You know, the one where they get to the county recorders office, get out of the Monaco, and it just falls apart? Yeah, I've been joking that the Meany was going to do that one day.

Well, on Friday I was under the truck to replace the driver side motor mount and trans mount only to discover immediately that the passenger side motor mount was completely busted too. So off to the parts house I go (Thanks ABC!!!)

Anyways, I come home and start removing the old one and happen to glance over at the frame, where I saw this:



Yeah, that's not good.

More angles:





So yesterday morning after getting the motor and trans mounts done I go over to John's for some emergency repair. About all we could do is patch it. Hope she holds.







It was broken across the bottom both crosswise, and was cracking laterally, and the cracks wen up both sides. Only the top of the frame rails and maybe just under an inch of steel on each side was holding the whole truck together. I don't know how I didn't notice this before, but as you can see it was also starting to splay out. This is why the truck was sitting low on the right side....probably not a collapsed spring after all....of course this is after I buy and install new springs We got a jack under the frame behind the break and lifted the truck. The crack closed quite a bit when we did this, and it was from here where John welded in the plates to repair the break.

Anyways, all the soft mounts are new, I did a full seafoam treatment, cleaned the MAF, pulled the front tierod to replace dust boots, and changed the oil. I'm sick of this 115 degree BS here, that's for sure.

The bigger the blob, the better the job.

Hey.. its been a while since I welded upside down at full power.

170 amps of fury makes quite the splashy upside down molten metal fun-fest.

I can guarantee that the welds wont break at least..

I think this is a pretty good justification for plating at least the outer frame rails when doing a SAS. Its someting that can be done after the fact as well.

Andy, mabye when it gets cooler, we can cut out some plate and plate the whole outer side of the frame to add some more strength?

WOW!!!!! I am gonna have to work on plating my frame. I just replaced my upper shackle bushings for my front axle, and didn't notice anything.

What would be good for plating? 3/16 too thick?

Wow!! that looks like it would have been ugly had it gone un-noticed!
Lator....

And yes, the welds look really stinkin ugly, but no they are not porous.

And no, I'm not going to redo it.

Welding upside down really sucks... especially when one hasn't done it in at least a year.

That is all..

quote:

Originally posted by Sand Bag:
WOW!!!!! I am gonna have to work on plating my frame. I just replaced my upper shackle bushings for my front axle, and didn't notice anything.

What would be good for plating? 3/16 too thick?

3/16 would be perfect. I used 1/4" plate on mine, but it was a PITA to work with.

It's Greg's fault. He rode on that side of the truck once.



Yeah, John, let's see how this holds and we'll mess with it if needed when it's cooler. I've had enough working in the heat for the past two weeks to last me all summer.

The way you all are lolly-gaggin' around, you'd think it was 120º out here. It CAN'T be more than 114!!

I used 10 gauge plate (approx 1/8") when I plated my frame. 1/4" would be serious overkill, your frame was probably 10 gauge or thinner from the factory, so plating it with 10 would double the thickness.

cool... maybe I'll buy some 1/8" plate then. I just have a pretty decent sized piece of 3/16" plate that would be good for this... even better for a skidplate tho... hmmmm.

I bought a big sheet of 10 gauge when I boxed in my frame. It was easy to work with, cardboard template, draw it on the plate, burn it out with the plasma, clean it up and weld it in.

It made a pain in the ass job doable. I also ground out all the cracks, welded those up and plated over them.

Damn that's a lot of crack. Is that truck still under warranty?

That thinner metal would be easier to hammer around the bends too.

Where exactly did that crack? In front of the shackle hanger, or up closer to where the shock mount is?