FINALLY! With the engine and transmission mounted we can position the differential at the correct pinion angle and weld on the truss we built ages ago. In the process we learn a little about how to (and how NOT to) weld cast steel.
Maaaaaaan, I love your content! I’ve watched your 4-link videos a dozen times to figure out how to build mine. I was watching this one thinking to myself, “okay, the guy who taught me suspension isn’t installing his pinion angle towards the ground, is he?”😂😂😂 I thought it must be the camera angle. Well done as always from a rainy shop in Oregon. 👍👍
@@GarageFabdon’t beat yourself up too bad, prone to have more minor brain farts while trying to work and simultaneously create entertaining content. Happy new year bro! Here’s to 2024 and making big progress on projects
Haha! Actually, you just reminded me I wanted to take them down this weekend. No joke, I’m going right now while I’m thinking about it. When you see they’re not there, you can take credit.
That’s insanely flattering, Greg, thank you. If you’re interested in learning how those welds are made, you might find this video valuable. MIG Like Mankandy: Techniques for Stacking Dimes with a MIG Welder ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-V1-BD1Z0kOE.html Cheers my friend!
I have to say that I don’t know if I subscribed for the information or the humor but it is a good time getting both. We all go through the mistakes, do you let them get you down or look at it with a smile and correct? That may be your best teaching point. Anyways, thanks for sharing your journey the way only you can.
That’s a deep question! I think anyone that claims to greet their failures with a smile is full of 💩. My reaction depends greatly on the specifics of each case. If I’m in a hurry I’m much more annoyed than if I’m not. If it’s the 5th time I’ve made the same mistake I’m furious. Sometimes the fault is so ridiculous I can’t help but laugh. I do however have a deep belief that failure is large part of learning, is natural, and is not an indication that I’m stupid. After the initial frustration wears off (usually very quickly) I can absolutely smile and move forward.
You guys had me laughing the entire episode. When you stopped your preheat I was a little concerned and as soon as I heard that telltale ping noise I knew exactly what it was. Still good progress and you'll get it fixed up. Happy 2024!
When I saw your visitor, I thought it was Justin. When he started talking, I knew it was him. I loved his comment of that HOA. To bad about the cracking. Better luck next time.
You could send me your address in a secured way (not publicly posted on a youtube comment), and I might show up. I've done it before.... might be a while, but I like hanging out and building stuff.
I dreaded welding a truss to my axle. After a lot of thought and looking around, I learned about nomacast (may be misspelled) stick welding rods. They are for welding cast iron and claim to require no preheating. They are a little pricey, but well worth the money. I can say they worked great for me. I still rapped the axle with a fiberglass blanket to help even cooling after the weld. As soon as I heard the pop in your video, I knew exactly what happened.
Interesting! My welder is even set up to do stick. Never used it though. I’d have to practice a little first. Haven’t stick welded in almost 20 years. 😳
@foxcrf450 a space heater would not come close to working. The cast iron needs to be almost red hot over 800° then after welding it needs to be brought back to ambient temperature over 8 or more hours.
@@chrisbooge2217 I have to disagree with you there. 4-500 degrees I feel is good. It doesn't need to glow, I'm not annealing it. Granted idk what temp a propane heater runs but it would heat the housing up slowly, you can even weld with it in place and then cool slowly. Thats what I'm gonna do when I shave my AAM 11.5 🤷♂
@FOXCRF450RIDER First, i said "almost" red hot. Second, it's not about how hot the flame is. It's about the ability to deliver and maintain the heat. For example, a cutting torch will deliver a lot of heat in a very small area, allowing you to cut a line through a piece of metal, but if you want to bend the same metal you have to switch to a rosebud that can deliver more heat over a lager area. A propane space heater transfers heat through inferred not through direct contact, which is much less efficient than a rosebud on a oxyacetylene torch. It would take hours in an oven propane or electric to build heat in a part, out in the open air you would never be able to introduce or retain enough heat to be able to weld on cast iron with out running into thermal shock cracking welds.
