Weld on coil over question

Hey All,

I think this is a simple question - if you're welding an aluminum coil over sleve on to a steel strut housing, you have to TIG weld it, right? My strut housing will be media blasted, so it will be clean metal, but do I need to grind some of the red off of the Ground Control sleve to weld it?

Thanks,

Ed

Sorry, Ed, but you can't weld steel to aluminum. If they turn out to be both steel I would still have it tig welded since it's such a critical part. Jake

Well, now, that's why I was confused. I've seen loads of these things installed just by welding a sleeve to the strut housing with the sleeve just kinda sitting on top of it. That just seems wrong.

You wouldn't NEED TIG because it's a "critical part". A proper MIG weld will hold up just as well, but may not look as pretty.

What about welding a steel collar to the strut housing that the ground control sleeve can rest on top of? This will also allow you to remove the sleeve it it gets damaged (threads buggered up, adjustment ring locked on, etc).

Gimp wrote: You wouldn't NEED TIG because it's a "critical part". A proper MIG weld will hold up just as well, but may not look as pretty. What about welding a steel collar to the strut housing that the ground control sleeve can rest on top of? This will also allow you to remove the sleeve it it gets damaged (threads buggered up, adjustment ring locked on, etc).

This seems to be the intended method of installation. It came with a steel, um, shelf kinda thing... yeah. I'll stop trying to describe it. Okay. I take my MIG welding class tomorrow morning! I'll do a bit of practice before I weld my suspension togehter! But if that's how you do it, really shouldn't be the hardest thing ever.

Just seems like the sleeve should actually be attached somehow. Won't it spin on the strut when you try to adjust it?

It may spin on the strut, but you can usually hold the sleeve with one hand and spin the perch with the other.

You sure they weren't just welding a bead onto the strut housing that the collar was sitting on?

In some applications, Ground Control supplies a few o-rings that go between the sleeve and the shock. That'll help hold it in place as you try to adjust it. Not that I've ever completely figured out how to install all the o-rings they supply.

Mine just came with this one steel piece - it's like a huge washer that fits over the strut housing. So I guess you just weld that on and the collar sits on top of it. No o-rings. I'll have to see how tight the fit over the strut housing is.

I welded my rings on with my super crappy HF 90A welder.

m4ff3w wrote: I welded my rings on with my super crappy HF 90A welder.

You're talking about the steel rings that the collar sits on?

Ah. I found a picture that looks like what I have:

You can see the collar sits on that stickie outie part. That's the part I guess I just weld on.

this thread is useless without pictures

[edit....thanks for the pic]

If you can just put the sleeve on top of the old spring perch your good to go. If you need to get it down lower on the strut, then you need to grind off the old perch and weld a band of steel around the tube at the height you need.

Is anyone else a little scared?

I know those are Capri parts, just tell me things like how you got them and what the basic specs on those brakes are and everything else I'm looking at there.

There's an obvious bead of weld at junction of tube and flat 'washer' on the right side assembly..

The last set of GC's I installed had a set of steel washers which I welded to the strut housing. The aluminum 'perch' sat on top of that.

pres589 wrote: I know those are Capri parts, just tell me things like how you got them and what the basic specs on those brakes are and everything else I'm looking at there.

Nope, not my picture- and not for the Capri. This is for the FSP Celica. Though Ground Control do make a kit (maybe exactly the same parts- I'll slip one over a housing and see what it looks like) for the Capri. Camber plates are tougher.

I'll get a pic of my parts here in a minute...

(edit) Sure does fit over a Capri strut housing just fine.Shoot, now I'm going to have to get some for the Capri too.

John Brown wrote: Is anyone else a little scared?

You mean besides me? lol

I took my welding class this morning and I did really well! I'll take a pic of one of my reasonable welds. Not perfect, but I'll do some practice before I weld my suspension.

Okay, here's a shot of my coilovers.

And the other...

This is the weld on "washer" that the sleeve sits on.

And my welding! Okay, I know it's not perfect, but it's my first day. I'll get better.

Thanks for the help,

Ed

Discharge those big-ass capacitors before you try to weld them on, or before the cat licks the bare terminals.

Wow, I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking at, I stand corrected. For reference, this is what I find when I go looking for Ford Capri ball joints;

I'm wondering how hard it would be to adapt those camber plates you have to the Capri. It was forever ago that I mucked with my '73 so I don't remember how it all fits together, but it seems like something that could end up being a great project for the guy with access to the right tools.

And now I'm wondering how hard it would be to get a four link setup with those sorts of bits to work with the Capri and its leaf sprung solid axle...

Shoot, I have the struts out of the Capri right now. Let me wonder out to the garage with one of these plates. (walks away from computer...)

(...walks back in) The bolt circle on the Capri is quite a bit bigger. I have a pair of camber plates I put together for the Capri. I used a "generic" plate from ebay with no bolt holes drilled. It wasn't big enough either, but a friend TIG'd some extra material in the three areas where I need to put the bolts. I cut one of them back down to fit into the tower and just need to mark and drill it. Then I'll duplicate that on the other side. I just got distracted with the Celica for a while.

Take care,

Ed

motomoron wrote: Discharge those big-ass capacitors before you try to weld them on, or before the cat licks the bare terminals.

Would you believe those are crossover caps out of those AR speakers they're sitting on? Huge things. I replaced them a couple of weeks ago with polypropylene film. The old ones are really, really high quality and still test to spec in capacitance, but they're better resistors at this point than caps. ESR must be off the charts. But they're too cool looking to throw away. And the speakers (LST-2s) are fairly rare, so I thought it best to hang on to the original parts.