Is this something that I(a competent home mechanic)can do? It seems to be held in by bolts, and not welded, and I can get the oem muffler(brand new) for $58, so I was thinking this could be something which could occupy my time some Saturday morning. Any suggestions/insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

p.s. should i just go ahead and replace the exhaust pipe as well?

Replacing the exhaust is a relatively straightforward DIY job - but separating individual parts can be quite difficult.

The muffler is easy if thats what's gone, but the first part of the exhaust to fail is often the link pipe over the rear axle (it fails along the seam). The next place to fail (on mine anyway) was the front pipe. Unfortunately I mistakenly thought the expansion box was leaking and cut through the coupling to try and preserve the front pipe!

Often times we would just replace the tail pipe, muffler, clamps, and hanger. Sometimes the tailpipe was rusted out and it was only $20.00 or so more and it meant that we as technicians did not have to screw with trying to save the old one. I recommend a Mapp gas torch ($32.00 @ Home Depot w/gas) and a rubber mallet of good size. Take off the clamp on the inlet side, heat it up with the mapp until it either glows red or you are tired of heating it and then hit the pipe and drive it out of the muffler. You can try just penetrating oil and hitting it harder but nothing loosens light the smoke wrench (aka the torch). Another down and dirty trick is to take a big pair of channel locks and twist the clamps off. Take the nut and bolt out of them, grab one ear with the channel locks and twist it into a letter "S" shape and it comes right off. Put a little lube on the hangers so the pins will slide in without a fight. This kind of stuff is straight forward gravy and should take you no more than thirty minutes even if you have never done one before.

Mark

The torch is the easiest way, but oftten (at least here on the west coast) not a necessity.

Once you have the clamp(s) undone(or broken off), spray some WD40 or similar into the joint, and rotate. a bit of massaging with a heavy hammer on the area that the clamp crimped, then rotate as far as you can the other way, and repeat.
This does pretty well at working out the 'ding' that is still holdintg the joint together. A few minutes of this, and it should slide apart with relative ease(only minor hammering). Volvo uses clamps that are not too bad as far as distorting the pipe and getting thigs realy stuck...aftermarket U clamps are a different story.

Check the top of the over axle pipe.

Being a 240 it should have a cross UNDER pipe. Depending upon where you live they can be prone to rusting out on the seems.

Mark

Thanks for the all the advice! Once the rain passes through the California Central Valley, I will get to work on it. Thank you one and all and have an absolutely splendid evening :)