Cracked Chassis

[indoz]

The accident I had recently caused my chassis to be out of square by 25 mm.(1"), this was rectified, but when it came to re-alligning the wheels I was informed by the workshop that it could not be done because there was a crack in the chassis just behind thepowersteering box, insurance would not cover this since it seems an inherant problem in the F100's ( and some other vehicles). The torque applied to the chassis by the powersteering especially with bigger tyres will most likely cause it to crack.So out came the powersteering box, TIP before you hammer the castle nuts to remove steering arms, take them off and put them back on castle side first so as not to damage them.First we grooved the crack and mig welded it then a 3 mm. plate was welded between the rear bolt hole and the raised bracket on the chassis, same was welded against the bottom of the chassis covering the crack, I also made up a plate to connect the rear and bottom bolts on the outside of the chassis (drilled 3 mm. plate) as an extra precaution. I wrote this mainly as a warning to the owners of the older type 4x4's, especially if you do a lot of off-roading, to occasionally check the chassis around the powersterring box.
Henk from Oz

 

[Seabronc]

It would be neat if you post some pictures B) , they actually are worth a 1000 words. Especially for us real men that don't B) instructions ) .

Thanks for the write up

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[BLADE262US]

If anyone else does this you should also drill a small hole at each end of the crack . Grooving it and welding it is fine but almost always the crack will continue on out of the weld and the extra plates you welded on wont stop this from happening . Have to drill the holes to stop the crack