How does the op know if it was done properly or not?
He bought it like that, for all he knows my sister could have welded it.

 

X-ray? Magnaflux? Yes. it's that easy to tell. You should know that.

 

If I took them off to I would put the proper parts on there.

And yes, I know how to check a weld and the cost of doing so.

Personally, I would not feel comfortable driving that car until I knew the quality of the welds or changed the parts out.

Bottom line to me, it looks mickey mouse as hell.

I have never seen anything done like that on the race cars I have been around (NHRA), but I have very little knowledge of other forms of racing.

 

Guys, I'm loving the dialog and the feedback – thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Having these spindles pulled off and inspected is a definite... with replacement highly likely. So the options are S4 spindles including up and lower control arms or adapters which would allow me to retain OB control arms and spindles, correct?

 

There are three type of brakes, roughly: pre S, S, and S4. You can only use the adaptors if you have pre S spindles. If you have S spindles you can change to pre S spindles (if you can find them) and use the adaptors.

 

When you look at how the force is being applied to the welds, you will realize that very little force is being applied to the welds. One is under compression, and you would have to shear the whole ear off the flange to get the other weld under tension.

If you magnaflux the pieces, you will no doubt find they are fine. Even so, nobody ever died by erring on the side of caution.

 

Hi,

I know the world of racing and I also know guys who make changes anyway In particular in racing. A modified steel casting spindle with a welding loses some of its mechanical properties. For safety components such as brakes it just makes non sense, a low-cost inherently dangerous solution. The solution of the intermediate, although it is questionable to me, seems much more secure.

Puyi

 

I've seen a few drag cars with drop spindles made similarly. Do you see rewelded axle tubes? Suspension mounts?

Puyi, they're forged not cast.

 

That will not pass NHRA tech on anything faster than a 13 second car.

 

I guess the sub-10 cars I've seen with it weren't NHRA legal.

 

Ok I saw it after I had posted that, no problem. As they are forged, it changes nothing and then it is worst.
The spindle are forged because it is a way to assure the best mechanical properties. Welded it should have altered it.

Puyi

 

That would be my guess.

 

It's apparently a PCA logbooked race car.I guess nobody should ever weld anything because it alters the properties...

Oh wait, that's the point of welding something.

I guess some people are more paranoid than others. Try not to confuse paranoia with facts.

 

I will reaffirm what I said in the beginning.

Remove it and take it to a INDT tech if you are really concerned about it.

They have all the tools to mag/demag etc to find any cracks/imperfections.

I would take a wire brush fully cleaning up the area, then look for any problems with the weld/attachement. If I found none, I would run it do some extremely hard braking, and then inspect once more and forget about it.

This isnt rocket science and welding can be done and made very strong, a simple inspection is all that is required.

 

The best that you can get from anyone is an opinion. Odds are that the mod you found didn't go through rigorous engineering peer review. I would install either OEM, or an equivalent engineered solution.