Tough day on the trail- 2x CVs blown out

Just welded my front diff reinforcement kit yesterday. It’s not the prettiest but it’s strong as hell. I have been chasing a clunk/pop sound for a while now. After the install I’ve gone for a few short drives and it’s dead silent now. I always got the sound going over a speed bump, turning into a sloped driveway or while off-road when the truck is off camber. I wheel my truck hard and my theory is that over time the thin metal will weaken allowing the diff to flex and the hole to ovalize. When it does fail it breaks through the cross member like OP had happen

 

Well congrats on making your fix and solving a problem. Me, As a fabricator those welds are a bit scary… you are getting a grinder for christmas! Jokes- but for real- I would take a hardstone to all those welds and create a new area for a filet. Then wire wheel the living piss out of that area - clean it realllly well. Then get some scrap steel and practice welding the scrap overhead, in a tight space before you go after welding that up again. Once you do get your settings just right knowing that the OE mount is thin and the kit is 1/4. So you will hang out in the 1/4 and whip it quickly to the mount. It takes practice welding dissimilar metals.
That area takes a ton of stress and I would hate for those welds to fail and then transfer all that force elsewhere and break more stuff. If you have the time, please do it. No hate for you trying to do it, but those welds do need some improvement. You will see if you grind them, they will look like a sponge, full of porosity and bubbles. Happy to give any tips in a DM or even over the phone. holler!

 

Thanks for the tips! Stick Welding overhead is pretty difficult. I’ll take a grinder to it to clean it up and see what needs work.

 

No doubt. 4g stick is the toughest process. Practice a few times and don’t let the look of the slag throw you off. A good overhead stick weld will look like absolute shit until you knock off the slag. If you have your settings, travel speed and angle of attack just right, the slag comes off and you have a nice weld left behind. The only way to do it successfully is to fail repeatedly on trial pieces. Again- good on ya for trying but keep practicing and once you think you have it, then go after your FDR again. I would use 1/16 - 7018 and since you are overhead and already will have some weld in there, dial your heat down a tiny bit.
Also make sure you have good PPE. Nothing will throw off a good weld like getting a red hot cherry down your shirt in the neck or your sleeve. Since you will be on your back in a garage you will be in the direct path of drips and spark. I used to take a winding blanket and drape it over me, tape my sleeves, and tape bandana to the bottom of my hood to deflect all that crap that falls away from skin. Get comfy being uncomfy, overhead sucks, even more when you are on your back only a few inches from your work piece. Another thing that might help you is to run some test welds and stop when your stick is 1/2 length. Then save em for when you get into your FDR. Running shorter length stick is easier to strike, control and since the FDR is only a few inches each side, you wont need a 12” stick length per weld. Keep me updated and again, holler if you want any help… or find a friend with a MIG and make life easy.

 

Hey man- revisiting this thread because I swapped in the new tube and either it was twisted already or I already twisted the new one I just put in. I am looking into now doing the FJ tube and wondering what to do with the electronics. What do you do with the plug that would go into the ADD? Reconnect it and stash it under the truck somewhere? I know it will say " check 4wd system as soon as it is not plugged in bc it popped out when my cv exploded last time.

 

I think the last two comments talk about it here https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-deleting-add-system.427258/page-19

 

ok kind of what I thought but then I saw someone posted about the LIMIT SWITCH MOD. Nothing comes up about it when I search. Any idea on what they are talking about?

 

no information unfortunately. May go down this rabbit hole some day though.

 

I'm not super well versed on the 3rd gen 4wd electronics. On my 2nd gen I just sealed the connector and tucked it away as I no longer need it because I swapped in an fj tcase. The only thing still electronic in my 4x4 system is the factory elocker. Everything else is now mechanical. Can't really help you here, I'd have to do some digging of my own.