This was one of your best videos so far! Condolences on the cracking, I very much know the feeling of a sinking gut at the moment you heard the ping of the crack. The suggestion above about purchasing a rosebud tip for your torch is an excellent suggestion. I would add picking up a couple of heat sticks. These will allow you to monitor the temperature during the welding process, if you decide to re-weld it. However, I would not discount the suggestion of the epoxy welding putty. Unless you plan to use the truck in a tractor, pulling contest having the truss welded to the tubes should be more than sufficient. The JB weld can be made to cover the cracks and would add some vibration dampening as you wanted. I am very curious to see the follow up video on your solution to this issue. Hope the mighty Max is ready in time for you to bring it to the grand national car show this summer! I am targeting my truck build debut for that event as well, Ed, would love to meet you there! Your channel has been a huge inspiration for me. Keep up the great work.
Live and Learn. I used to work with a couple old bucks that used to weld cast a lot and what they would do if the piece was too large to be placed in an oven to decrease the temp slowly and evenly they used to do what they called peening. They would literally sit there with a small ball peen hammer and tap the cast until it cooled while periodically wiping a torch over it at increasing intervals. Something about relieving tension in the cast... He would count to 10 and run the torch over it. then count to 20 and run it buy again and so on till he would get to like a hundred. It was a long process but I never saw any of their stuff crack. good luck!
when you are getting the tanks filled, Pick up a rose but tip for your torch. It'll give you a broader flame for pre AND post heating. also run to harbor freight and get some of those fiberglass welding blankets to bundle everything up when you are done to slow down the cooling. We had to do this when welding cast iron at a shop i used to work at but it 100 will help you out here.
Yeah. That up or down tripped me and dad on his Hudson. Didn't weld anything before noticing thankfully. 1946 Hudson truck is officially on the road, 250 ford engine, c4 trans. And I don't remember what rear. No vibrations.
@@GarageFab Hot damn right from the man! I am actually looking back to find you building that massive axle truss. Just run another bead over it, it'll be fine, maybe.
Hey Aaron, for $5 a piece I went to the junk yard and bought about 10 scissors jack and screw type bottle jacks and they worked great when I set the height on my Trike frame and set pinion angles
As soon as I saw you setting the pinion angle (the first time :D) I had a yelling at the screen moment .. "Aaron .. that's pointing *down*" 🤣🤣 Oh well - no harm, no foul!
Tell Justin his viper is dirty...shoulda left the cover on. I was in suspense over the 83.3.... i thought you were gonna do it, i yelled NO! at the scream even
I choose to spend my Viper budget on fuel, rear tires, and bi-monthly professional detailing. I'm not interested in a car cover. I bought the car to drive it 😉
In my experience at doing this here’s how I approach doing rear ends. Drag,low riders, street and even 3000 HP Puling truck rear ends. I use a solid steel precision ground shaft passed thru the housing with aluminum spacers/bushings that simulate OD of bearing races in 3rd member and axle flanges ID= precision ground shaft diameter. This keeps everything aligned. Then while welding it out you can rotate and sense/feel the drag on the solid round bar. This allows you to sequence welds to counter act the “pull” from each weld. Also cast steel or Iron needs to be stick welded with 55% nickel or 99% nickel. Stretching the welds by peening it to stress relieve and post cool slow as possible. Good luck in the future!!
In addition to the comments about a rosebud tip, I have had good luck using an old school electric radiant heater for slow cool down, which takes much much longer than the initial heat up. The torch will do a good job getting the metals hot quickly to weld, but once the welding is done, put that heater up close and personal to the welded joints and let it go over night. If you weld a little each day, you can keep the heater focused on the fresh welds for hours after. Then just reduce the temp a little each hour for a few hours. And keep the garage door closed so that cold air isn't working against you.
Braze it with Aluminum bronze TIG filler, goober. Love the show. Have learned a lot here. I’ve repaired a pretty badly cracked engine block with the braze method. Give it a shot!
You had to look similar to a dog being whistled at when that cracked! lol We tend to raise the transmission angle(even though that usually means more sheet metal work) to prevent the pinion from pointing in the sky.
