Welding 14bFF axle tubes?

[Mudbug1979]

How many of you have welded the axle tubes on their FF? I know that it's a pretty strong housing, I was just wondering if it would help out in the rigidity of the whole thing. Preventative maintinence ya know!!!!!

 

[jjlaughner]

From what I've heard the tubes are just pressed in.
Because of that I'm going to lay a couple welds in the seams to keep them there.

 

[BadDog]

Just pressed in? Not at all... They are pressed in and then rosette welded through the housing collars. Welding the tube on the outside is generally considered not ideal due to the stresses placed on the housing, but lots do it without bad effect. This point has been debated to death and "weld or not" comes down to who is doing the talking. I have considered partially welding mine just because some people have had the rosettes break loose and let the housing turn, but that's very rare. And I say partially welding (as in a couple of 1-2" long beads rather than a full fillet all the way around) since it would not be nearly as stressful on the housing collars as a full weld would be. Sort of a compromise approach…

 

[Mudbug1979]

Yeah, that what I was thinking about just doing a strip across the top and bottom. One of those "Just In Case" welds ya know. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif

 

[K5MONSTERCHEV]

How often do you see the welds crack, or the tube twist in the housing. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif

 

[jjlaughner]

[ QUOTE ]
Just pressed in? Not at all... They are pressed in and then rosette welded through the housing collars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I guess so, I knew the fronts where that way, I haven't payed that much attention to the 14b yet, I got my cover done and ground down.

[ QUOTE ]
And I say partially welding (as in a couple of 1-2" long beads rather than a full fillet all the way around)

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah just a tack weld to help out, I wouldn't try to seam seal a axle tube. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif

 

[JK5]

I have a project 14bff I'm working on...
and I was thinking about this subject myself...
but I'm going to weld an axle truss to it first..
so the tubes don't pull. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif



About 4 months ago...
I popped 2 spot welds...rockcrawling at Badlands..
So..I had to MIG the spot welds...

The housing is a ductile cast...so welding to it...was a breeze. /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif

 

[Triaged]

If you are going to weld it just partially I would weld it up front and back and leave the top and bottom.

When I get some bigger tires I'm going to just weld the whole thing and add a truss in there as well. /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif /forums/images/graemlins/weld.gif /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif