front suspension reinforcing bludner

[littlejim]

I’m halfway through welding the Revington reinforcement kit on to the front lower suspension mounts. Some of the welding is difficult because of poor access. (Can't get the bulky MIG handpiece at the correct angle, it bangs into something when at the correct distance from the weld, and the wire points away from where I want to weld.)

 

When the kit arrived I had trouble telling the ‘small’ plates from the ‘large’ plates, only a couple of mms (we're metric here.) difference. I was a bit puzzled, all the book and web pictures show a noticeable difference, but I thought maybe they had found they needed to be stronger and therefore bigger.

 

Because of this I identified the marginally largest ones, and welded them into place on the rear mounts. I thought this approach would make the final decision on which were ‘smaller’, a bit easier with fewer bits to choose from. In addition my Argoshield gas was getting low, and I wanted to get as much welding done as I could, to avoid running out on the weekend.

 

When it came to the front ones, the Revington instruction(?) sheet mentioned the need to trim the small ones to clear the front bumper mount. I thought that I’d better measure a few bits to work out clearances needed.

Then it dawned on me that even on the back mount, one side had to be lower to allow the bolts on the suspension arms to come out!

 

I’ve pulled one front suspension to bits and tried the arm mount out in the limited space now available. This made it obvious that I had to cut a bit off. The 'bent' stiffening bit is now gone so I will have to weld an extra bit of stiffening on later.

 

Looks as though the Revington man gave me all ‘large’ stiffeners and left the ‘small’ ones out. I don’t feel like sending the remaining ones to the other side of the world for a swap. I can chop the unwelded ones down to size, but I got the ‘check first – weld second’ sequence totally cocked up.

 

I thought buying a ‘kit’ from one of the established providers meant I could drop my guard a bit, but not so. Caveat emptor.

 

Once you realise that the 'front' reinforcer has to be a lot lower for both front and rear mounts, and has to be matched to height of the bolt that goes through the swing arm bush, the fact that the kit provides 'large' plates is an advantage. You can tailor how much you cut out of it to the exact height of the bolts in your swing arm mount. But you have to do all that BEFORE you weld it in. (sigh)

 

If you try to keep the welding on the side of the reinforcing plates away from where the mount will go, you get some really difficult access angles for a MIG handpiece. For the rear plates, in front and back positions, you can weld on the inside without affecting the swing arm mount. It bolts to the front holes, on mine anyway.

For the reinforcing plates that go in the back of the 'box' the mounts bolt to, Revington advise to 'arc weld' them in place. Access to the bottom of the plate is OK for my MIG handpiece, but the top and sides don't allow me MIG access, so I've borrowed an arc (stick) welder for that. Rev don't say so, but my guess is that they recommend 'arc' because of the access problems. I would have appreciated it if they had explained why. To me MIG is 'arc' as well, so the instruction hasn't really provided any help.

 

I also had to put a little 'outwards' bend in the front reinforcing plates. As provided, they slightly fouled the swing arm mounts when they were positioned in their holes. One side more so. Just depends on the shape of the front side of the mounting 'box' on the chassis. Rev mention this in their sheet.

 

Provided in case someone else is about to make the same bludner as I did.

 

 

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[marvmul]

I thought buying a ‘kit’ from one of the established providers meant I could drop my guard a bit, but not so. )

 

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For the reinforcing plates that go in the back of the 'box' the mounts bolt to, Revington advise to 'arc weld' them in place. Access to the bottom of the plate is OK for my MIG handpiece, but the top and sides don't allow me MIG access, so I've borrowed an arc (stick) welder for that. Rev don't say so, but my guess is that they recommend 'arc' because of the access problems. I would have appreciated it if they had explained why. To me MIG is 'arc' as well, so the instruction hasn't really provided any help.

In general, arc welding, with welding rods, is stronger than MIG welding, maybe that's the reason Revington does recommend arc welding for some places?

[MadMarx]

I would all tig weld.

minimum heat input to the base metal.

[littlejim]

Marv,

I borrowed my son's stick 'arc' welder and did a bit, gave it away and went back to MIG.

 

MadMarx,

not going to buy yet another welder, and the instructions didn't say TIG they said arc. To me both MIG and TIG are 'arc' as well as stick, but the instructions don't explain 'why' so how can you work out what they are on about?

 

Alec

phoning across the world, the dateline and all those time zones is a bit problematic. However I've taken your suggestion on the email and sent them a polite one outlining the problems I had, suggesting a few additions to their instruction sheets that would have helped me, and asking whether 'arc' welding means 'not gas' or whether it means 'not TIG' and/or 'not MIG'. Will let you know what they say.

[littlejim]

Neil Revington sent me an instantaneous reponse to my email, as Alec implied he would.

 

Where the instructions say 'arc weld' they mean 'weld'. As long as it is solid the method doesn't matter.

 

I'm now waiting for clarification on whether the front kit now only contains 'large' stiffeners instead of 'small' and 'large'.

 

later: I've had another swift reponse from Neil Revington (most impressed) my 'front' kit slipped through with all 'large' stiffeners for which he apologised. He said he will modify their instructions to make it clear what should be in the kits.

Edited May 13, 2007 by littlejim