In hindsight I should’ve done exactly that, Jake. I already needed to modify the rear of the tunnel. Changing the trans angle rather than simply matching the diff as I did will also greatly reduce the U joint operating angle when cruising low. I think I’ll be ok in that regard but it doesn’t make it less of poor decision. 🤦🏻♂️
Great progress! A shame that the welds cracked but pretty awesome they occurred while you were filming. If no one knew what that sounded like they do after this. Live and learn 🙂
Pinion angles, radius arms, control arms what every ya wanna call them this week. I often thought about on a 4 link if you attached the upper links at the body to a short ram mercury tilt/trim ram. They don't ever fade they are very strong and very precise. If your good enough with electronics which i am not. you can program the pump to turn on/off to add/remove fluid to keep the pinion angle where ever you want it while the car is in motion or just going up and down. If they can do that with engine valves this should be a breeze to an electronics nerd. Like a gps leveler on earth moving equipment. It would have to have a tiny hydraulic reservoir of course not squishy air. You would be the first in the world to do such a simple yet complicated thing. Your Welcome.
That’s interesting! My first thought was that it wouldn’t be necessary with a parallel 4 link since the pinion remains constant. (when built accurately) BUT a parallel 4 link lacks some traction on acceleration. Better traction is attained by installing shorter upper bars and angling them downwards in the front. The problem with that is a drastic pinion angle change when changing height so it’s not ideal with adjustable suspension. That’s where you come in. You could have shorter angled upper bars for maximum grip that can change length to maintain pinion angle. 👊 Very clever indeed.
Preheat it to around 800-1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Weld it then wrap it with welding blankets or bury it in sand. Want it to cool down slow as possible. I've heard of people successfully welding cast cold but never seen it done.
Before I knew what I was doing. I stick welded a cracked machinist vice at work. 6 years later and it still works perfectly. Now I know how to weld, and I will never hit a perfect 90 angle again!
I've had really good luck welding cast iron/steel, and I use pretty simple tools. On a big piece like that, the gas welder gives quick heat, so the weld starts well, but the cool down phase needs to be really slow. I use 2 of the electric heat guns during the cool off, and I try to point them at the areas that were welded the most. If you heat the top only, the whole piece will cool off too fast, so make sure that the whole cast section is WAY too hot to touch, before you start welding. Then keep the whole unit as hot as you can for as long as you can. If you had a hot plate or maybe one of those outdoor turkey fryer burners, that would probably help tremendously. Keep it as hot as you can, and lower the heat every half hour or so. If it takes three or four hours for it to get to ambient temp, that would be excellent. KMF
My apologies, Larry, but I strongly disagree. This would be correct if the front joint was a double cardan but it is not. I’ve got another video that may greatly benefit you. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YgNZfIR-8Ng.htmlsi=Bne1lhjL5lEGnh0q
First off - Happy New Year Aaron. Bugger about the cracks. Just wondering if a steel hoop around the housing bolts welded to the truss might be a better option? I know you will get it sorted. Anyhow - great video M8. Keep it coming.
I was gonna say, the center housing of a Ford 8.8 is cast iron. Your best bet is to braze it, your local welding supply shop should stock Silicone Bronze filler wire for your MIG. Believe it or not, that's all you need.
Great video's, thanks. I'm not a welder - just a glober. BUT IC Weld just did a cast job with some diff type of mig wire and FABRATS sure welds a lot of diffs too. Of course the guy who is showing up to help has forgotten more that what most welders know about sticking metal together so you"ll be ok.
Happy New Year... I am so glad you did this video now.. I just got the same angle finder and when I put it on my engine it reads 88.something.. so I was very concerned.. now I see yours is about the same im ok with it... my next step is to figure out what it better for my truck.. ( i know we spoke on fb about this).. since im NOT doing bags.. just a coilover.. is parallel 4 link still better or triangulated?
With static height suspension, you’ve got all the choices. Parallel is far easier to understand and set up. The triangulated is great but might be a little more complicated h than necessary. Also the triangulated bars take up a lot of room. It forces you to relocate your fuel tank. Either set the angle finder against the component to be measured sideways or if using the magnet side, just subtract your reading from 90 to get your actual angle. 90-88= 2°
It would have been easier to mount the rear axle 6.2° up since the engine is 6.2° down at the flywheel. That way your U-joint angles will cancel themselves out.
