welding on the rearend ?

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ratrodroy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
Messages
80
Location
Geneseo KS
What is the best way to weld brackets on the rearend I am useing Old Arc and was told I could fry the wheel bearings. Is this true:confused:
 
If you don't have the housing braced in a jig you stand a good chance of warping the axle housings. Then you will be constantly chewing up wheel bearings...
 
Depends on the axle. some have the bearings inboard, and some out. Be aware of where the bearings are. Don't get it too hot, or you can bend the whole thing. And a side not, be careful where you ground your welder, so as not to run through the bearings.
 
We were just talking about this recently. As much as you hear about rear axle warpage from welding, we have welded brackets on a bunch of them over the years and haven't had a problem, and we don't have a jig.

The thing we do though is to not get the housing too hot at any one time, and we skip around so one side is cooling while we are doing the other. Obviously, it would be best to have a jig or to straighten the rear after welding, but I bet the majority of rears done have just been done the way we do them with no problems.

Don
 
If you don't have a jig, another thing is don't try to cool it of, just let it cool on it's own.
What kind of rear is it ?
 
What is the best way to weld brackets on the rearend I am useing Old Arc and was told I could fry the wheel bearings. Is this true:confused:

You need to make sure the ground cable to the welder is connected to the housing, not the axle flange or pinion yoke. I know the ground clamp won't open enough to get on the axle tube, so use a big pair of vice grips to clamp on the tube, then put the ground clamp on to the vice grip.We weld them like this all the time.
 
You need to make sure the ground cable to the welder is connected to the housing, not the axle flange or pinion yoke. I know the ground clamp won't open enough to get on the axle tube, so use a big pair of vice grips to clamp on the tube, then put the ground clamp on to the vice grip.We weld them like this all the time.
Doing it this way is EXACTLY the way to avoid frying the bearings. The idea is that if the electricity has to "jump gap" through the bearings, it can weld the bearing to its cage.
 
I just put mine up on jackstands to support them an if concerned about to close to a bearing just tie a wet towel around the shaft to dissipate heat.
 
Welded alot of brackets on axles w no issues... I do agree that never weld through a bearing... If you have existing mounts on the axle give em a grind and use them for grounding... or the bracket your adding put the ground clamp on it and get it where you want and a few tack welds and your good for the whole thing... And watch heat out tward the ends cause all axles have some kind of bearings at the ends of the tubes...and seals, I do agree with the wet towel idea, used it before and works great to help with heat... I dont have a jig but I do take all the weight off the axle and loads when welding...
 
I had a rusty old 1970 lincoln that needed the frame patched at the dogleg

I had clipped the ground lead to the rear axle and because it was mounted in rubber bushings the electricity made a path through the axle>Driveshaft>engine>voltage regulator>frame


DERP
 

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