Talon's Garage Catalytic Converter Clearance from driver's side cat converter

Hey folks, I was out installing the talon's garage 2022 anti-theft catalytic converter plate for my Tundra and found the plate really narrow towards the driver side catalytic converter. I'll attach some photos but I'm guessing it's between 1/4" and 3/8" between the wing that turns up towards the cab and the driver side outer most edge of the actual catalytic converter. Can anyone else who has the plate confirm/deny what clearance they're seeing on their installed plate? You can see in this photo where I scratched the converter lifting the plate into place. For reference I did try to maximize this space by shifting the plate as much to the driver side as possible.



Finger for reference

 

@Dmoeller1 @Taikowaza @hivetyrant I was hoping maybe y'all could weigh in since you have one installed too.

 

I do recall the clearance being tight, but it's not been an issue. Do you have a particular concern? It shouldn't cause any interference unless your frame twists, but then you'll have bigger problems going on at that point.

 

I think for security reasons the tighter the better.

 

The frame does twist - a little. It's natural, and is a reason for other tolerances built into the truck (e.g., the distance between the front bumper and grille surrounds on the 2.5 gen). Plus, things shake around. The exhaust system is hung from rubber hangers for a reason. I don't know if any of that matters for that particular situation, but it might. I'd take a peek under there every hundred miles or so for the next few hundred, and maybe again if you go offroad, tow, or anything else that physically stresses the truck, just to be sure there aren't any new scratches on the cat.

 

It is pretty tight. So much so that I didn’t think it would fit. But I haven’t had any issues. No rattling or apparent rubbing.

 

Look about the same as mine. Have had no problems at all.

 

I'll check mine out when I'm home tomorrow, I've done a lot of rough driving with it so should see if there is any impact.

 

I called Talon's yesterday and was able to get the pictures to the shop. I was told it is intended to be a tight fit and shouldn't cause problems.

 

Where did u all get these?

 

Talonsgarage.com

 

Hello I was putting in my shield and i realised that the hole on the driver side doesnt have anything above it where as there are lines running thru the transmission on the right side. They want me to put the longer bolt on the passanger side but i cant get my hand up in there plus that is the hex size for the bigger bolts. Thank you

 

Is there a question in there? @Pg1329 Can you take a picture of what you're talking about?

 

i put that bolt first on the passanger side without reading any instructions then read instructions so they said put it on the passanger side but there are cables and a black box there i am not the best person with cars sorry dont know what it is

 

Can you help me as to where did u install that long screw driver side or the passangers side?

 

@Pg1329
I followed the instructions, but here are some more detail about how I thought through the install.

Mentally I broke the job down into three parts
1. Alignment to make it easier to put the bolts into place
2. Checking the shield's clearance relative to the driver side catalytic converter
3. Tightening the bolts into place

For part 1, I put the longer bolt requiring a washer and nut up in the larger hole on the left side of this photo that has the 2 holes circled (fig. 1). For that part I used a flat wrench on top of the cross member and a hex on the bottom. I left plenty of slack in the bolt because at this point it's basically there to help hold the plate up and in place while you attach the other bolts. I left all the bolts loose enough to allow for me to align the plate to the other holes. This photo (figure 1) shows the front most attachment points of the truck only .

Then I put in a longer bolt on the rear driver side (in figure 2 which shows the rear most attachment points only). Then I added the passenger side long bolt on the rear frame.



Then I came back to the front and used the smaller bolts that thread into the remaining two smaller threaded holes in figure 1. I used blue lock-tite here for my own piece of mind. These smaller bolts don't have a nut of course since the hole itself is threaded.

2.) I made sure to give as much clearance with the plate as possible to the driver side cat converter (which you can see me asking about above)

3.) Then, after getting them finger tight, I torqued down all the bolts.

 

I did everything the same but on the first step where u put the long bolt on the passanger side i put it on the driver side so i took it out and tried putting it on the passanger side after i had my whole plate installed. Now i cant get my hand up there to tighten the bolt

 

@Pg1329 To double check, you've got the hex bolt going upwards and the nut on top of the member? Honestly, if you want it installed that way you may have to take it off and start from step 1.

 

this is what im scared of that bolt hitting those 2 lines on top they are so close

 

I take mine offroading twice a month and have not had any issues. I have noticed some squeaking noise due to slight frame twist from offroad articulation. I ended up putting a hard plastic spacer from Ace Hardware to mitigate the problem. So far its been quiet.

 

I believe the long bolt up front is just to hold the shield up while installing the other four bolts. Once I got the two small front bolts threaded I then removed the long bolt that I had used to hold the cat shield .