So I've picked up on the main pointers of welding cast through my years of reading through PBB and other forums, and just finally applied it when welding up a leaf mount on my buddy's cherokee. The PO had *tried* to weld an old cast mount to the top of the cast section of the pumpkin on the drivers side axle tube to do an SOA. Well my friend just dropped the front axle for the first time, and that perch literally fell off. I knew it was horrible the way it was done and booger welded at that, so I helped him remake it.

Tell me what you guys think! First time welding a mount to cast, but I think it'll hold fine. I preheated everything with oxyacetalyne, welded it up, stress relieved it with a hammer multiple times along with post heating. If it holds up, it'll also serve as the base for the control arm mount of his future 3 link setup

Beginning:
http://agitatedpancake.com/random/jeep/castmount/DSC03949.jpg

The back side of the plate going to the axle tube isn't welded here, but I welded it to the cast after by pulling the top plate off again.
http://agitatedpancake.com/random/jeep/castmount/DSC03950.jpg

Here's the back of the mount. I used a peice of 1/4" (it's all 1/4") and layed it across the length of the cast, then welded all sides.
http://agitatedpancake.com/random/jeep/castmount/DSC03951.jpg

Little triangle gussets on the inside
http://agitatedpancake.com/random/jeep/castmount/DSC03952.jpg

And the finished front. It got a peice of 1/4" layed over the whole distance like the rear did, so I could get as much weld as possible.
http://agitatedpancake.com/random/jeep/castmount/DSC03954.jpg

I see underfill, undercut, bad fillet geometry, and nothing covering the pinion bearings while welding 8 inches from them with a mig :laughing:. the pictures are top notch though :flipoff2:


It'll prolly hold though, time will tell. :D

Haha yeah I figured I'd get a response like that :flipoff2:.

The pinions gettin pulled back out anywho, and will get cleaned thoroughly so that doesn't worry me. As for the undercut/underfill...your mostly talking about that big weld on the back i'd assume? That was a nice gap I had to fill heh. No excuse though, I'm sure I could have made the weld fill out a little better!

On the back side casting are you going to drill a hole for the U-bolt or remove that casting fin?

It looks like it should hold.

Deceptive in the pics, but there is a factory hole in that fin for the U-bolt. I wanted to keep it for sure, so we actually notched that rear plate to wrap around the little part of the fin it intersects in hopes that it would add a little strength to the mount.

I gotta see if I can get a pic of the old mount that was sitting on the cast...it was a joke!

It looks like it should hold.

famous last words....