welding garden tractor front axle

[ajstoneservices]

My Honda lawn tractor is propped up on stands at the moment because the front axle broke on Sunday

It looks to have been spot welded with a mig. And badly at that. I want to use an arc welder and fully weld it. Is that likely to be a problem?

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• ajstoneservices
• 3 Jun 2014
• 1

Untitled

• ajstoneservices
• 3 Jun 2014
• 1

 

[Burnerman]

No problem welding that, but a MIG would make the job easier as the metal is quite thin.
Get rid of the paint, and also the bushes in the ends need to come out if they are nylon.
Weld on each side, an equal amount at a time so to minimise distortion until the weld is continuous.
Your biggest issue is keeping everything in line so the machine will steer properly afterwards.
Good luck with it, and if its a disaster, Lings will sell you a new bit......just make sure you're sitting down when you see the price
John

 

[ajstoneservices]

Never used a mig so it's the stick welder or nothing I'm not sure how those bushes come out, might be screwed?

I'm going to strap band it together and then tack it to ensure it goes back together correctly. Well that's the plan

 

[Burnerman]

Sorry I can't help regarding the bushes AJ - I've never replaced them......however, if they are plastic then they need to come out, obviously. They look like an interference fit, from the photo.
If you get a chance sometime, have a bash at a MIG - so much easier!
I hardly use the stick welder now, but if I do I get the electrodes well hot with a blowtorch first.
Hope the job goes well! A new axle will be around £300 so that may be an incentive
John

 

[skotl]

I'm with John on MIG versus stick - I bought a cheap buzz box to do thicknesses that my 150A MIG can't do but just can't get the hang of it.

Looking at your pics it looks to me as if the metal is stainless or has some other coating on it and whoever welded it just basically welded the coatings together.

So first thing is to use a flap disk (preferably) or a grinder (way less preferable as you need to be very careful not to cut too deeply) to remove the coating.

Once you've done that, you're correct that you want to tack and then weld the entire seam.

How thick is the metal? Have a look at the table here to figure out how much amps you want to set your welder to.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/buying.htm

Ironically, you are likely to be able to dial an arc welder down to a far lower amperage than most (hobby) MIGs will manage.

So, if it's, say., 2mm thick then you want somewhere between 90A and 100A.

Once you have the amps set, the most common mistake is to wuss out and not spend enough time laying down the weld, leading to metal simply sitting on top of the base metal, rather than penetrating.
Of course, it's just as easy to spend too long in the one spot and burn through


So if you have any steel of comparable thickness, have a practise run on that, first.

Apologies if this needs to be filed in the granny/egg/suck cabinet!

 

[ajstoneservices]

I managed to stick weld the front axle on Saturday and it survived 6 hours mowing yesterday (the grass was a foot high and wet )

It didn't come out as nice as I would have liked but I blame it on varivocals and welding helmets being a bad match

I've told myself I will re-weld it in the winter, if I get time

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• ajstoneservices
• 9 Jun 2014
• 1

Untitled

• ajstoneservices
• 9 Jun 2014
• 1

 

[Burnerman]

Nice one! Nowt the matter with that - it can sometimes be easier to add extra steel in the form of a web or plate, just to strengthen things up.
Anyway........if you had a MIG, its bye bye to all the spatter and bits of slag etc - you can stop and start as you wish, no cleaning up, fill holes and everything else.
Tempted?
John

 

[skotl]

That looks much stronger good work!