So you push your 1st gen offroad - what cracks next?

My pockets aren't that deep right now.

 

At the rate Ryan and I are going, a factory housing should last long enough for us to break at least a dozen other things.

 

Any chance trussing your stock axles could have prevented the cracking? Like what’s causing the crack, the forces at the perch or not enough stiffness of the overall housing? I know people typically truss (I mean I think I know anyway) to prevent bending the housing or an axle but wasn’t sure if that would have helped here too.

 

Not wanting to be a further contributor to the dramas in this thread. I tried to do a close inspection of the passenger side coil bucket when I was in there today swapping out the axle.

Found it quite challenging to be able to see very much along the top of the bucket. But then had an idea. I use the phone camera to get up in there.

Here is a video of the inspection. It has been 5,000 miles since the coil buckets were installed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxNQ4JE8Dt4

 

Is that a crack already forming on the front-most bolt visible on the top AND bottom?

 

hm did you do you motor mounts? You headers are smacking your coil bucket.

 

I'll look at it closer tomorrow. The bucket is much dirtier than it looked like to me. I had wiped it down but obviously missed quite a bit. There are a lot of streaks. I'll see if those lines rub out.

Self clearancing.

Yes, new rubber. That happened on the first adventure back in April. Happened the first time I used 4lo. It doesn't touch at all in any other situations.

 

@Squeaky Penguin started to truss his but I think discovered that it's tough to beef up that spot. I just picked up some 3" schedule 40 pipe to lay down and then I'll weld perches on top. This is how the axle is on my t100 so I'm guessing Toyota realized it as a weak point in a heavier duty truck. I'm guessing it's due to fatigue cycles.

 

why didn't you put some poly mounts in?

 

I think the axle is caving in around the perch due to the thin wall thickness of the axles tubes.

A top truss might be easier then a back one like I tried to fit, but I think your idea of doubling it up there and welding one a new perch is a solid idea.

 

1st photo is the one that was weaping. All of the insides are cracked. @Digiratus don't assume that if it ain't crying that it's happy.

 

Interesting it's all the inside welds. Still. ouch.

 

And that's why cold starts/stops are bad, and why run off tabs are important.

 

Wow. Will take a closer look.

Do you think those are all assembly line welds that were done by a machine?

 

This is very similar to what we saw on the LCA shock mount tabs.

 

Yes, those are almost certainly assembly line machine welds. Same with the LCA tabs, with the same result. It is very difficult for a machine to turn a tight radius weld, if they really needed the strength or fatigue resistance there would be runoff tabs that would then be cut off at the end of the weld.

But they didn't design these for fatigue resistance because, ya know, they weren't designed to do this ^

 

that's terrific info; thanks

 

Looks familiar. Mine was leaking at all four inside corners.

I think there were cracks staring on the outside welds too, but I don't remember for sure. That housing ended up in the scrap bin.

 

Talking with a certified welder from work he recommended I not weld the top part to alleviate stress there. Anyone else feel the same? Hope my 2d sketch gets the point across. That will be pipe cut in half. Squiggles are welds.

 

It's wrapping around the bottom of the axle tube underneath the perch, right? I think you'll want to tie it into the perch somehow, so that the stresses are taken by the pipe section and distributed to the underside of the axle.