whats the best way to...

[beater_k20]

remove the spring perches from my 14FF?

i've got several different grinders, and access to torches and a plasma cutter. whats the best way to get these things off of there? any tips on not damaging the tubes in the process?

 

[tRustyK5]

Use an angle grinder to grind out the welds as best you can, then beat them off the tubes with a BFH. If you grind into the tubes it's not the end of the world...just fill up the boo-boos with the welder and grind it smooth.

Rene

 

[Corey 78K5]

When I did mine I took off most of the weld with a 4" grinder then got into the grove a little better with an air die grinder.

 

[sled_dog]

Use an angle grinder to grind out the welds as best you can, then beat them off the tubes with a BFH. If you grind into the tubes it's not the end of the world...just fill up the boo-boos with the welder and grind it smooth.

Rene

That plus a chisel is what I do. I seem to ALWAYS grind into the axle when I do this. But like Rene said, 10 minutes with the welder and a couple with a grinder and that section looks like the nicest section of tube on the axle.

 

[thatK30guy]

Like Rene said, grinder and BFH.

The '84 and older rears use cast perches which take more time to remove. Plan on using the grinder and BFH.

The '85 and newer rears use a stamped steel perch which can be removed quickly with access to a plasma cutter. A torch will suffice, too. If neither of these can be had, grinding does the job but not as fast as these two.

 

[beater_k20]

its a '73... and cast perches. im gonna bust out the grinder tomorrow.

 

[beastofablaze]

hope you don't crack it... I'd hit it with the plasma if your fairly confident leaving about 3/16" then just sand the rest down with one of those little 4 inch flapper sanding wheels... it'll look like it was polished and you won't need to worry about crackin it with a chisel. If you have acces to the equipment use it. Makes life so much easier.

I don't know if you've ever welded cast but its one of the hardest things you can do with a mig welder. Yeah you might get it to stick but hit once or twice with a hammer and you'll see cracks. You want to stay away from welding cast with mig if you can. If you have tig then it'll be fine.

I do this stuff for a living and believe me... use the plasma and grind the rest smooth. You shouldn't need a chisel.

 

[sled_dog]

hope you don't crack it... I'd hit it with the plasma if your fairly confident leaving about 3/16" then just sand the rest down with one of those little 4 inch flapper sanding wheels... it'll look like it was polished and you won't need to worry about crackin it with a chisel. If you have acces to the equipment use it. Makes life so much easier.

I don't know if you've ever welded cast but its one of the hardest things you can do with a mig welder. Yeah you might get it to stick but hit once or twice with a hammer and you'll see cracks. You want to stay away from welding cast with mig if you can. If you have tig then it'll be fine.

I do this stuff for a living and believe me... use the plasma and grind the rest smooth. You shouldn't need a chisel.

...if you do this for a living I have a question for you, why don't you realize the axle tubes are mild steel? I'm pretty certain the perches are cast steel. And I know for a fact the tubes are standard mild steel tube... Cast steel can be welded just as easily as mild steel tubing or sheet, how do you think spindle ends and inner knuckles are attached? Cast Iron is where it becomes a problem.

 

[beastofablaze]

because I never really looked at them.... never had a reason to find out what kind of metal it is but I do know my perches are cracked almost all the way through and they look like someone migged em after the lift was put on... cast is cast. Potmetal no matter what kind is a weaker metal. Like I said if you can tig cast then it'll be fine so there is your spindle and knuckle answer. Mig it to some mild steel and it'll fall off with a few good whacks beleive me.

Oh yeah, when I said it was hard I didn't mean it was hard to get it to look good or get fp etc I meant it's hard to make it strong. You HAVE to tig potmetal for a strong weld... otherwise it's just pointless... it may be ok if you just patch holes because it's not a load bearing weld. At least thats how we do it where I work.

 

[beastofablaze]

Well the verdict is in... I was wrong. I talked to a guy that has been fabbing for 30 something years today at work and turns out you can mig cast iron and cast steel but you need to use the right stuff.

Cast iron you need to use nickel wire... cast steel just micro wire and 75/25 argon and c02.

My bad