Frame Horn Repair Advice Needed

Wow! That is exactly what I found on the front when I did the front bumper winch mount. About 6" longitudinally (sic?) along the lower frame radius and across that dern little punch-out (crack starter) and continuing approximately 45 degrees into the rail "end flair".

My shackle brackets were suspect before I started so I had ordered new ones. Because of such I ground off the old, prepped the frame rail, ran a GOOD bead and then ground it back to original radius (less a smidge).

In studying your pictures , if the shackles brackets are in servicable shape I'd leave 'em. Run the weld bead right into them, can't hurt. If I recall you have a MIG correct?

The long 6" of frame rail radius repair is the most impotant. The rest won't hold if the ends are splayed, right? Take your time. Grind out a good V along the crack to ensure proper penetration. Practice a little (1/2"), stop, look, regrind if needed. This is because unless you care to do a "Vern rotisserre" you'll be welding upside down, right?

Oh, almost forgot. When you're done go up front scrape the paint and see if you need to repeat. Think I'll go check me rear frame tail tomorrow.

Good luck.

 

mike, here are the pics of how my fishplates are welded in the inside curve for my frame horn transplant on the 69.

granted, it's for the front and may be over kill for the rear horns.

don't know if these will help or give you any ideas but they were done by a certified navy welder.

don't let the two front xmembers confuse you i kept the original xmber on the 69 and decided to also keep the xmember from the 72 transplant. it helped with alignment and adds strength. plus if i finally ever get a winch, the plate and support is already there.

 

Your fish plate ideas is hitting the nail on the head. If it cracked there origionally, then simply welding isnt enough. As mentioned grind a V in the crack, weld everything and add fish plates and gussets where ever you can. This seems to be a problem in the old Jeeps, so build it better than it was. My advice

 

added the fish plate to my front when i added the winch. seems to me that the best fix would be to box the frame back about a foot or so to pass the stress along a greater area (and stiffen it it as well).

 

Mike I like Billy's idea of torch welding it allows it to heat up slower and I'm sure of my penetration I'm getting. For fish plates and heavier I always arc or mig it. 'course I see that you welded it already so nevermind.

 

Mike, I know your done welding already but this reply is for future reference and for others about to embark on similar issues. I don't know a thing about welding but as an ex-aerospace engineer and metal-worker, I do know something about metal fatigue. A crack in metal can be much like a small crack in a windshield... it can contiue to spread with time. When you find a crack like that, before attempting any repair, weld or otherwise, try to find the ends of the crack and take a steel-cutting drill bit and drill a hole at each end. This process is called "stop drilling" because once the hole is drilled and deburred, there are no sharp corners for the stress to follow. It's like the stress follows the crack to the hole and then simply falls out! A round, smooth hole is the best stress-stopper. Once done, then proceed to your weld repair. Hope this advice benefits someone. Sorry I didn't post sooner.

 

MOST of the metal repairs I've done were to aircraft aluminum and we'd stop-drill, fabricate a patch, and rivet it. However, there were a few isolated times where I was called upon to stop-drill a crack in a steel structure, and then send it to the welding shop. They would weld the crack AND the stop-drill hole.

Tip for stop-drilling: Our shop drill presses had some cutting coolant that would keep the bit cool. For applications where we couldn't use the drill press, we kept a small bowl of the coolant and dipped the drill bit in the coolant FREQUENTLY! Helps reduce bit wear. Be sure to take a small round file and deburr the hole afterwards. Small micro-cracks in the hole defeat the purpose.

Best of luck on your repairs.