I spoke with the seller of the 98 Outback exhaust.  http://nh.craigslist.org/pts/3625761662.html   He says he has the cat/s (not sure if both or just one) and the o2 sensors as well.  I'm going to check it out this afternoon. 

 

Bratman said above that the 98 outback exhaust should fit my 97 brighton as long as it is wagon to wagon.  I have gotten mixed part numbers from different sites.  Some match, some don't.  Does anyone else have any experience with this as I don't think i will be able to tell just looking at ).

The front section won't fit. 97 Brighton would have single port 2.2.

 

Everything else should fit fine.

I got one bolt off on Friday but couldn't even get a wrench on the other bolt. I'll use a lift and get it eventually. I need to get the heat shields off and I should be able to get it but I didn't want to be cutting them off right next to my face.

The new exhaust looks identical. I dragged it under the car and it seems to be the same. I am connecting from the flange just upstream from the first cat. Is there something I don't know?

Is it really important to reinstall the heat shields? They will probably be a pain as the screws are rusted to junk. Thanks for the help

New exhaust is on. It fit perfect but now i have a bunch of codes. I started anew thread for new problem. It seems like whenever I fix something on this car something else goes wrong before I'm finished.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/136952-replaced-exhaust-and-i-have-codes-now/?p=1151758