got_bar_work wrote: Most of the guys that welded zooks at the factory are unskilled at welding
I know that was a bit of a throw away line, but, in reality, cars are made down to a price. Race quality welds are expensive and slow - the fastest possible weld that does the job is all that's required.
Some of the welds on a sierra chassis look terrible, but the parts are intelligently designed and when kept within factory parameters, factory welds almost never fail.
Greeno, welding a truss to a front axle is a pretty skilled task. In all likelyhood, you will warp the housing. A slightly warped housing might not really be an issue in the front though, because the full-floating nature of a front axle means small changes in alignment aren't critical.
However, you need to be VERY smart about where and how you brace the housing. Bracing the housing between the shock/coil mount looks like the obvious place to do it, but in reality, the real force is between the shock mount and the knuckle. Whilst it looks like you need to brace the housing like this:
It might actually make the problem worse because it's transferring the bending force into a smaller area - from the shock mount to the knuckle.
This might be the better way to truss the housing, because you might be able to run the truss right out the knuckles.
I know this is a rear, but my point stands
All up though, there's quite a long way between welding some steel you have lying around to your axle and designing a functional truss that achieves what you want. Worst case scenario is a bent housing that isn't actually any stronger than stock.
Anyways, I'm just throwing some ideas out there.
Steve.
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