Hello out there, I have a welding job to do on a blown street/strip car I am building and looking for advice on the best way to make this strong. I have tacked these upper control arm mounts in place. Was originally just going to do a common hot weld all around. Then, got to thinking how I could make it stronger. I thought of removing the mount and drilling and tapping it on the underside and then drilling a hole in the housing. This way, I would be to be able to attach the mount with a 7/16" bolt first from inside the housing and then weld it. Then, thought about gussets. Any advice on how to make these mounts as strong as is possible? They will see a lot of stress. Am using a Millermatic 200 mig welder. Should this method and machine be acceptable for his job? thank you
NOPE!----Looks good!---Chuck up the unit in a lathe, make sure the flanges are parrallel with each other.
Just weld them on and then add gussets that wrap around/over onto the backside, or make new bigger uppers that wrap.
It looks like it will be good. I'm sure that you know about warping when you weld on a housing. I weld everything up then cut the ends off and using a narrowing jig, re weld the ends. Warping gone!
I have a 9" done like that where it was plated across the front of the ears..instead of gussets a solid plate laid back from the top of the housing to the top of the front ears. its done in circle track..
Bolts shouldnt do anything there... if the weld is good it'll rip a hole in the case instead of breaking the weld in my opinion
That appears to be 1" thick tab that you welding to a 1/8"? thick housing.... I am a certified welder and I have a gob in my shop that is requiring me to weld a 1" thick angle to a 3/16" thick tube. I have found that if I don't pre-heat the 1" thick that the weld is cracking as it cools down. This was confirmed be two independent welding inspectors. So... You need to remove the rubber bushings, heat the tabs up to 300 degree's or so and then do a 1/4" weld all the way around the tab, but not all at the same time. Weld your two 1" wide welds first and wrap them around the sides of the longer welds. This will make sure you don't heat up one side more than the other and have the tab move on you during welding. Oh, and you must clean all that area before you do any welding. You can not weld on top of surface rust or any rust and expect to get a good weld! This includes under the tab.
The tab material is 3/4" thick. Yes, it is dirty, as this was tacked and fitted a few years back. It is now time to continue. The bushings are in place to fit the housing to the chassis. They will need to be replaced after welded. So, the adding the bolt idea will not do much? Preheating the thicker metal is something I did not think of. I really appreciate sharing that. Thank you all who posted for the advice. If anyone else has comments, please advise. thank you.
I would love to see new brckets that go all the way back to where the housing turns over to the back. The thin metal that you have the brackets attached to will probably quickly fatigue and crack out, You need to increase the width of the base and put the ends over vertical members.
What stops the bush from moving outwards of the bracket when under a lot of stress? I always get a certified welder to do these jobs - for safety and because we have too. Listen to rdomeck. I just did a farm welding job in a hurry and the weld cracked immediately because I didn't preheat the 50 mm (2") piece of steel.
Lots of good advice here but no mention of making it work after welding. Any time you weld on a rear end housing no matter where it is, it is going to warp. Here is an excerpt from a HAMB thread on welding on rear ends from back in 2008. "Default Re: advice on welding brackets to rear end housing Dusty has covered this subject very well. I have seen mention of straightening these housings after welding but no mention of the procedure. Briefly, here it is. 4 plugs are needed. 2 will be pressed in the outer bearing areas. The other 2 will be installed in the carrier bearing saddles. These plugs have holes thru them that are absolutely concentric with the outside dia. of the plug..The size of the holes is not critical, just something that a STANDARD size piece of turned ground and polished bar stock can be obtained for but large as practical for the housing. The fit will be a slip fit. (.002-.003) The bar is inserted in one end and slid thru. If it goes thru all 4 plugs and turns freely, you are done with the job. I have never seen that happen the first time. When the bar won't go thru a plug, you make note of the direction of the interference. Depending on what area of the housing (end or center) you heat briefly (300 deg) on the opposite side with a torch and hit it with water to cool as fast as possible. It takes a lot of practice to get the hang of this. Sorry, no easy way here. I did all the rear ends for the Roger Penske racing team back in the 60's after a couple of really sharp guys showed me how to do it." Pete
The Jalopy Journal
