I have a single 2 1/4" exhaust pipe going over the axle, and with the new stainless steel braided flex hose, it comes to within about 1" of the exhaust pipe. Should I be worried? How close was the stock rubber pipe to the exhaust?

The one on my car is more than 1" inch away from the tailpipe (stock exhaust). If your car does'nt have a catalytic converter, I would wrap the hose in some sort of heat resistant wrap, sort of like what they use on headers. If it does have a cat, I would try moving it over some because that tailpipe gets hot with a cat. I think the clearance on my car is a good 3-4 inches. I would try to move it over before I tried anything else.

_________________
82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2