I recently got this truck and have put about 7000 miles on it while it has been like this. My power steering fluid was leaking so I got under my truck and notice the huge tear. I won't even drive my truck now. I'm 19 and its my first vehicle so I'm trying to make sure its safe enough to drive before it falls apart on me. I am pretty sure you can weld this and I have 2 welders at my grandmas, but my main question is how do I make sure that the control arm bracket is at the same angle as the other side? And how should I go about welding it? I just need suggestions because I don't know where to start. Any help is much appreciated !!!! Thanks


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ive seen this happen to several of these trucks that have passed through my body shop. most customers say that they have put the front of the truck on jackstands and made sure it was very stable.....then put the jack under the edge of the mounting tab right up next to the control arm and jack it up slowly and it goes back into place is what they have said. make sure you clean it very well before welding to get a very good penetration on it.

^^^this is what we have seen customers do............ in my opinion, id take the spindle loose, take the shock out and the coil spring and drop the a-frame out so you could weld inside and out very good!! that in my opinion would be the correct way to fix that. also weld up the edge of your bolt hole as you can see it has worn itself and made the hole slotted......

good luck with it and let us know how it turns out

Jamie

 

Ok thank you for your output on that and I am definitely going to try that! As soon as I get any progress done I will post! Once again thank you!

 

The first part is a away that could be done, as long as you are a legit welder, the area is clean( even if using a stick) it should be enough to hold. The second part is prob the way I would do it so you know it is good on each side.

 

Ok, I have a buddy who is older and does really good welds. I was going to try to weld it myself but I don't have much experience and would ruin my truck. My buddy told me that the wire feed welder would be the best to use. But he hasn't seen the tear yet. Does a wire feeder welder sound right for this type of weld? Thanks for your help

 

A Wire Feed AKA Mig Welder will work just fine as long as it's set up correctly. any competent welder with experience should know how to do this.

You may want to weld a washer were the hole used to be to help reinforce that area.

If your buddy has welding and fabricating experience, you guys may want to weld some additional metal to the bracket to reinforce this area.

The Lift Kit Is adding additional stress in this area and it may tear at the weld since the actual weld bead will be harder then the Base metal.

Good luck with your repair

 

Hey guys, so here is my progress so far. Just need to weld a washer or something on the whole where the bolt and nut are. And then continue to renew my front end

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