Had an exhaust noise on my 2000 5.4 liter. Sounded like a buzzing so I got under and had a look. There was a weighted cylinder attached by a clamp to the muffler extention ahead of the muffler. The clamp had rotted and it was hanging loose and vibrating against the muffler.

What the heck is this thing, what's it do and do I need it on there. It wouldn't be any big deal to clamp it back up. Just want to know what it is and what it does.

I think it's some sort of vibration damper?

Thanks for your help.

 

It is. You don't. But I kept mine; figured it couldn't hurt.

 

tbloggins,
Just wondering if you got the buzz out of your truck... I'm hunting down a noise in mine and was just wondering if yours always buzzed or just at specific rpms...

 

I lost mine a few yrs back , also check the heat shields on the converters.

I had one come loose and one would vibrate when reving the motor , vibrates on the way back down to idle.

I hate chasing rattles and squeaks

snow

 

Yea, connects to a plate on top of the trans mount. The Trans mount goes bad in these models, then it's metal to metal. The plate that supports the arm/ damper cracks (in my case). Had to replace the mount, - weld the plate to make the damper fully functional.

In the pic below, there's my old mount to the right and the new mount left w/white lettering. The plate has been welded and painted in this pic. When replacing, you need to support under the oil pan before tightening trans mounts and align.

 

Ford also released a TSB and fix for the heat shields that vibrate. It works for awhile, but even the fix fails eventually. Just remove the shields, there's plenty of heat protection above. Here's the fix from Ford tho -

 

Found better pics of how it goes together. Everything rides on top of the trans mount. The Trans mount works in conjunction with the Motor mounts and is a bushing type deal. The mount in these pics is the bad one, nothing left of it which causes vibration of your exhaust system. Eventually it will make noises in more that just one area lol.





Wish I had a better pic of a what the new mount looks like, - I don't tho.