frame cracked at front perch suggestions?

[hughjazz]

Hi, Being as how I have manual steering, I keep the front end well greased. During the process I saw a small crack, I removed winch bumper and the brackets and such and saw this.


The P.o must have tried to fix this himself. *cough BUTCHER cough*

The 1 pic is the passenger outer side, directly above the perch.
One pic is the "gusset" Which I believe caused more problems than it helped.

the last pic is the inner view. There is a small crack there about 2-3" as well. The shiny nubs are whats left of the rivets holding the perch.


So how to fix?

My plan, so far (which may be wrong). Is to make either an L or U shaped piece from the crossmember to the end of the frame, and box the frame. It seems like Ideally I would remove the perch, and place the one side of the patch between the perch and bottom of the frame. Then weld it back up. Of course I'd have to do both sides.

As far as the welding goes
-Should I stitch weld? meaning 2" weld, then a small gap between?
-Is it ok to weld the perch back in place?
-How should I approach the Big crack? Weld it together? Or put a gusset plate over it?

Of course the vin# is right there too


Many of the guys here amaze me with their fabricating skills,
Please give me some help?


Oh, lastly. Will putting a 1/4" plate between the perch and the frame throw off the camber? Thanks

John

 

[DSRTRDR]

lemme have a look for a pic.............

there are at least three of us here on MUD that I know of who had the same problem - two of those have power steering, so I don't think the manual steering alone is the culprit

BTW, the pic in my avatar is of one of my cracks on the passenger frame horn.....

 

[DSRTRDR]

here is another pic of it

it also had cracks where the mounting bracket is supposed to be welded to the frame (under the triangular piece)

 

[DSRTRDR]

apparently, I never took pictures of how it was fixed

so here is my best attempt at a description:

the welder cleaned things up and drilled the end of the cracks on the outside - welded those up, and then also welded a plate in to box the frame on the inside

he had to place a few holes/cut-outs into the piece on the inner side to allow access to bolts and nuts for the shackle hanger and bumper supports


BTW, if you are looking at your front frame horns, you might also want to inspect the rear spring hangers - don't ask me how I know

 

[pygpen]

Both Mudrak and 4x4labs make a kit to sleeve the frame horns. I believe the late great Butch Lewis designed the kit. It come with the power steering mount and sleeves the frame up past the first cross member. Give one of them a call and talk with them, Good folks!
PMK

 

[GarageRat]

Phase one, take a die grinder and slightly V the crack, drill a small hole at the ends of the crack. Now weld or have someone else weld the crack.

Phase two, box the frame horns. With manual steering the driver side isn't as simple as it is with PS but maybe it's a good excuse to convert if you were considering it anyway.

Edit: After taking a second look at how far that crack has propogated (sp?) I would seriously consider a scab plate to reinforce that wall of the rail, something better than that janky fix the PO did. I'd use 3-4 rosette welds as well as carefully stitch weld 1 1/2" angle (or whatever fits best) that's maybe 1/8" thick and then box driver and passenger sides with plate. There's no such thing as overkill in my book when it's a structural member, my '63 had a crack 3 inches long on the bottom corner passenger side, I already welded the crack but first chance I get it's getting boxed.

 

[hughjazz]

Yeah, good points.


Looking at the big crack, It kind of continues to the bottom of the frame rail. I think to do it properly, I will need to remove the perches, and see what's under there.

I'm trying to decide if I want to cut a piece of 1/4" plate the width of the bottom of the frame. Put a piece of 1/8" Plate on the outer side
of the frame full height And use 1/4" again on the inner side, then weld it together Making a "U" SHAPE. The top of the frame rail is good still. I'd probably do both sides. If I do power steering, I'll probably use a mini box, as my steering is tight .

Does anybody know if my camber will be adjusted if I have the perches welded 1/4" lower on the frame?


On the gusset plate. (outer side) What kind of shape should I make? I know not to make a vertical edge. Oval?
Triangle?

Thanks for the Help!

 

[Teebag]

A quick tip from Toyota when welding the frame:

 

[pb4ugo]

Drill & weld the crack as previous suggested. I did this repair on the pass side about 15 yrs ago & is still holding strong & I finally found a good use of a j**p part. It so happened that a section of an old stk cj frt bumper fits over the C channel of the L/C frame. I'm sure you can find something similar, the bumper was about 3/16" thick. I removed the perch and adapted & welded the j**p C channel over the outside of the L/C frame & welded the perch back on. AS I recall the stk L/C frame had a vertical support about 5" from the end. On the drivers side the old PO butchered in sag steering, w/no reinforcement where the hole was cut in the crossmember. The frame horn started to seriously weaken thru the yrs. It took extensive repair & then I opted to go w/Scout steering. I think moving the steering box back on the frame, behind the crossmember, is a stronger location, than out front.

 

[Slowerthanu]

I had no crack but I would also suggest drilling at each end to relieve stress, then weld it up. Box the inside of the channel too.

 

[ColonelMustardFJ40]

Two techniques one might suggest are, as the Toyota weld tip shows, the crack needs to be opened up to ensure weld penetration and secondly you need an adequate welder.