southernyota90

i broke both my upper control arm brackets. i need some ideas on how to fix it or some one to make me some. i've re welded them way to many times and i cant any more.

scuba

Pictures of the break would help us in suggesting ways to fix it.

southernyota90

southernyota90

shaeff

Woah. You need to learn how to weld before trying to fix that again. Those welds look terrible and porous.

I don't intend that to sound mean, but it's the truth. I'm willing to bet that when you were welding it sounded like a drive-by shooting.

A few tips from a fellow armature welder:

1) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have a perfect ground. Replace the crappy ground clamp that came on the welder, unless you have an old welder with a good, COPPER ground clamp. Not the crappy plated stamped steel ones. They're junk.

2) If you're using a shielding gas, make sure you've got good pressure and that the nozzle isn't clogged up with weld splatter. If you're using

3) Practice on a piece of steel about the same thickness as what you intend to weld. It'll help you dial in the welder before you touch anything that needs to be fixed properly.

4) The areas you're welding have to be super clean. Ground down to bare metal, groove any cracks with a cutoff wheel on your grinder, deadhead them, weld the cracks up, properly, grind back to stock height, then plate over it for reinforcement. DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEANER TO CLEAN AREAS TO BE WELDED! It makes noxious chlorine gas that can kill you as soon as you touch the welder to it. It can also cause you to have severe spasms for the rest of your life!

5) Keep the ground clamp as close as possible to the area you're welding, but not in your way.

6) Watch the weld puddle. It can tell you a LOT about the quality of your weld. Make sure you've got a good angle, and that your stickout is proper.

Welds like those you posted above are indicative of a terrible ground. Looks like bird poop. The arc should be smooth, like bacon in a frying pan. Constant. Not like a drive-by shooting.

I hope that helps some!

southernyota90

haha. they have been welded like 4 times the fist two times where mine and they look alot better than the top welds(my dad). i took machine shop and welding in high school. thanks for the tips though. i work at a machine shop and we have a laser machine and i can make brackets at work. but time is an issue so i was wondering if you guys could help me out with some faster ideas. i i really need it fixed by next week. any website that makes ftermarket ones would be awesome. or if you of you guyson here could make me some. and ship them to me. that would be great too. or if someone could just tell me the agle that the bracket is at while its sitting on the axle. any thng would be helpfull. thanks

SCToy

no matter who did the welding you need to clean the surface before you try slapping stuff together. Welds much thicker than the parent metal are not necessarily stronger. It actually creates a point of stress which is more likely to fail.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Gives new meaning to booger welds.
Time might be of the essence, use some time to do it right.

Search ballistic fab

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

:wabbit2:

southernyota90

well guys i ordered the ballistic fab link brackets... thanks for all the info. imma pu my axle back on possision it all the right way tack my brackets on and take it all back off and bring my axle to work and get one of the guys to weld it up. ill post pics when its all done.

shaeff

I can't see the pics right now as I'm at work and images are blocked, but from what my memory tells me it doesn't look like you were welding hot enough, and that you had a bad ground. Please don't take offense, but it doesn't matter how many courses you take if you don't follow what they tell you. I taught myself to weld, first by watching many, many videos ( www.weldingtipsandtricks.com is a fantastic resource!) and playing around with scrap metal. I've been welding about a year and mine look much, much nicer than that.

You get out what you put in. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Too many people think ER70S6 wire will just burn through everything with the extra silicon, but I don't care what wire is being used, get the work surface and project as clean and oil/debris/rust free as humanly possible. And never, EVER use brake cleaner to clean your work.

Telltale signs:

-Not hot enough = the weld piles up high. There's little to no penetration which is exactly how I recall your pics looking.

- Bad ground = the bird poop look/booger welds.

What did the arc sound like when you were welding? Again, I'm going to guess it sounded like a drive-by shooting. You need a clean, constant sizzle- like bacon frying is the usual comparison. Sometimes you'll get so smooth of an arc that it sounds like a buzz, but a lot of that depends on the welding machine.

I know wabbit here is a welder/fabricator. Perhaps he can better elaborate on what I've touched base on. As I said, I'm self taught, only been doing it a year, and plan to take courses in metallurgy/welding to further my knowledge, experience, and skill in MIG, then move to TIG.

southernyota90

well i got the brackets cut off and the axle cleaned up pretty good. links should be here in the next couple of days. hope to have it done by this weekend. i bought new breaks to put on the rear and while taking the old ones off i realized i had a slight wobble on the passenger side. so i took the axle shaft out of the housing and i have a large amount of play in the bearing. i got on here yesterday to figure out how to get it off, i tried the method of of hitting it on something that was hard enough yet soft enough that it wouldnt mushroom, but it didnt work out as planned. so off to work with me it goes to use our huge press to get it off...

here's some pictures of the axle.
http://s1047.photobucket.com/albums/...10510-1901.jpg

shaeff

Post pics when you're done! And weld it better this time.