need help removing exhaust!

I just removed the muffler on my 97 teg and i got to the three bolts on the cat. Can I just unscrew the three bolts showing or do i need to remove the heat shield to get to the front of the bolt to remove it? Cuz I'm having a helluva time trying to get the bolts off. they are rusted pretty bad. help!!

what pieces of the exhaust will you be reusing??

you more than likely will need to take off the heat shield if you are removing the cat, if not, you should be able to access the bolts from the open side to drop the rest of the exhaust out.

9 times out of 10...they break. Regardless, if you remove the 'spring/bolt' you should replace them with new ones. I am not sure about the heat sheild, but you need to be able to get to both sides (the nut side and the bolt side) to remove them...otherwise they are just going to spin as you try to turn them.

yeah, you'll have to remove the head shield to get to the other side of the bolt. if they are stuck, you gotta use a torch and heat em up a bit. when I did mine, they broke off. and had to get new ones.

i took it to a local garage and asked them to help me out. they used a pneumatic and removed the three nuts in 30 seconds, didn't have to take the heat shield off, just unscrewed it. nothing was broken either. man i wish i had tools like that. anyway, after that it took me about 15 minutes to bolt on the new cat-back exhaust.

thanks for the replies everyone.