Coming from Mr. randomly capitalized words, that makes me laugh

 

my rattle isn't due to the heat shield but the metal strap that holds the exhaust pipe near the last bend before it meets the muffler. the strap (or band or whatever it's called) seems to have grown bigger and no longer holds the pipe tightly and the pipe rattles inside it.

i was thinking of wedging something inside and retightening the bolts. does anyone have any better ideas?

 

yup, I took mine off. No more rattle.

 

i use caps to some words to express like MAYBE..... say maybe like your having a evil thought
I DONT TYPE EVERY POST IVE EVER MADE IN ALL CAPS LIKE SO.... [8D]

 

It turns out that there is an upper and lower metal strap that grips onto the exhaust pipe and holds the bottom heat shield... keeping it from rattling off the pipe.

Well, the bottom strap wasn't there for the last strap (nearest the muffler). The other straps seem to all be in pairs except for this one. I tried to concoct my own strap but I couldn't find anything so I just took it off. The heat shield seems to be held well enough that it doesn't hit the pipe so I think I'm going to leave the strap off for now.

 

You can also use hose clamps to take care of the cat heat-shield rattle. That is what I did.

 

Hey, had the same problem, thought it was the tranny, but thanks to local
SL bud, go Tommy, narrowed to heat shield prob...

Solved it by using a) some aluminum tape, b) Couple of hose clamps, all from the local OSH or any hardware store, go to the heating duct section.... I used hose clamps 1 1/8 - 3" size, aluminum tape first, hose clamp, then aluminum tape again so that the clamps are a bit protected...

Just hit the road today, in the rain and all, and sounds much quieter and better,

Hope that helps, K