how to remove stock cats?

[gatesy21]

Guys I need a little help, I tried searching but could not find what I was looking for. I am replacing the stock exhaust and cats with corsa and RT cats. I have the stock exhaust and crossover off. I am trying to get to the clamp on the cats but must be missing something. That thing is a challenge to get at. Is there any easy way to remove the stock cats? Any help would be great!

[FLATOUT]

You pretty much just get the fastner loose then I take a long pry bar and a rubber mallet and work the V band clamp off the flared ends. Make sense?

[gatesy21]

11mm is what I will try and hope the deep socket is deep enough. Thank you guys for the help and quick response!

[gatesy21]

Yep, so dont even bother with the nut on the back end of the clamp? That is the one that is quite a challenge to reach it seems.

[FLATOUT]

Yep, so dont even bother with the nut on the back end of the clamp? That is the one that is quite a challenge to reach it seems.

As long as it's free to move you should be fine.

[SlateEd]

the 11 millimeter head on the bolt needs to be loose in order to get the clamp off. It's hard to get at - I went with a deep well socket and long extension but I may have been lucky that the bolts were pointed downward.

once you get the bolt loose, the clamp may not loosen itself up, so then helps to get a long flat head screwdriver in from the side behind the bolt and pry to get the clamp to let go.

hard to explain in words.. maybe photo of the clamp will help:
band clamp.jpg

[Ninjakris]

it also helps to soak the clamp with WD40 and let it sit for at least a half hour.