I'm sure this information has been repeated numerous times on the forum, but hopefully this will be easy to find in case anyone searches for it.

I'm extremely stubborn and hate to dismantle/loosen other parts of the car even though it can save time/pain/suffering/hysteria in the long run. for my install, I didn't loosen the H-pipe, cut any hangers, or drop the panhard bar. if you get the whole car up on jack stands, or, even better, a lift, I'm sure loosening the H-pipe would be beneficial. I just jacked up the rear axle so the H-pipe was a little too far up to work on without the front end of the car being lifted. At first it was a fight between me and car, then things got better when I started to use my head. funny how that works.

Some of my comments, for what they're worth:

1. use dish soap on the hangers (both for removal and installation). use lots of it. it works really well.

2. once the axle back pipe is disconnected and hangers are lubed, i ended up popping the muffler off by sitting behind the car and aggressively pushing the muffler back and forth to get the inner hanger to finally get dislodged and sliding on the hanger. the rear-most hanger is a piece of cake to slide off.

3. bend the inner hangers upward on the new mufflers. this will help a ton. pulling it up 1/2"-1" will let you slip the new muffler on without having to trim the hangers as some people do. just set the muffler on the ground and use a set of pliers. you'll notice that if you don't bend them up, the hanger will get so incredibly close to the opening of the rubber hanger, but will be just shy of actually being able to slide in. if you bend the hanger up the notion of actually mounting the axle back unit changes from dream to reality. edit!!!!!!!!!: i've read that it's actually possible to unbolt the front hanger mount and pull the muffler straight down. i didn't think you could remove one of the bolts when the muffler was mounted, but maybe you can. if so, this should definitely be the easiest way to remove the muffler.

4. i didn't loosen the H-pipe, but on the driver side I removed the two panhard brace (not the panhard bar) bolts for an extra .5" of wiggle room. you may be able to dig deep and use some high quality elbow grease to get around this, but it's so easy to take the two bolts out, just do it.


5. be persistant.

6. tape the tips so you won't scratch anything while you're jiggling it around.

Hope this helps. The mufflers sound awesome for the cost and the exhaust tips look much better. The car should come stock with these mufflers.

 

Thanks for the tips, my Bassani axle backs should be in on Monday and I plan on doing it myself as well. Now at least I have an advantage!

 

I saw another write up which showed a guy using his jack to push up on his pipes (behind the resonators). This gave me more room to slide the mufflers out without continuously hitting the over axle pipe. The passenger side hangers were a dash long, but a little muscle got them in without bending.

I agree, great sound and look.......especially for the $250 spent!

 

Wow I thought I was a n00b cuz I had a #### of a time getting my GT500's on. I didn't cut or bend anything, but I did take those two bolts out of the panhard brace.

I also taped the tops of my tips with masking tape so that while I was wiggling the mufflers around trying to get the hangers in place I didn't scratch them up. Going by the condition of the tape after I got them installed, I'm glad I did it.

 

One more tip to add to the list!

 

My first time working on the new 5.0 and just put my Roush AB on last night. Did not have any of the trouble above or need to bend anything. True;y a bolt on a go install. Except probably for tip alignment, which Ive yet to do.

So I guess that's a huge for Roush

 

You'll love your Bassani's !

 

My GT500's went on pretty easy........45 min. job including a break.....and did not break a sweat...lol

 

The Roush mufflers are significantly smaller than the GT500 mufflers, so most likely that is the reason you didn't have the same install issues. Probably why the thread is titled as GT500/FRPP...etc.

 

Interesting range of experiences. I've swapped I don't know how many axlebacks on '05--09s without a problem, but trying to figure out how to get the GT500s on to replace the Dronemasters (uh, Hushpowers) was an hour in frustration. I had the rear of the car up on RaceRamps, and just couldn't seem to make it all happen. the forward (double) hanger mounts apparently MUST stay bolted in as the room for the lower bolt just isn't there with the GT500 muffler slid into the mounts. My abs and neck are actually sore from the strain trying to manuever around under the car.

I put the Hushpower back on finally in frustration, and will try it again using a lift. Man, what a *****!

 

Nice writeup and here are the two keep things to keep in mind: (1) the GT500 hangers have a "lip", so grease up the hanger openings when removing/replacing the mufflers, and (2), use a floor jack to push up the catback pipe out of the way and give you wriggle room.

 

I just replaced my Roush ABs with GT500s a couple days ago. When I put the Roush on last year I removed the mid pipe which was a pain. This time I removed the hanger attachments. Two bolts on one side and 3 on the other exhaust. Very easy.

Love the GT500s. The Roush were too loud and I would constantly be shifting to keep the revs below 2000 rpm to keep the noise down. The GT500s have a better lower tone.

 

I also removed the front hanger brackets with little trouble and even though I partially took off two fingers on my right hand I was able to get the bolts back in the hangers. I think the gt500s are actually quieter at cruise than the stockers were.

 

Hope that didn't happen while doing this install

 

Ha! I actually chopped off about 1" on the forward mounted, rearward facing hangers on the passenger muffler. If I had to do it over again, I would have taken an inch off each of the rearward facing hangers. I also lowered the panhard brace. Took about an 1 1/2 hrs. Would have been 45 tops if I cut them.

 

Sure do, It's just the tone I wanted!