Back in 2013, I had a very reputable Midwest shop, known for its axles, narrow my B-body 8-3/4 housing to A-body width and true it up, install a back brace, and put the perches in the stock A-body position. The car has five miles on dirt roads, remember.

Today I was installing traction bars. As I took off the left shock plate... the perch fell right off. They had made a decent looking weld with absolutely no penetration into the axle tube! The right side has a large crack too, and I'm sure it's not any better attached.

So I spent some more time removing the housing from the car. Off to the local welding shop tomorrow (they DO know how to weld). I sure hope the same moron didn't do the back brace, or worse yet, the ends...

I'd be double checking EVERYTHING they 'welded'.......


Are they the same shop that did this infamous Dart? (be sure to mute out their cackling)

The pictures of those welds show a total lack of penetration including the ones that appear to be on your back brace ? You should make sure whomever does the re- welding has a jig to keep the housing straight as it WILL bow with the heat.

Those welds look very cold to me, not a good thing with a mig welder.

Weld looks very cold. It's really frustrating to pay someone for poor work. I did that not too long at a muffler shop that was tasked to do something simple.

And another famous one

OUCH!!!!

and again

OUCH 2

That first "OUCH" is the Camaro I was thinking of

Fortunately with a leaf-spring suspension, the entire rear can't come out of the car if the perches break off.
But it could spin in the U-bolts... break the rear U-joint and probably the pinion & case, beat the #$% out of the floor pan, possibly damage the four-speed.
So I'm glad I found it now, rather than on a hard launch someday!

Some times the factories don't do much better. My brother in law bought a 78 Ramcharger brand new. 10 years later he was using it off road and the factory welded spring perch separated from the axle housing. The Ramcharger went sideways, and slid back down the hill he was climbing. Fortunately the RC didn't roll over and test the factory roll bar. Same issue, cold weld.

I think the problem is compounded by the guys that cry out about warping a housing when welding the perches on, and too many try to avoid the supposedly warpage by turning down the amperage when welding. I can say I've welded a lot of spring perches onto axle tubes in my days, and have never had a problem with warped axle tubes. Weld the perches on with the correct amperage and be done with it. The small amount of warp that may occur will cause a lot less damage then the damage a failed weld will cause. Gene

Poorboy, you nailed it, too much penetration and you have a very nice warped housing, too little ,and you get to post on Moparts.

Its also the perfect storm for warpage, all the welding on one side only of a tube , and with a thicker piece of steel that needs more heat then base metal for welding

The weld IMO should have been wrapped around the perch ends, and I suspect this weld failure was visible upon close inspection over time, there was a warning/

the main lesson here, check all welds, regularly, if the are important..

Nobody is perfect.

Baloney. The main lesson is that a well-known rear end place with a good reputation, and that I paid a significant amount of money to do it right, screwed up!
This is a routine job for them and I should not have to follow along second-guessing the professionals.
Weld the perches, weld the back brace, then put the housing ends on, and everything lines up.
But thanks for the victim-blaming.

Did I read "Traction bars" in the opening post ?
Oh...Where was there any "Victim blaming" other than a suggestion to check welds?

name the shop man...

-------------Exactly, Whoever "welded" that is not a welder and could never be. employed as a welder. That weld is to cold and the guy who did do is inexperienced.
This is the problem with using MIG, workers pick up a MIG gun do some poor welding and think they know the trade, ive seen it more times than I can remember, Id have stick wielded that, wrapped the ends as another member mentioned. The tube would rip off before the weld breaks.

When I bought my 1977 Volare new in '76, the first time I changed oil I was shocked. The K-member halves were welded together with what appeared to be the MIG process and there were literally hundreds of "starts" the full length of the weld. Looked like a pincushion. That and undercoating on the bottom of the dash....this was not Chrysler's finest hour.

I emailed them last night too. Waiting to see their response first.
But you'll recognize the name.

I suck at welding but my first call was also Cold Weld. Gee, if I can say that it is bad.

I had mine heli-arced by a guy who used to weld up top fuel frames. I have access to a mig welder and know people who weld much better than me, but sought out the best guy and welding setup I could find for that job. If those come loose it can tear up a lot of stuff.

Everybody lives in their own world, some smaller then others I guess.
Trust but verify is in mine.

I picked up my homemade subframe connectors this morning at the local weld & fab shop. They did a nice job welding the front plates on, and powder coated them chassis-black too, total of $75.

I dropped off the rear end housing - they were appalled at the quality of the perch "welds" too. They do know how to jig and clamp rears to prevent warping (and the back brace should help prevent any movement).
Should be done tomorrow

i would rather have a hot weld with a hint of undercut, instead of a nice looking one just laying on top.
the old lincoln "tombstone" welders are great if you do stick welding. i bought mine on sale for $19.95 [with a free wheel kit] back around 1968 from the old aldon's catalog.