Drive It Like You Stole It

[rumrumm]

I don't think I would attempt to repair it. You will be a lot better off getting a new housing and fixing it right.

[phat46]

Picture

Was that housing narrowed? If so was it done at the factory weld between the axle tube and the pumkin? That is where I narrowed mine, but the axle tube slips inside the housing a couple inches then is welded around the diameter. That is the way it was from the factory so I did it the same. The guy that had the jig to check it for straightness said he'd never seen on done like that, but didn't see why it wouldn't work, Now i wonder...
BTW a few years ago a guy came to work and said his van was driving "funny", when a few of us went out to look at it we found the rear axle cracked and sagging a couple inches...he asked if we thought it was O.K. to drive home, about ten miles....that was a 9" also

[Texrodder]

Picture

I'm not a welding expert, but the detailed photo of the failure looks like the weld did not have good penetration.  Whoever did the welding may have used a filler rod that was not compatible with the base metal or did not have high enough tensile strength.  On a large heavy piece like this housing it is sometime necessary to preheat and postheat the weld area so that the metallurgy of the adjointing metal is not changed.  I would not try to repair this housing - just too many possible risks involved.

[Dolly]

My opinion is that the rear suspensions bottomed too much.
Isn't the same problem on your car?
Gilles

Only when Carps is visiting!  

[Dolly]

It appears the weld had poor or no penetration and the weld is what broke.

I think it cracked from taking a beating on the terrible roads in SoCal.

I'd suggest that there might be more roads than just the SoCal ones involved.  I know you'd never intentionally abuse your car but I've also seen first hand where you drive it and over time those road trips were always going to take their toll.  Although I'd never have expected this kind of failure.

People who have never been here think our roads must be great because of the mild weather but the fact remains that we have millions of vehicles on them every day and there is very little time (or money) to keep them in good repair. We have as many potholes, uneven bridge abutments and poorly done repairs as anywhere in the USA and this car gets driven a lot.

Again as an outside observer from a country where over 70% of the roads are gravel and we reckon our sealed roads are all second rate.  Carps says that first trip to US all those years ago was a real revelation and made him realise that our roads are nowhere near as bad as we think.  And I'll confirm what Don says about the allegedly great roads in California, they make our good ones seem like driving on glass.  Some of those expansion joints are bad enough that they could almost do the kind of damage illustrated, in one single pass.  

It's hard to consider myself lucky whne my car is in pieces on the shop floor but you are so right. If it had completely broken while ripping around a curve up in the mountains I'd be toast.

Trust me, knowing where and how much you drive that puppy, I'd say you're the luckiest guy alive.    

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