I was not thinking and took off the 10026086 bracket thinking it was the trans mount .

Is this thing needed? It wasn't even connected to anything on the cat side. Took me just flooping there. I don't even know what this thing is supposed to look like hooked up.

 

It really does help.

Not knowing what car you have, I can't speak to exactly how it should hook up; but on most cars, it has 2 bolts that hook it to the torque arm mount hardware on the opposite side of the trans, and a bracket that fastens to the rear of the cat or front of the I-pipe somehow (depends on the details of the exhaust), and a strip of rubber in between that holds it up.

Since there's nothing holding the exhaust up between the heads and the muffler outlet besides that, it is a very good thing to keep in good working order, so the exhaust system isn't constantly trying to flex itself downward in the middle and break off of the car.

I suggest you ditch the original and go get one off of a 4th gen. Instead of a strip of rubber, it has a bushing inside a metal loop. One glance is all it takes, to figure out how much superior it is. It actually lasts more than 5000 miles before disintegrating.

 

I have an 1986 Camaro with the V6. Like I said I have no idea of where it would even connect to. It was just hanging there. It was connected to the torque arm mount hardware , OMG was it connected what a pain in the *** that was to get off with my limited tools. For now I have the bolts back in the torque arm mount and the bracket is off. I will look into the newer one you mentioned. Anyone got any pictures of with this thing is supposed to look like connected?

 

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Ca...245_0399460078

This is the half that goes to the exhaust of some of these cars. It attaches to the piece associated with the torque arm mount. I doubt the equivalent part for a 6-cyl would look exactly the same, but it should at least give you a good idea of how it goes.

 

I don't know if this photo will help. I saved it from somewhere on the web...maybe from someone on this forum.

 

I see. I actually have both those pieces. It just was not hooked to the cat converter. Interesting.