FJ40 Full Floater Axle Build (IH8C-CLIPS) (10 Viewers)

[peesalot]

Who says Toyota gets em straight ???

 

[Stumpalama]

A fellow club member hooked me up with a late 70's FJ40 axle housing and I am back in business. The 1970's axle seems like a better base to work with. It is round all the way to the diff housing, where the '81 axle gets square. Also, the backing plate is much thinner and will be easier to cut off.

 

[srgould41]

Are you done yet?

 

[Stumpalama]

Got the axle cleaned up, the backing plate mounts cut off and perches and wrap bar axle mount ordered from Ruffstuff.

 

[srgould41]

How does the alignment look now? I assume you set the alignment bar in place to check it?

Got the axle cleaned up, the backing plate mounts cut off and perches and wrap bar axle mount ordered from Ruffstuff.

 

[Stumpalama]

How does the alignment look now? I assume you set the alignment bar in place to check it?

Of course I didn't check the alignment before I cleaned the axle up and did all that work, that would require common sense.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

you went to the lambcrusher school of injuneering, didncha?

 

[Stumpalama]

Good news! The axle is dead straight. This week I plan to clean up the ends to get the brackets mounted nice and tight and tack them in to place.
Anyone have any input on the orientation for the brake mount? From my experience with the Chevy brakes my biggest concern is avoiding positioning that causes the leaf spring to interfere with the brake line input and bleeder.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Stump-I looked at the Rubicon pics in your sig line-that's almost 10 years ago! You bringing this truck out this year? It's about time!

 

[jstncse]

My brakes are high and to the front because that is where they are on my Dmax. You have to run the right caliper on the left side and the left on the right so that the bleeder is at the highest point but they have been completely trouble free.

 

[Stumpalama]

I'm back at it with some legitimate progress, finally.
I am working on dialing in my weld. I am running a hobart 210 at 230 volts. These welds were done at 5/50 power/wire speed. I'm going to bump up to 6/65 and focus more on the root of the joint a little more time on the thicker bracket to get the best penetration.
Any other tips for this type of weld?

 

[Mudder]

Three pass it? Not sure if there the room

 

[jstncse]

It looks like your getting good penetration on the axle and not enough on the bracket. More heat will not hurt it at all. I don't think there is enough room for three passes.

 

[Stumpalama]

It looks like your getting good penetration on the axle and not enough on the bracket. More heat will not hurt it at all. I don't think there is enough room for three passes.

Yeah, not much discoloration on the bracket and I have a tendency to dwell on the horizontal vs. the vertical...

 

[peteinjp]

Not a pro but personally I'd tilt the axle to get both surfaces at 45deg. Turn up the heat use less filler and get more penetration in the bottom of the V with less overall width.

And occasionally i preheat the area where I start the weld with a very short hot flame to get the initial bead to penetrate better.


Pete

 

[Stumpalama]

Funny, I was planning to do just that, tilt the axle. I hadn't thought of preheating, but I will do that too.
2hat was interesting was how much the brackets canted when I tacked them in place

 

[J Mack]

When preheating you’ll see a moisture line form on the surface of the steel as you heat it, chase this line with the heat 12” or so from for the area you’re welding.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

pre heating AND POST HEATING- you should take the extra caution to wrap the welds with a glove and blanket to minimize warpage. Since I am a 110 welder, I would agree about the tilt- give the joint as much reason to take the bead as possible. use the slowest wire speed with the highest heat and a decent dwell time. I bevel or grove both pieces of work to give a place for the first pass to fall into. move around the weld burning about an inch or so at a time. grind down the crown and make a second pass overlapping the joint bead with the vert plane, and the third pass overlapping the joint and the horizontal plane. Of course, your welders extra 120 volts of input might be taking care of these issues- pre and post heat will help keep the warping down and force the metal to transfer more easily

 

[Stumpalama]

Much better this time... preheated the metal, cranked it up and let wire speed dictate. Looks much better.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

where is that glorious brown purple sheen? beads look GREAT. I see room for a second and third pass if your at all concerned...