Dusty96Xj

Need updates.....

JeepNmpg2

Need time

Axle still in pieces in garage. Adventures with kids take precedence.

JeepNmpg2

I've jacked up a reply on here 3 times... 4th try, here goes!

So it's been a few months. Many things have taken precedence over the XJ getting worked on.
- Christmas traveling
- Camping
- Water heater died... upgrades to a bigger HP style unit
- Shenanigans...
- Children... enough said.

The XJ still sits patiently in the driveway...

So I have finally embarked on the actual reconstruction of the axle. Warning: There are some not well explained quasi-technical depictions below, and many other that are not described adequately. Please ask questions and I'll try to fill in the blanks later.

Saturday:
- I cut down the 3" OD, 1/4" wall DOM tubing into the sleeve lengths
- Drilled out holes for plug welds to the existing axle tubes
- Chamfered the edges so that my TIG welder would have a fighting chance to make decent penetration maxed out at 185 amps (more on that later)

Sunday:
- Gently cleaned up the ends of the axle tube with a worn out flap disk (barely removed any material) to allow the C's to go back on with a bit less persuasion from the hammer.
- Cleaned up the back face of each C and the inner portion where the tube was going to be reinserted (again, less persuasion needed).
- Using the flat spots on the front of the axle housing, clocked the C's where they will have 6.5 degrees of caster when the pinion is at 15 degrees (total of 111.5 degrees of difference between the diff face and the flat spots on the C's)
- Placed at least 10 autogenous tack welds (no filler) around each C, checked, checked and checked again that nothing moved. Burned that thing in.

So for that note on my welder... somehow today, my foot pedal won't vary the arc like it is designed to. It does work... sort of. I have about 5-25 amps... then full 185 and thats it. Really it's not an issue on this project because I need to be at full chooch pretty much the entire time anyway, but a new footpedal is in order.

Back on track...
- Welded the driver-side sleeve plugs, then layed bead after bead to fill in where the C and new 3" sleeve meet. Around and around the axle tube we go (I also kept a soaking wet towel on the diff housing end to keep it cool and not cook the seals inside)
- Filled in the long seams. I'm glad I chamfered those edges and though it took more metal to fill in, I know the weld isn't going to fail. I did a good root pass using the backstep method 3 inches at a time, then followed it walking the cup with a hot pass to fill in most of the gap and capped it walking the cup again, just enough to bring it flush.
- Did the same to 3/4 of the passenger side C and sleeve. Still have 1/2 of the top sleeve to finish (another day...)

Then it's on to bracketry, and trusses.

Sorry there aren't many pictures of the process, I'm not very good at stopping for photos while in the thick of it. Also, ignore the numerous flammable items near where I'm welding. It's TIG, no sparks

JeepNmpg2

Yes, I stuck my tungsten out nearly half an inch to get down into for a solid root on this joint once the C was on.

Just in case any of you welders were wondering, my setup was as follows:
Everlast PowerTIG 185i (maxed at 185 on the pedal)
17f Weldcraft torch with stubby gas lense kit, #8 stubby cup
10 lpm/20 cfh argon flow
1/8" lanthenated tungsten
TIG Finger over Tigster gloves by Black Stallion (cheap and awesome TIG Gloves)

I hit the duty cycle temp limiter on the unit at least 5 or so times during the 5 hours I was working on this. Not because the welder is lacking, but because I had staged things well enough that I could almost continuously weld a stitch one place, then move to another, and so forth. Torch got pretty warm in the hand. The poor machine hardly got a rest. I've got 6 months of warranty left... gonna stretch it!