Welding on an Axle Shaft?

[talvare]

Sleeving would be my first choice. I have done this several times and usually machine the sleeve ID for a "heat shrink" fit. This method generally requires working quickly when installing the sleeve, but once on, it's definitely permanent.

Ted

 

[RJSakowski]

Will work fine, would not do an auto axle that way. I had one snap at the weld when I hit a wet spot in a parking lot. Glad it did not snap on I 24 earlier at 75 MPH.

My ex in law had an old Chevy wagon that had a bearing that wouldn't stay put on the rear axle. He had the bearing tacked in place. Some years later, he gave the wagon to his daughter. On a trip home from a weekend visit, my ex lost the rear wheel in the middle of a busy intersection in downtown Madison right at the peak of the morning rush hour. She eventually convinced several of the men at the nearby firehouse to push the vehicle off to the side of the street and I ended up running her back home up north instead of going to my university classes.

Carbon steel should not be welded unless you're going to do a proper heat treatment afterward. Especially for critical components. I have don a number of repairs on farm machinery where the part failed immediately adjacent to the weld. My solution was to put enough heat into the weld to draw the temper on any hardening due to heating the adjacent area enough to where the creating a brittle zone. This can be done with an oxyacetylene torch or simply a massive initial weld. \

I have also had good results welding cast iron with the same approach. It seems that the weld failure is due more to the hardening in the heat affected zone more than to differences in thermal expansion coefficients.

 

[MrCrankyface]

Preheat it thoroughly, add weld and then turn it down to size again.
Should minimize chances of stress induced fracture by minimizing temperature differences.

If it's some variant of mild steel it should be absolutely fine, if it's higher carbon or otherwise alloyed it might not last very long but for a golf car I reckon it should last long enough.
The best would probably to find out what steel it is, or trying to harden it to get an idea of the carbon content. If a file still bites into it after hardening I'm fairly certain you can weld it however you want and it'll work.

 

[steelcat]

I have fixed a ton of axles and have never had a failure.
Use 70 series bare wire or stick electrode (DC) Preheat it to about 250 degrees dont let it get hotter than 350 degrees. When finished welding let it cool down slowly. Do not force cool.
After machining if machined right and properly fitting the bearing, most if not all of the wear will be in the bearing not the axle.

 

[RonRock]

Thanks guys for the advice. I did weld up the badly worn areas where the bearing and the seal wear on the axle. I went with my TIG welder, since it was already set up and easy to do. I am not the best TIG guy on the planet, but the best in my one man shop. Haha. So I probably got the shaft hotter than I should have, but I did get it built up and let it cool down. Then turned the weld down to a close enough guessing point on the final OD. I ordered and today received the replacement bearings and seals. My plan was to pull the other side axle and use the dimensions from that side as a guide. But that side is also worn. Probably not bad enough to start welding on, but not good enough to use as a guide for my final OD on the one that I am working on.

I figure that the bearing fitment should be a press fit, I'm thinking .001 over the ID of the bearing. Is that correct? But not sure how to figure the OD of the axle for the seal fit.

The seal originally was a CR 539033. Way obsolete and I am unable to find any specs on it. The replacement is a China cheapo that I haven't even tried to look up. Is there a "typical" or rule of thumb for the shaft size for a seal fit?

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Shaft diagram says 1.563” OD , according to Motion Industries

 

[RonRock]

Here is a picture of the bearing and seal,

 

[RonRock]

How do I determine the shaft diameter for the seal to ride on?

Here is a link to the seal,

E-Z-GO REAR AXLE OIL SEAL

SEAL-OIL-AXLE-REAR Part # 15114G1 E-Z-GO OEM Part

www.countrycat.com

It says that the seal I.D. is 7/8" Not sure if that is 100% correct, but that is what they say. I can measure, but it is hard to get an accurate measurement on a rubber seal, as I'm sure you all know.

Of course I did overheat the shaft in my welding. I like to weld, hard to stop once I get going. Haha. Mostly I have had very limited time to work on this and I need to get it done and out of the shop. Winter is coming.

Anything I can do to help with the potential damage I have done by overheating? I have Oxy/Acc setup, also a powder coating oven. The oven will get to 500 f if that would do any good I can heat it in that and let it cool down slowly.

 

[gard]

So I am not am expert welder but what makes you think you overheated it? Picture? If it ended up being the right size with nice looking welds I would not worry about it. If you are worried it cooled too fast and got brittle, heat it up with the torch until a magnet no longer sticks and let it cool slowly to stress relieve/anneal.

 

[B2]

Or would I be best off to take it out and have it Flame Welded? Not sure if that is correct name of the process. I once had a shaft done that way, it seems that they put the shaft in a lathe and added powder as it was heated. Seems like that would probably cost too much these days for this unit.

It is good to hear you fixed yours. For your reference I think the process you mentioned of adding material is call Arch Spray or Plasma spray Process. It is a process that has been around for a long time and works well..... Long before our modern welding systems. It can be used to add a layer of harder material which does not wear as fast as common steel.

I used it for another application about 40 years ago.

Here is a little write up

https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/961.04/projects/RegXuProj/MasProjII.htm