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Onboard welder-Part II

Re: Onboard welder

The internaly regulated Ford alts have a black regulator hooked to the back of them that the wiring plugs into.Newer ones are internaly regulated.

Mine has Bat,Fld,Sta,and Gnd on the back.

Do ya need a serpentine pully .Im pretty sure I got one somewhere for a Ford alt.
 
Re: Onboard welder

I too am going to install an onboard welder. I ran across the site that tells about doing it with a non regulated ford alternator and found that to be a cool idea. I am going to try to mount mine in the place where the air pump would have been on my 89 blazer. I will need to find a serp pulley though that is the 6 groove type like gm uses.
 
SWEET! I like!. I think I have a future project. I even have the air pump brakets! I had thought about running a second alternator off them but didn't know if it could be done. I might rig it to charge a second battery when not using the welder.
Why didn't you put a 110v plug on it so you can run a blender and make Daquires? hehehehe I want the 110v so I can run a grinder and sawzall. When Dep busted that shaft last year he had to cut an ear off the shaft to get it out. Made short work of it with his onboard and a grinder.
A REAL cool trick one of the guys in my club did was fish a bronken set of splines out of a diff with a welder. He welded a couple rods end to end. Slid a peice of fuel line over them to make sure they didn't short to the tube and insulate near the seal. Slid them down the tube and centered up on the busted shaft and had somebody else tap the stinger to the rods real quick. That stuck the rod to the broken shaft and TADA. Pulled the shaft right out and saved about an hour pulling the diff appart.
 
Iv seen the get the splines outa the dif trick before.Thats pretty cool.

I was gonna put outlets for 110v on the box but I dont realy wanna rev my engine at 2k for any longer than I have to /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I think Im just gonna get an inverter to run power tools and stuff that way I can run them as long as I want without having to rev the pee outa the engine /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
So Frizz.... Thow me a bone here... /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif I'm sorta competent mechanically, but I'm electrically pretty dumb /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif...

What's the output voltage of this setup? Is it DC? Is the amperage adjustable somehow? Have you actually stuck some sh!t together with it? What rods did you use? What components are inside your "black box"?

Thanks for your help,

Clueless...... Er, I mean - Marv /forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
I've got a couple of q's about this... I think I understand the main idea behind all this and how it works and that the biggest concern is burning up your truck. But if you totally isolated the system such as a seperate batt., mount the alt. with rubber bushings and ground everything to the - side of the batt. Then you could weld on your own truck and not have to worry about grounding out your system if something were to fail? I dont know if this would work and if not then why>

Thanks and great job!

Chris
 
Im sorta electricly dumb too /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The amperage is not adjustable,you get the max the alt puts out.

The voltage is adjustabe with engine speed and it is DC.

I have stuck some stuff together and it works pretty good.I can only get 101v at 2k rpm but its an old alt. and has a whole lotta miles on it.Iv see other people using the same alt and gettin 150-200v.

I see most recomending 6011 rod.I was foolin with 6013 and it was ok.A stick welder I am not /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Whats in the black box?Wire to make my connections to the welding outlets,on/off switch and light,and DC volt meter..Thats it.No magic.

Lemme know if ya got any more questions /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Im not too worried about burnin up my truck because the second alt it on its own little system and there isnt a whole lot to burn up.Cant run a battery in the system cuz the alt puts out between 40 and 100 volts.

Iv heard different stuff about welding on the same truck as the welder.Some say to weld on the same vehicle ya have to make the rod - and the ground clamp + and others say you can weld on your own rig either way and that it doesnt matter.
 
Just latching on to this so I can use the info at a later date to many projects! Looks good and cheap at that! good job!
 
Re: Onboard welder

Looks pretty good.Have to check it out this weekend.


/forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif


couldnt hook up ARB this week waiting for 35spline shafts. /forums/images/graemlins/truck.gif
 
Just thought I would give an update on this project /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

I broke a front shackle the afternoon of the first day of our 3 day trip.We finished the trail and I took it apart when we got back to camp.I cleaned the break a little with a file,clamped the two pieces to a piece of steel,spun the engine up to 2500 or so,and went to town /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif It worked great,it got pleanty hot with good penetration (I used 6013 rod).

We wheeled Dusy Ershim the next day which is super gnarly in spots and the weld survived .

2434weld2.jpg
 
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Frizz, glad to hear the welder is working out for ya. How about the "welding on your own truck" thing? Have you done it yet? Did the D44 Detroit work out for ya?
 
I havent welded on anything that was still hooked to the truck yet.I think from what I have read that to weld on the same vehicle you weld with the electrode being negative which is the way I weld either way.Im gonna look for more info on that cuz hooking your positive lead to ground (the vehicle)doesnt sound quite right /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I was gonna fix the Detroit but I got to thinkin that I would probably end up doin the same thing again so I decided not to fix it.Im lookin at an ARB /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
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I mounted the control box where I did because thats as far as I could get it with the cables I had layin around /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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If amp output is fairly constant (not volts), and all I want to do is weld, why is a voltmeter needed?
 
Its not needed but I wanted to see what the voltage is.When I have used it,I rev the engine up to 2000+ RPM to get high voltage baecause what I have welded is fairly thick so Im not worried about blowing through it.I think if I was welding thinner metal and needed less power it would be cool to be able to adjust the RPM while watching the meter til I got it where I wanted it.

Chris
 
Any belt slippage problems with the way you've run the belt? I've read the initial load when you strike an arc is pretty hefty.
 
Re: Onboard welder

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Hey Marv,the alt I have I think is for a Lincoln Mk7.You can get 90-100 amp alts from late 70s to mid 80s Mustangs,Capris,Cown Vic,Country Squrie,LTD,Grand Marq,Town Car,TBird,Cougar,Mk7,and maybe trucks and vans too.Not all of them are the high amp models and I dont know how ya can tell by lookin at them.I think the one I have is gonna die.When it does I think I gonna get one at Autozone with a lifetime waranty. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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Did you ever replace the alternator? If so did it work better? Higher voltage etc.? Also are you able to narrow the search or be able to indentify higher amp Ford alternators? Thanks, James.
 
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