assanine question

what metal are axles made of? i want to swap in full widths out of a 89 j20 truck and thought for the life of me they were cast iron? am i an idiot? are they steel?



TIA

Are you talking about the axle tubes, axle shafts, entire assembly ?

I was talking about the tubes. i just haven't seen anything out there that tells me what material they are made from. how about the knuckles? things like that would help out. i can stick weld pretty good. most posts i read though say "then weld the axle tubes to the knuckles," with no good description as to what they are welding with. high nickel stick, mig, etc...

THanks rich

That I don't know, grade of steel I mean, I just know it's tube steel and does not take any special sticks that I know of. Might be currie enterprises might have detailed specs on their custom built axles, don't know, never really looked.

thats all i really needed to know. if it's tube steel then it can be mig'd. thanks for the quick reply

TOm

its DOM

perfectly mig-able

the tubes are DOM steel, the chunk and knuckles are cast. The tubes can be stick welded to the differential housing but it takes a particular stick to do it. I dont know enough about it to tell you what it is exactly.

The cases are generally Cast Iron. The knuckles can be either cast steel or iron and the tubes can be mild steel to DOM.

I guess there will never be consensus on the issuse but yes you can weld to cast steel or iron, but the strength is in question. Most professional welders will tell you, not to weld to cast, that you are making it weaker. I beleive this after seeing parts failing. My 2 cents

I guess I just want the best possible weld. I know exactly how to weld steel or cast iron. With cast iron you would pre-heat to a dull red, then weld, then cover with blanket to slowly cool. My problem is not being sure if I'm welding cast knuckles to steel tubes.

asinine

tsill said:

I guess I just want the best possible weld. I know exactly how to weld steel or cast iron. With cast iron you would pre-heat to a dull red, then weld, then cover with blanket to slowly cool. My problem is not being sure if I'm welding cast knuckles to steel tubes.

Click to expand...

Inner knuckles are forged steel.

Welding two dissimilar metals (ie DOM and CAST) can be a tricky bag. Usually you would want to use a high-quality stick that is made specifically for this.

When welding cast it is a good idea to pre-heat. After pre-heating make sure to pre-heat, and oh yeah!!! Don't forget to PRE_HEAT. This will help lower the chances of making the cast brittle and prone to breaking.

As far as rod goes, I use some expensive stuff (I got a bunch for free). I use stainless steel rod. I have to turn my stick welder WAY up for this stuff, but it gets good penetration and seems to do OKAY with cast.

I sorta wish my XJ was made out of stainless steel, as the rod is freaking cool and a grinded down and painted bead of stainless is lost to the world.