I have a '79 and I'm trying to get the exhaust pipe to come back up into place. It appears to hang down a few inches lower than it should. There is a bracket that comes off the tranmission that connects to the exhuast. I tried to push the exhaust up into position with my hydraulic jack. When I do this the exhaust starts to go up but then it pushes the engine and transmission up as well. So, I can never the get the bracket and the exhaust holes to line up.

I figure that either the exhaust pipe has been bent downward because it was hot when it was running and the bracket was broken. Or there may be a part missing. Can someone confirm how this is supposed to go.

See attached pictures...

 

Exhaust pipe doesn't bend when it get to normal temps. In fact, the pipe is sogter and more maleable until it's 1st heat cycle, then it's tepmered by the heat and is stiffer.

It's bent some where, find the bend/s and fix that. Forceing the piping into place can cause other issues you may not wish to deal with later.

 

Check the trans mount. If it has let the trans drop, you'll never get the exhaust back into place till you replace the mount.

 

Are you sure there is no hanger(rubber) that goes between the transmission bracket and the exhaust? Looking at the parts on Mazdatrix I see some rubber hangers are for the transmissions bracket and some are for the other hanger areas. Seems to depend on year as to which go where.