Rusted Diff Cover repair Part 1

Where's the prep picture ?
Please tell me you ground off that crap surrounding, down to the metal
prior to the welding ?

scary looking welds

Lot's of splatter and looks contaminated as well !?
Possibly the ground was not clean, nor making a good contact ?

I would have made a clean ground directly on the axle
not the cover.

Yeah I wouldn't drive that off road.
First rock you bump into will likely see that cover pop off

waiting for the fail

Not bragging... but my very first weld looked better

good luck with it

 

I'm gonna come to the OPs aide a bit here. He did say that he was going to grind it down so I'm sure he did that. And I feel like most of you getting on the weld's probably do it for a profession, or have a ton of experience. And I get it, I work in the nuclear industry and we once down-powered a plant for 2 extra weeks trying to get safety related pressure boundary welds on a large diameter pipe to pass inspection. But this isn't nuclear, and it's hardly even structural. It really just has to be water tight. I have made welds basically of this quality in the past that have held up just fine for years with plenty of abuse. And finally, this was a flux core weld, its supposed to be an ugly process with lots of splatter, and it doesn't help that the OP didn't clear all of the slag off of the welds before posting the picture. In all honesty, If I had to put money on it one way or another, I would put money on this weld holding up just fine and never being an issue again. But I still get everyone's opinion, this is just mine.

 

1. I am not a professional welder as I am self taught

2. If that's not structural on a vehicle, then I don't know what is.

3. If one posts publicly then anyone should expect others to be critical or positive as they perceive.

4. If political correctness is all the can be said, then screw this planet and the people on it.

5. Pictures are worth 1000 words.

6. TRUTH is based on reality, not fantasy and unwarranted praise.

7. Then he can weld up on your junk, but not mine.

 

Eh. He's only welding on his own junk and still everybody shits on it.

It isn't life or death, he'll be the first to know if it leaks.

I like to make jokes like the rest of you but some of y'all are going pretty harsh for a weld job on something that really isn't a big problem to safety of OP and others on the road.

Some lashings are deserved, this one isn't IMO.

 

Maybe

Who said I was joking ?
If the rear differential were to lock up, bad things can happen quick.

I'm not here to lash anyone.
I only speak the truth.

Ignore reality if ya like, but I'll not follow you.
I'll hope this is a trailered rig, and is only driven on a trail or private land.

 

I didn't say anybody was joking.

I think you've made your point, anyway, at least twice.

 

Yikes, folks here take this shit serious like....

Just so some of you don't get your panties in a bunch, you can rest assured I won't be welding on anyone else's shit anytime soon.

So Friday I filled up the diff with 10-40 to see what happened. I got seepage on both sides and an actual drip on the bottom. No surprise about the sides as I had a hard time there, but I was disappointed that the bottom leaked.

back to grinding and more welding. I tried a new approach, which was a zigzag, close as I could come anyway, and I feel this served a lot better with the narrow bead my small welder produces and the thickness of the metal I'm working with.

results below, however after an overnight refill, I still got a little shine at that 7-8 pm position. No actual drips but not quite there. The rest is dry and I am satisfied, but I have to grind and run a bit more at that spot.

 

Once I got a clean prep I was excited to start, so no pic, but yeah, I know at least enough that I need shinny metal to weld on. As to the cover popping off, that some hyperbole, do you think that the cover adds that much strength to the axle that a weak connection would flex that whole thing? That's a serious question on my part. It just does't seem likely.

As for not bragging? pretty sure that's text book... I could say the same thing though. I took a weekend welding class a few years a go and we used a commercial miller migs, 100% duty cycle. Those thing welded 3/4 plate like butter. Of course I was on a bench in a shop, not laying down in my driveway with a 110 flux machine.

You might be right about the grounding to the axle, water under the bridge at this point, and it seems once I got a few inches of bead (even crappy bead) down, the ground on the cover would be the equivalent.

 

Hmm. Rather than make fun how about some tips?

-Wire feed needs to go down a more
-When doing your weaves you need to stay tight to and overlap onto your last so you dont get those gaps you see.
-youl want to get ALL of that oil out of the crevices before trying again.
-If your using .9 wire then go buy some .8mm stuff.
-110v is more than capable for this job.



Only example of what your trying to achieve ive done. Mastercraft 110v welder with 0.8mm nr211 wire. 3/8" steel

 

It looks to me like you really can`t see the puddle as your welding.

