Leaf spring "U" bolt axle clamps

[Hedgehog]

While working on the CJ's Dana 44 rear axle I a few things became obvious. First a PO welded on a set of spring perches on opposite to the stock perches. Obviously he used these perches to ran with spring overs for some time. The next thing that was obvious was that he didn't know how to tighten the "U" bolt clamps. This was made obvious because almost the entire diameter of the axle tubes there is a ring, not a small ring, but a Deeply WARN ring. Any mechanical person couldn't help but imagine the axle tube simply snapping off right there.

So, I pulled out the handy welder, turned up the heat and started to fill the grooves. I didn't do it in one pass. Each ring got several welds a little at a time in an attempt to control heat as much as possible. Weld a little, move on, weld a little, move on, wire brush the welds, weld a little more, wire brush. When it looked like there was enough fill the wire wheel was traded for a flap wheel. All the welds were ground smooth, voids or missed low spots were welded some more, wire brushed, then ground and polished smooth with the flap wheel.





Your seeing the repair AND a PO's handy work on the perches. At first I was going to cut the things off, but got to thinking they've been there for a while and can't hurt.

Now that I've done the work I can't help but wonder if I've done something wrong. Did I make a bad thing worse? To keep the welds from being brittle they were left to cool in the air, no water was used to speed things up. God knows what the welding metal is on a flux core mig.

 

[tarry99]

Hopefully the tubes are still straight.............might want to check and see if your axles still go in............most folks that are forced to weld in the center of the tubes have the axle re-straightened ..........axles shops have a wide 50 ton press just for that purpose.

 

[Hedgehog]

TARRY - Just went out, grabbed the axles and they slid right in to place. They even turn the way you'd expect an open differential to work. I'm itching to hook up the power and see the thing lock up.