Exhaust muffler clearance to bonnet

[Lagoon]

Now after years of restauration the two Majors are painted and look great.
All the parts replaced have been original or from used tractors, exept the exhaust elbow and muffler. They are aftermarket. The problem is that the exhaust is to close to the fresh painted bonnet. It will be burned if the exhaust will not be moved away.
Does anyone have a recommendation how to get the gap?
Maybe I have to make a distance shim between the manifold and the elbow.

Best regards from Austria

Dietmar

[BearCreek Majors]

Yes, this can be a pain in the ass! I’ve found some of the aftermarket elbow's to be worse than the factory ones as well. One thing you can try is to loosen up the fuel tank and front cowling and move everything over to the right side of the tractor as far as possible.

Pat

[Dandy Dave]

My Power Major has the original manifold and elbow. The hood had a wear mark where the muffler rubbed against it for years. Most likely from day one which means that it was a very close fit to begin with. The problem with repro parts is that if an original part is used for a pattern, the end result will be slightly smaller because of shrinkage of the metal. I would agree that a slightly larger elbow needs to be cast to make up for shrinkage in even a repro manifold. Too bad all the Iron Foundrys have been put out of business around here or I would venture into making a better reproduction part. Dandy Dave!

[Gman]

Hello all, my Power Major is the same. I have always thought to solve would be to just add a offset piece to the end of the muffler where it connects to elbow. Mine is somewhat offset because someone didn't weld the pipe straight to muffler and I can turn it to not rub the bonnet.

[Nick]

I also have this problem, however i made a little piece of stainless steel to slot over the edge of the bonnet with a tiny piece of heat proof material. Its done the job so far!