, so they cut that in like 3 places to get it out. Then the exhaust hangers needed slight modification. While I was sitting there sipping my beer and watching them work....I thought how pissed I would have been if I would have hack sawed my stock exhaust off and ran into all these problems....hahhah, sometimes it is worth the buck to have the professionals do it.

wow, what the hell. I took my stock ws6 exhaust off in one piece by dropping the axle and taking the control arm, shock and sway bar off on the passanger side.

Yeah, I probably would have done the same if the piping didn't need to be fabricated to the y-pipe or the hanger was correct by the axle. Oh well, done now and runs and sounds awesome. Besides the factory had 90k miles and was not worth reinstalling on anything else.

i just cut mine to make it quick and easy :D

Since you already have the cutout, get an electric plate.