I am wanting to run a early chevy van straight I-beam axle, but would need to narrow it. I want to run parallel leafs. Has anyone had any problems with a welded I-beam? Do they weld good?
I have narrowed and welded 5 I-beam axles which are in hot rods I currently own. No problems welding them. V-groove deeply. I stick welded some and Mig welded others. I weld a 3/8" thick by 6" long plate in the back side of the web. On parellel leaf spring set ups, I cut the spring perchs off and make new ones that I weld to the bottom of the axle. It lowers the front about 2".
I see no problems as said, it is a forged steel axle, which is weldable. Proper weld prep- clean the area, V-groove, make sure you have good penetration. The weld is in the middle I assume, so there is less stress at that location than on the ends.
I picked up a T on a model A frame that had a cut down 40 axle... It had been a daily driver for three years and we are still running it with a V-8 sitting on it. It looks well-built, but I had always been told to never do it. As 38Chev454 said, "good penetration" .
i good pre-heat and post-heat would be a wise move aswell. also if you cut down a little, then across and then down the rest of the way you would have a situation where you do NOT have a straight vertical seam in the middle of the axle but rather a short vertical, a longer horizontal and a then another short vertical.... i thought it important enough i sketched it out, took a pic with my digital camera (the scanner is broke), uploaded it to my computer, cropped it, saved it, uploaded it to Photobucket and attached it below. i just wanted to make sure you got the idea. i think you will see that it is a much stronger way to go than to just take a vertical slice out of the middle.
and don't forget to "V" the hell out of it like the other guys were saying and make sure the heat on your welder is turned up high enough. if you don't know about preheating and post heating when welding you should do a search of the web cause it's realy worth looking into. you'll end up with an axle you won't have the least bit of doubt about.
doing it this way is the best it also helps keeping the shape look right. you should weld the horizontal first to keep it from moving to much from the welding heat.
If you stick weld it check to see that you have the proper rod for the weld. Can't remember what the local shop used on some Harley frame forgings, but it has a lot more shine than a normal rod.
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