Lose axle tubes

[MadMarx]

From time to time you read about weired behavior of the car on "on throttle" and "off throttle".

In most cases the car does steer to one side on throttle and return off throttle. Cause is often a lose axle tube.

 

To cure this, just make a short welding of the tubes:

 

 

Cheers

Chris

[barrytr4]

Hi Mates 

I have a tube loose , the the locating dowel is also loose and it's leaking oil , prev,' post says tack weld it , my question is if it can move can it be welded in the  wrong position if so, how do you get it in the right position? also what rods should I use , maybe weld all round to stop oil leak? all the best

Barry

[RogerH]

Hi Barry,

trying to weld an oil contaminated joint could be interesting.

You may need to disassemble and clean.

You may be very lucky with a rigorous surface clean.

 

Roger

[Drewmotty]

I guess that in terms of position as straight as you can get it is best. Having said that a slight misalignment shouldnt cause a problem as back in the day racers were known to bend the tubes to gain a bit of negative camber. 

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

or

 

http://www.racetorations.co.uk/triumph-c56/tr2-c3/tr2-axle-and-differential-c80/racetorations-girling-axle-tube-brace-kit-p202

 

 

 

[Andy303]

7 hours ago, barrytr4 said:

Hi Mates 

I have a tube loose , the the locating dowel is also loose and it's leaking oil , prev,' post says tack weld it , my question is if it can move can it be welded in the  wrong position if so, how do you get it in the right position? also what rods should I use , maybe weld all round to stop oil leak? all the best

Barry

Barry:

There is a write-up on this topic on Steve Mass's website, but he doesn't specify the welding equipment or rod material: http://www.nonlintec.com/tr4a/drivetrain/#rearaxlecase

Welding the tubes is common practice one very high performance muscle cars and 4x4 trucks. Found this on line:

First determine which it is cast steel or iron. Grinder test- Short deep red sparks= cast iron. Long orange-red sparks-cast steel. Cast steel sparks look much like mild steel sparks so just make a comparison its easy to see.
After the test.
Cast Iron=Ni55 or Ni99stick my first choice and burn it from the dynasty with a 55-60 dig.

Cast Steel=E7018 or E70 tig whichever your more comfortable with.
 

[barrytr4]

Hi mates

had a go at trying to weld the axle tubes  in-situ w/ low hydrogen welding rods, tested w/ mouth pressure / soapy water, leaked in 3 places, it was too just difficult to get at it all round it , so I took the whole axle off ground all the weld of and welded it again, w/ the locating dowels I couldn't get them out so I hit them w/ drift /hammer to thicken them then hit the edge of the dowel holes all round to tighten them up more, there is another hole, 5/8" dia' that was also leaking, I cut part of a 5/8" bolt and made a plug and welded that in, then I pressure tested w/ soapy the whole lot at about 5-10 psi nothing leaking, when I was pressure testing, I tested the other side tubes dowels etc, every part was leaking, although it did I have a slight leak from the road test that I never noticed before, so I thinking after a long run and the oil gets hotter it would leak at lot worse, so I'm weld all the other side bits tomorrow, while I've got the axle off--Thanks for your help

barry

[MichaelH]

Had my TR4 rear axle  tubes welded 25 years ago, since rallied and raced without problems, a friend was complaining of loose tubes and as it had been recently built up with new diff etc he just cleaned off the paint around where the tubes go into the pigs head (the diff bit) and a skilled welder mig welded it all the way round £30 as I remember (actually 2 weeks ago). job done

regards

Michael

[Lebro]

Reading this topic, I'm thinking it may not be a good idea to put a trolley jack under the diff to raise the back of the car. It must put quite a strain on the tube to diff casing  joints welded or not.

Bob

Edited December 15, 2020 by Lebro

[Hamish]

26 minutes ago, Lebro said:

Reading this topic, I'm thinking it may not be a good idea to put a trolley jack under the diff to raise the back of the car. It must put quite a strain on the tube to diff casing  joints welded or not.

Bob

I know mine is a 3a but I always jack mine from the rear most cross tube. Gets high enough to get axle stands under chassis rails. And I do that tooo many times a year swapping wheels over.