[blown volvo]

Ok lads and lasses. as anyone reinforced a dana 30 axle which has been narrowed with four bar.As my current one as pulled the tube out of the center housing (how can i weld cast housing to steel tubes?)...I was thinking off making a bridge over the top and bottom linking to the four bar butterfies?????

I know a 9 inch would be better but my car is all set up for this config ...new Detroit locker and moser half shafts on the way (twisted the spline end round 10cm i was lucky??) So i would like to keep the baby dana


pics of reinforcement would be great

thats uk al

[OneMoreTime]

Sorry no pics..what we have done on the 4x4 trucks is to take a piece of tubing such as a 1 1/2 0.95 wall and bend a bit of a kink in the center and weld it to the axle housing on each end and to the center section of the axle..makes a truss configuration..and clears the access plate on those rear ends that have the cover plate. this does help when bouncign over rocks and such..might help you..

As far as I know that center section is a forging and is weldable so that shoudl not be an issue..

OMT

[Poopy 62]

Weld it up with a high nickel content rod. I have mig'd cast housing on a diff shave we did, and its held up fine to rocks bashing it. Just be sure to preheat the hell out of it, and just as importantly post heat it so it doesnt cool too fast.

[blown volvo]

can i use a propane blow torch to warm it and cool it down slowly as the axle is a bit to big for my wifes oven lol

[OneMoreTime]

One of those bit weed burning torches should work just fine...

OMT

[Poopy 62]

Not one of those little blue bottle jobbies....not enough heat to heat that large of an area. I'd use an oxy/acetylene or oxy/propane setup with a real torch. And preheat it for at least 10 mins, it changes color once all the grease is burned out of it, you dont want it red hot though.

[blown volvo]

that cool ive we,ve got one of them propane hand held jobies which we warm up stubs with .If it dose not look as its working ive got oxy/cet bottles...

uk al

[IanRiordan]

Bad, Bad, Bad, don't try to weld cast iron to mild steel tube. If you can make a jig and set the tubes up to suit the centre section, then drill 4 90 degree offset holes in each side of the centre section and weld down the hole. We call it a plug weld here in Oz and it works well splicing 12 bolt centres into land cruiser tubes.
When it's all set up you can run braces from tube to tube, but use tig or mig as too much heat will distorttubes and bugger up alignment.
Not a game for young players.

[Poopy 62]

Arent you still welding the cast to mild steel then? I've had no problem with it.

[IanRiordan]

No, you drill a hole about7/16(or 11mill in euro) then weld out in a circle to create a 'pin' on the tube. Four of them stop the tube from rotating in the centre.
Let's try to stop people welding mild steel to cast iron if we can.
I don't like to be told how to live my life, but we CAN help each other.