Is the gun in the way ??

Is your cover plate that dirty ??

If you have a fixed lens is it to dark for your eyes ??

Auto Hood is it set to the correct shade.

Facts of life for welding you need to be able to see the puddle and the joint your welding

You need to be comfortable

If you can`t see or your not comfortable move so you are .

If you were closer I would be glad to give you some lessons

 

Wyoming09 - thanks for the tips.

I have an auto hood, and I swapped out the outside lens cover just before this last go as it was all hazed up. That helped me see a lot better. I hear you about the comfortable part, welding on my table goes a lot smoother. I was much further way from the weld when doing this since I was on the ground, and the damn spatter was ricocheting off the bottom of the bed and landing on my head. So I added my leather cap. Then I started getting stung a bit on my legs (sitting cross legged) as I tried to get close. No welding table to keep them under. What I needed then was a leather apron or something to cover my legs. Instead (don't have one) I pulled back a bit which made it harder to see, and harder to control the gun as my arms were more extended. I was not trying to overlap as much as devinzz1 recommends in his example, but what mostly happened was I would get a few cycles then as the angle changed from the curve it would be harder to adjust my sightline and angle of the gun etc... and I would lose the line. I didn't want to stop and start a lot either so I tried to keep going. You can see the mixed result.

Its raining today (and forecast more tomorrow) so it will be a few days before i can get back to it. But I have a few inches at least to redo.

 

10-40 is motor oil... not gear oil ??

Is that a typo ?

 

It's cheaper than gear oil, he was prolly just looking for leaks or weeping from the welds.

 

Nope, didn't want to use good gear oil if it was going to leak out.

If it leaks at all I have to drain it so I can weld again. I wouldn't put drained oil back in, so I did my testing with the cheapest Walmart oil I could find.

 

Hi Travelfeet, nice work so far, I did the same job a few months ago (another upstate NY truck). I didn't remove the third-member either, it's definitely not necessary. Before I even started though I acknowledged I had neither the equipment nor welding skill to make the solid welds I wanted, so I called a friend with a 220v MIG and some actual talent to do the welding.

That said, you've already done the majority of the work here, there'd be no shame in bringing it to a fab shop to put a nice bead on there for you. Just fill up what you've got with enough gear oil to make it to the shop before it leaks out. I doubt it would cost you more than $50-$100, well worth it.

Since the new cover I've gone cross country three times, the first pair part of a 7500 mile road trip with about 800lbs of camper in the back and at least a few hundred miles of washed out fire roads; no leaks.

Too, just a note, the Barnes cover upped the total gear oil capacity to almost 4quarts. Good luck!

 

geodude, Ha, your axle looks just like mine...

I have been thinking I could take it to a shop to finish off if I am not confident with my results. Its not even leaking now, just a bare bit of shine from that lower corner so I could fill and drive it no problem to get it to a shop.

Look like Barnes changed their cover design, my fill bung is on the right side.

 

Well, a few days of rain, and lots of work set me back a bit. I ground down my welds down, went back over anything that I didn't look right. (could see some obvious cold joints) filled it up with the good stuff and no leaks after 3 days.

got out the wire wheel again and cleaned up a lot of the rust on the axle, hit the remaining with several coats of rust converter, then with some black paint. All this took a couple more days.

Then Tuesday I started moving the hard brake line back into place for final assembly and snap, brake fluid starts pouring out 2 inches from the fitting that connects the 2 hard lines on the axle to the flex line.

The local Toyota dealer had 1 at the warehouse, so next day pick-up and I put it on tonight. $45 plus tax... A fair bit for 4 feet of brake line with some custom bends, but really wanted to get this job finished.

I'll grab another pic tomorrow for a final reveal.

 

wow, but yea, go buy a housing lol. i saw a elocker housing on CL last week for 30 bucks

 

I have no doubt you can find rust free parts all over Southern California, in upstate NY, no so much.

I have looked for whole axles, as the swap out would be so easy, but they run 1k up with shipping. Plus you never know what you are going to get when buying online so there's some risk involved.

I likely will need a new housing eventually, but this little project was about $150 all told, plus lots of practice for my welding. Worth it for me at the moment. Of course the truck is not my daily driver, so the time factor was also not a big deal.

 

Wow


lol