Hi Aaron! Happy 2024 brother.when you said weld cast.i was like "wait for it" "wait for it" then crackkkkķkk.ye man on cast.get you some Fahrenheit strips.you cant just hope its hot enough.stay scientific.all these different metals mixed with different elements to make them have different characteristics.
Thanks for another fine video and while the cracking is unfortunate, great effort to capture the sound of it on the video! How long after you welded it did it crack? I'm paranoid about how the axle tubes on my Ford 8.8 will bend when welding on the parallel 4 link brackets. Had you given any thought to making a jig with something like 12" thick angle bolted to each housing end, and the angle secured to a table? At a guess would you say that locking the housing ends into place like that would prevent the tubes bending under the heat, or would they just spring out to their new shape as soon as you unbolted them from the jig?
Unless you plan on hanging the truck by the rear axle from a crane and swinging it like a wrecking ball, the truss is so overkill it is not even funny (in fact just the tabs by themselves would have never failed in this application). The welds holding the truss to the axle tubes will strengthen the axle way beyond your needs. There is absolutely no need to add additional welds to the cast iron center section. If you're not putting 5000 lbs of torque through the rear axle, trying to run 6 second 1/4 miles or jumping 40 feet in the air like a monster truck just grind your cracked welds off make it look pretty and leave it alone.
I have had the same. Forget what i was welding. But i gave up. Wrong filler metal and not able to control heat. Had a good spare anyways. You could probably just weld the two tubes to the brace and be done.
@@GarageFab I have only done it to weld to cast steel center sections. Cast iron may be different. It might just be that after a couple of welds the cast finally has enough heat in it. 😂 I only have a map gas torch so who knows.
Zero the cube on the engine so its readable from the right side. Set pinion from 1-3 degrees nose down. Make sure it doesn't go above 0 degrees into a nose up situation as it moves through the suspension range, particularly under acceleration. Easy. Done.
Is rear axle really need to be reinforced? I'm on my C10 project with 4 link and I'm going to use stack mounting and a little bit o reinforcing where uniball joints will be. Thank you for your work I'm and learning and enjoying at the same time.
It’s often not needed. I built a truss for 2 reasons; One, I shortened the axle which required cutting the axle tube and welding it back together. I wanted a little something to make sure my welds would last. My truss is way overkill for that. Two, I’m a RU-vid content creator and a truss gave me more content. Honestly, a lot of things I do aren’t “necessary”. But if it would make an interesting video, I’ll do it. For the C10, reinforcements aren’t usually needed because there’s so much space between the wheels and the frame so you can place your link bars on the outside. The closer your wheels the vehicle weight is applied, the better it is for the axle tube. The Mightymax on the other hand has a wider frame so the link bars and springs are usually placed on the inside of the frame rails. That leaves a lot more room between the wheels and the point that the vehicle weight sits so some sort of axle reinforcement is a pretty good idea.
Hi, love your videos, been a subscriber for a while now. I don't know if i missed anything, but with you fully welding that brace, how are you going to tighten the bolts that hold the bushes. Also, to my knowledge it is not really a good idea using oxy aceltylene to pre heat cast, as one introduce foreign gases into the steel that way, normal LPG is always more advisable. Top man. 👌👍
Whoops. Forgot the first half of the question… There is an access hole in truss to remove, insert, and tighten the bolt. The nut is an all metal crimped captured nut. If it breaks off I’m screwed. I’ll have to cut more holes in the truss which I’m considering doing anyway. 🤔
Assuming you mean that the front of your differential is pointing upward 1.5 degrees, yes! This is the ideal setup for MOST vehicles. However, this setup is NOT OK if you have a Double Cardan joint. If you haven’t already, check out my video on driveshafts that explains the reasons why angles are so important. If that doesn’t answer your questions, lemme know and I’ll try to assist. Suspension Basics 06: A Better U Joint Driveshaft Video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YgNZfIR-8Ng.html
I can only answer the first question because it’s still pretty new. I haven’t received my first bill yet! It’s freaking incredible! My wife came out a couple nights ago and said it was warmer in the garage than it was in the house. Most winters I find myself not wanting to go out. It has upped my productivity a whole bunch. And it has a thermostat which is fantastic.
