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Axle bracket weld failed

3K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  arocars 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi All,


New member here - trying to evaluate a potential purchase, the car I'm looking at is 69 and one of the welds on the passenger axle bracket appears to have failed leaving the axle only attached at one point. Have attached a picture I took earlier - is this doable in situ or is it better to take off the whole axle assembly and remove driveshafts before welding it back up? Either way I wouldn't be doing it as I don't have a welder so would give it to a shop to do, up here the car needs to pass safety before being registered and I'm pretty sure they'll pick this up (you'd hope so anyway!)



Cheers!


Richard
 
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#2 ·
Had this happen on a 70 Nova that I once owned. The Nova had a healthy 350 in it with a 4 speed. I beat the crap out of that car drag racing it every weekend my last year in the service. It had a pair of slapper bars that worked real good a preventing wheel hop. The downside was the axle assembly started rotating off the welded pads. One side was only held on by about an inch of weld when I eventually replaced the axle. Your axle can be fixed by a competent welder. After it is welded I would replace the original mounting bolts with U bolts.
Vince
 
#4 ·
Big bend in that lower plate because the springs/shim are too thick. They stressed the weld when they torqued it down and bent the plate.

Don
 
#6 ·
Thanks guys - the owner said there are spacers at the top to accommodate the larger tyres which accounts for the plate bend I guess, he thought it probably contributed to the weld failure too.

The car is a Yenko tribute and I believe it's an SS donor car, for the less informed, how can you tell just from that pic?
 
#7 ·
I see a spacer on the bottom but I don't quite see how it accommodates larger tires. I am not sure I understand what it is doing aside from extending the shock a little. Maybe I am missing something.

Don
 
#13 ·
Replace the shock plates. Dump the shim. It's not doing anything. Use the correct spring pads. Poly are ok too and U Bolts.

Good shop should be able to weld it without pulling the rear end.
 
#16 ·
67 Camaros used 4 7/16" studs. 68 69 had one U bolt and two studs. This axle has the deep multi leaf spring perch but it looks like larger bolts were added, plus I don't see any U bolts. It's best to replace the bolts with two 1/2" U bolts per side. My 67 Camaro had the weld tear off on the RH outside & the car fell on the ground. There are two different shock plates, a thin double shear plate for mono leaf, and a thicker single shear stud mount shock plate used on multi leaf setups. Both are prone to bending if over torqued. I dont like to use the stock rubber pads around the leaf springs. It tends to allow the springs to shift or slide forward on acceleration and promotes wheel hop. If you eliminate the pads, you will have to shim the spring pack to get enough clamping.
 
#17 ·
The DSE plates are considerably thicker @5/16" vs the GM @ 1/4" - I think you would crush the axle tube with the u-bolt before bending them.

Assuming that weld was torn from doing burnouts or other illegal stuff, I would also be checking the plug welds on the axle tubes at the center section. I had my axle tubes fully welded to the center section, and also added the flatbar braces seen below between the spring perches and the axle tubes, front and rear both sides.

 
#18 ·
When that lower plate bent the torque was lost on the bolts. That eventually led to the perch weld failure. I would question if that is even a factory weld, either way that is a hack set-up and prone to failure.

There shouldn't be much of a gap if any between the perch and the plate or the torque won't remain consistent. The trick is the get your spacers right so your plate is clamping on the spring at the same time as the plate contacts the perch so the u-bolt torque stays consistent.
 
#19 ·
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There shouldn't be much of a gap if any between the perch and the plate or the torque won't remain consistent. The trick is the get your spacers right so your plate is clamping on the spring at the same time as the plate contacts the perch so the u-bolt torque stays consistent.
True if you are speaking only of those that use the rubber pads and the U-shaped perches. The U-shaped perch is to keep the pads from squishing out the sides. Most leaf spring vehicles use a flat perch on the axle tubes, no rubber pads and have a huge gap between the perch and the shock plate. .
 
#20 ·
Just curioius about the photo above. There appears to be a gap between the upper bracket and the lower plate. Is that because the U-bolts were not yet torqued when the photo was taken or is that the final configuration? Shouldn't the plates be touching (or shimmed) with the U-bolts clamping them tightly together?
 
#23 ·
The gap is there intentionally - in fact you can see that I added a small spacer on the bottom of the stack to get there. Since I omitted the rubber pads I wanted to be certain that the spring was clamped securely between the perch and the lower plate.

As far as torque - I just got them GAFT (Good and ****in' Tight), evenly, in criss-cross pattern. It's hard to get a good torque wrench reading on these u-bolts because as you tighten one the other side tightens as well.
 
#26 ·
That looks like a mono leaf shock mount. My guess is someone replaced the single leaf perch with the multi and they just weren't a good welder.

Get some new (correct) parts and get it fixed.
 
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