Welding Frame - prep?

[peterock]

I'm not a welder but a good buddy is. I know from past experience he has told me to weld aluminum you need to bring the entire piece being welded up to temperature. Your weld won't hold on aluminum if you just try to run a bead basically. So you almost need to take a torch or something to bring the temperature of the metal up so it can be welded decently.

I could be wrong though.

[svahle]

Well, I've already dropped the quad off to have this welded. This guy is top notch and has experience with aluminum frames and welding (his son races mx). He wasn't all that familiar with the Moto and mentioned that someone had really dumped alot of money in this quad with the suspension, a-arms, axle, etc. etc. He was surprised to learn that except for the updates this quad is bone stock. I mentioned to him the idea of grinding down the tab and just building a new one with some extra support and gussets. I think that is how he is going to address the issue. He is the welding expert so I'm leaving that up to him ultimately. I did drain the oil from that side of the frame, don't know if that was a mistake or not and it looks like I'm getting mixed opinions on that.

I'm heading to Waynoka in mid October. I'll have 3-4 hard days of seat time. I'll post an update about how well it holds up. If it survives the trip I'll try and post some pics of the fix so others can see how it was addressed.

Thanks for all the input.

Shannon

[peterock]

Sounds good, if the guy has welded aluminum before he should have no problem then.