There is a captured nut welded to the inside tab and an access hole on the outside. I will be enlarging the hole a little as well as adding some holes in the front and rear because trying to get the bolt in as a wee bit more challenging than expected. 😆
I have a question about an older video, building the armored diff cover for the watts link. You ended up drilling a hole in the stock cover to clear the bolt. I would not like to have to do this if I build one of these, as I know this can mess up how the fluid flows while driving and cause problems. (You even mentioned this in the video, as why you wanted to use the new cover over the stock one). So, my question is this, would there be any negative's/problems you would see in changing the angels and length of the plates to move the watts bushing mount bolt further away from the stock cover, so you don't have to drill a clearance hole in the stock cover?
Hey Sabashtion! I don’t see a problem in doing that at all. Another option is the bridge style Watts link that doesn’t attach to the diff cover at all. If you haven’t already, check out this video from my buddy Justin who makes that style. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YyFMnZARqEI.htmlsi=S8NR9seuWBuvdHO_
Absolutely! As long as it’s close. Heims don’t have a lot of usable adjustment, but having them on the top and bottom will help. If you need the nose of the differential to point up more, extend the upper bars using the heims and shorten the lowers. 👍
Weld cast with high nickel content rods, or even stainless. Weld short welds, like 1cm at a time and use a compressed air hammer to even out the tensions after every weld. I prefer MMA to weld cast stuff.
It depends on the suspension design. A parallel 4 link, no. Most factory suspensions, absolutely. If you’re not sure, be safe and set it at ride height for vehicles with static suspension. (Metal springs) or set it with the vehicle at half-travel on adjustable suspensions.
Pretty risky commitment welding in the 4-link without knowing your driveshaft angle. You will need to be between a 9-11 degree driveshaft angle to maintain a
Bro, Cutting Edge Engineering Australia made a good video trying to weld cast with a bunch of preheating, he destroyed a $25K tractor housing, same pinging cracks you got. ICWELD also recently did a good video welding a cast tractor housing, no preheating. Just a ton of tack welds done over a period of time To keep the part cool and it lasted with no problem. Do a little more research before you destroy your housing.
wrap your shit in fiberglass blankets. pre-heat. weld it. wrap the blankets shut around it, let it cool slow. or you know...this happens. stainless filler helps. or anything high in nickel.
These are nearly word for word the instructions I was given. I was too lazy to listen. Can you explain why that works? Or why it cracks in the first place?
@@GarageFab why it cracks? you explained it pretty much perfectly in the video i think. you are welding 2 metals with dissimilar expansion rates and "amounts". so they grow at different speeds to different dimensions. The cooling needs to happen slowly, so the stresses in the material can sort of float to the top and be released into the ethos. When the cooling happens fast, those material stresses are locked inside the weldment, and let me tell you. The ethos WANTS its energy back, and its gonna get it! Im sure this is analogous to cooking and locking air into a whipped frozen desert...but shit, i cant cook. As for filler material, stainless and high nickel fillers will be high in "elongation" though maybe having a lower tensile strength. You are probably running ER70 or 80 which is essentially "too strong" and "not chew enough". Maybe try Nic-L-Weld 99 or Super Missile Rod. Sorry im not sure if these come in mig wire, im a tig guy. But you can just use stainless wire like ss309 which isnt very exotic. There are cold weld fillers for cast iron. but you are going to wanna run a 1" bead, then let the whole thing cool to the touch before running the next bead, rinse and repeat.
@@GarageFab preheat expands the parts to the dimension they will be when welded. you are pre expanding the metal. ductility increases with temp {more mobile molecules}. keep the metal hotter longer makes it shrink slower letting the stress of the shrink find somewhere to go and even out, instead of concentrating itself into the first available "stress riser" {which in welding is usually the rough surface of the weld itself}