building an upper trackbar bracket

[mavereq]

i had some temporary trackbar brackets tacked in place for checking my front suspension so after i finished fixing the exhaust on someone else's vehicle i tried to make a permanent bracket. unfortunately i ran out of time so i'll finish it up in the morning and update this thread.

i knew that i wanted my trackbar bracket as far forward as possible without it being in the way of my pitman arm. my trackbar was hitting my diff cover at full stuff with the temp bracket.

i cut some brackets out of 1/4" plate based off of where the temp brackets sat and where my broom sticks showed me my steering linkage would be.

i played around with the suspension in different positions to make sure nothing was going to hit. my heim joint from ruffstuffspecialties has a 2" mounting width so i thought i'd use a piece of 2x2 tube to clamp the brackets to. once i had them clamped into place i decided to just permanently weld the tubing in there to strengthen the bracket.

all of the outside welds are tacked and the inside welds are burned in. the plan tomorrow is to use some 2" 1/4" thick flat bar to box the bracket in. the place i welded onto the frame is already plated with 1/4" from where i mounted my coil buckets so this should be plenty strong.

 

[Hank_]

Nice job on the bracket. I am replacing the frame on my bronco and the frame I am going to install they cut the track bar bracket off and I will have to build a new one. Yours looks nice and strong.

Henry

 

[akafrankcastle]

What....is..that..motor?


Nice fab work. What are you using to cut your stock? I'm going to need something small but effective as my garage doesn't have much space left.

 

[mavereq]

it's a 408. i have a thread on here somewhere about it.

right now i'm stuck using my 4.5" grinder and cutoff disks. i want a plasma but i'm teetering between bronco parts and tools at the moment.

 

[mavereq]

i cut the tops of the brackets at an angle because i thought it would look together. i painted the inside of the bracket since it's getting boxed in. i went ahead and plated the top and outside since i was bored but the pics aren't coming out because of my shotty lighting. i'll take some tomorrow when the sun is up. here's one right before i plated it.

 

[akafrankcastle]

it's a 408. i have a thread on here somewhere about it.

right now i'm stuck using my 4.5" grinder and cutoff disks. i want a plasma but i'm teetering between bronco parts and tools at the moment.

Never been a fan of plasmas. Used one a few rotations ago and it was just a pain in the ass. Switched over to acetylene and no issues.

As for fabbing, I haven't done much/any as of yet, but I am thinking band saw.

 

[mavereq]

i'd like a good band saw.... then again, there are a lot of tools that i want but i need to quit spending money on my own projects and make some money on the side working on others before i can get more.

 

[u10072]

A bandsaw is the best fab tool you will ever own next to a welder. You can make tabs, brackets, and parts 5 times faster than you can with any other method short of a waterjet, cnc cutter or laser. Makes your parts go from garage to pro - you think it draw it up and cut it out. To make multiples of the exact same thing you just weld say 4 pieces of a material together cut it out and put tacks on the corners of the new parts before everthing cuts loose, drill the holes, sand down all the edges and when you are done you have how many of the exact same part all ready done and literally exactly the same- perfect. For the price of a decent plasma you can buy a bandsaw and just use a 4" grinder with a cutting disk for the cutting duties-- its better than a torch in my opinion and you don't destroy the parts you are taking off- just in case you want to put them back.

 

[mavereq]

any recommendations on a decent bandsaw that isn't too expensive?

 

[akafrankcastle]

Not a clue.

As far as your tracbar bracket goes, did you move the entire front axle and mounting hardware forward or just this bracket? Foresee any issues with steering geometry?

 

[mavereq]

i moved the steering box forward an inch so i shouldn't have any problems.

i finished up the trackbar for now. as you can see my vertical welds need practice. i'll clean these up once i remove the drivetrain again and flip the frame on its side. my horizontal welds look much better.

i'll put a gusset between the trackbar bracket and the coil bucket as well.

 

[mavereq]

i went ahead and welded in the upper part of the gusset. i might add to it later but i think this will be plenty stout for now.

 

[Nightstick]

Were you running your bead up or down? By the larger pools it looks like you were going up... Make sure you follow gravity and go down on vertical welds, and once you start don't stop. I've also found that if you "wipe" side to side going down you'll get very nice welds... oh, and go SSSLLLOOOWWW (just don't blow a hole it in, lol)

Nice bracket BTW!

Edit: after looking at it again it just looks like where you stopped and started again halfway down is a speed issue. When you started the bead you realized you may be going to slow, then got too fast and stopped.

I had the same issue, here's when it clicked for me... I was watching a buddy weld 2" square and I started counting the amount of time it took him for each weld. He was 8-9 seconds each time where I was maybe 4-5. I integrated the "wiping" motion to it and my welds drastically improved.

Just a little friendly advice. Are you using flux- core or gas?

 

[DirtDonk]

Is there any reason you didn't carry the bracket's edges farther along the bottom of the frame rail? I couldn't tell if anything was in the way, but it seems to me that more length in that area would add substantially more strength by it's angle against the stress.

I'm guessing by your work that you have a lot more experience than I do in this regard, so I'm just more curious than anything. You gusset certainly adds beef, and that inner tube pretty much doubles the weld area, but I was thinking about that lower side.

Thanks

Paul

 

[mavereq]

i'll be running a piece of flat stock across the bottom. i didn't want to run the bracket too far that way since the trackbar passes through it and i don't want to limit its travel, if that makes sense.

 

[mavereq]

Were you running your bead up or down? By the larger pools it looks like you were going up... Make sure you follow gravity and go down on vertical welds, and once you start don't stop. I've also found that if you "wipe" side to side going down you'll get very nice welds... oh, and go SSSLLLOOOWWW (just don't blow a hole it in, lol)

Nice bracket BTW!

Edit: after looking at it again it just looks like where you stopped and started again halfway down is a speed issue. When you started the bead you realized you may be going to slow, then got too fast and stopped.

I had the same issue, here's when it clicked for me... I was watching a buddy weld 2" square and I started counting the amount of time it took him for each weld. He was 8-9 seconds each time where I was maybe 4-5. I integrated the "wiping" motion to it and my welds drastically improved.

Just a little friendly advice. Are you using flux- core or gas?

i'm using flux core, which is why i have to weld up instead of down. i'm going to try some dual shield from pinnacle that's rated for downhill welding. the reason that weld was thicker in the middle is because that's where i passed over my tack weld. i use a weave on my vertical welds and stack my stringers on horizontal. i've noticed that trying to weave a horizontal seems to make it a little cold on the bottom edge.

i'm definitely no pro with the welder but i've been improving. once i pulled the drivetrain off the frame and flipped it on its side i stacked some nice horizontals over that mess and it looks good now.

 

[mavereq]

i finally got around to finishing up the bottom of the bracket

 

[73stallion]

nice job on all of it! body mount and steering mount too.

 

[mavereq]

thanks man. i've been putting a little time in here and there to try and get the frame finished up so i can coat it. our holiday schedule starts monday so i should have some time to get more work done. i need to have this thing rolling soon so i can get to work on the body.

i capped the ends of the 2x4 tubing i used on the front and welded 5/8" nuts on the inside. i'm not sure what i'll do for bumper add-ons in the future so this leaves me with mounting options.