and not on the pavement!!!

I was driving my '94 s10 blazer (sq body) through a somewhat tight bend.... I turned the wheel.... and nothing happened.. she kept going straight.. when I hit the brakes then it turned... .needless to say my underwear were almost casualties!
turns out when I tried to turn earlier with the tire against the edge of the asphalt.. it ripped the idler arm clean out of the frame...

after thinking it about for a while and researching options (possibly doing the 1-ton idler arm upgrade?) I decided that since the holes were almost exactly the right size.. I opened them up just a hair with the die grinder and carbide bit, and welded a 7/16" washer back into the holes, then re-drilled the holes out to fit the metric bolts.

since this frame had suffered a failure... I decided to go belts-and-suspenders on it.. along with a new idler arm because the old one was in bad shape, and didn't have a castellated nut / cotter pin (turns out it had a lock nut). I put the arm back in with the botls and piece of tagboard to make a template for a 'fish plate'

this is the plate I created from 11ga steel (roughly 1/8") along with an extra hole for a plug weld. (That's weld-through primer)

we don't discuss my vertical-up welding abilities (or lack there of) but I gave that plate and frame hell to make sure it was re-inforced.

 

Wow! I never heard of that failure.

Nice repair!

 

yeah.. it was new one to me too. I suspect this blazer was in a salt water flood once upon a time. because from the rockers down.. using the word 'rusty' is being polite.

 

Nice job, and, no, I won't say anything about you uphill welding. Well, one thing...did you know you can also weld downhill? They don't teach it for some reason I haven't figured out yet, and it is just as effective. Tends to make things easier and purtier, too.

 

yeah i've tried.. i find uphill easier oddly enough... but I'm also _that guy_ that prefers 7018 over 6011