Another spindle failure...Backcountry DV

It's not really a debate. Preheating isn't a material requirement. Preheating is used to slow down the cooling rate in the weld area. Things that do affect this are material thickness and material type so I think that's where the argument comes from.
Having a controlled cooling rate will reduce internal stresses near the weld and reduce the risk of cracking and distortion.

Pre heating is an additional step in the manufacturing chain so I can also see how it's debated as required/not required.
All comes down to how picky you want to be.

Take this with grain of salt since this is essentially from a class I took a couple years back.

 

Good response.

 

JB Weld that shit and run the fuck out of it.

 

Don't most of the gusseted spindles crack at the lower weld? Isn't that what preheating is specifically supposed to help. As I understand it preheating helps specifically for material of different thicknesses and for brittleness at the weld.

Pretty much everyone here has more experience than I with this issue. Just seems like 2 of the biggest benefits of preheating are exactly what is going on with the gusseted spindles.

 

The only spindles I’ve seen break are the non sway bar. And the initial failure is in the HAZ on the spindle gusset at the weld on the tie rod mount. I don’t think it has near as much to do with preheat as it has to do with having two materials that flex at different rates in a stressed area on the spindle

 

I also don’t think preheat would stop the gusset failures. I think fitting the gusset in that location (which generally doesn’t have the best fit on the non-sway bar gussets) and being careful with the heat you put into the gusset on that weld would play a bigger factor in preventing the failures.

 

Pardon my ignorance but are these factory spindles? Didn’t read the whole thread.

 

Like this one that happened to me in Death Valley a few months ago..

Non sway bar version that initialy cracked at the bottom, re-welded and added additional gussets only to fail in a big way months later

 

Here to read the snarky remarks

 

Yes

 

Yeah I know. I just spent 2 hours reading the thread before posting that but I'm gonna delete it to keep this thread clean for future readers.

 

"You people"
Thats wayyyy outta line

 

@YumaTRD has a trail welder. Used my battery and his and fixed a broken shock mount. Very cool little kit and compact.

 

Welding aluminum? No thanks!

 

Lol that's what I'm thinking.

Then you see the welds posted here and the huge debate on preheat/no preheat cus someones "friend" told them and it makes you realize it's not a huge shocker this is happening.

 

All true my ninja

 

GTFO of here with your instruction reading, nobody does that around here.

Comically, if you go back to the first couple pages Wishbone4Runner said he attempted to heat treat his and they still cracked, and then cracked again after he repaired them. Sounds like its just an unreliable design to me . If you wail on your junk you're going to find the weak points pretty fast.

 

And for shits and giggles and since I never posted it in this thread, here are my "The Truck Shop" gussets that I cracked after a year or so of use. One of the cracks was in an area I had to grind down to make room for a BBK adapter. Other one is straight through the side.
Maybe I should stop being a dick to my truck.