Steering arms

I have it in mind that cutting and welding your steering arms (i.e. the link between the rack and the wheels) is a bad idea. am i right, or being overly cautious? can they be cut and welded safely?

 

A little more info would be great.
What are you trying to accomplish and what is the vehicle?
What spindle is being used?
In my mind, if you need to cut and weld your steering arms then you already made a mistake somewhere else in the steering system.
What have you changed from stock to get to this point????

 

Depends on how good your welding is.

 

First the material needs to be weldable. Second try to avoid a straight butt joint a lap or double >> would be better. Bevel to get 100% penatration and TIG weld.

 

What Unkl Ian says. If you are a good welder and have a good machine, Mig, tig or arc welder would do the job in the right hands. I see no problems welding steering arms. Gene

 

my apologies for being vague.
the car is a '49 chevy, and I'm in the process of converting over to an Audi power steering rack.

The part that I'm asking about welding is the arm from the rack that joins up with the wheel station. It might not even be called a steering arm LOL! tie rod maybe? steering link arm?

anyhow, they are steel tube, and the thread is wrong for the chevy ball joints. I was curious if there was a simple way of getting the correct thread into the end of these "arms/links".
If i cut the metric portion of thread off, then they will be too short to simply re-tap.
so, i wondered if it would be safe enough (given best welding practice) to somehow splice the orig chevy link into the new Audi ones?
any thoughts will be gratefully recieved

 

Sounds like a Tie Rod.

 

Cutting and welding tie rods is no big deal if done correctly. If you don't want to weld, a adapter can be made. Here's some pics from a Lotus 7 kit car site where modifying r/p tie rods is common.

 

It's frowned on by the powers that be...but thats never stopped me before!

I'd chamfer the cut on both sides of the join, use a high amperage welder to weld the joint and then tightly sleeve it externally. The sleeve would be joined to both halfs of the welded tierod tube with opposing plug welds and no end welds where the sleeve ends off. This prevents a location for a stress riser.
You could also drill a hole right thru the sleeve alone, on both ends, and then cut out the metal from the end of the sleeve to the holes.
That will leave a slot from the hole to the end of the sleeve.
Weld inside the slots but not the end of the sleeve.
A slot gives you better penetration iand visability as you weld...if the plug welds would have needed to be extra small or whatever.

This is steering. MAKE SURE the weldor knows what he's doing!