Well I had a crack in my passenger side frame above the rear wheels that i had fixed. Here is the link to that thread.
https://www.ranger-forums.com/general-ford-ranger-discussion-15/cracked-frame-119539/

The other day i had my truck in the shed replacing a door handle and noticed i could see light through part of the frame on the drivers side. The rivets that hold the drivers side shock mount on are rusting out causing the frame to crack. So i guess I will have to cut the old ones off and weld a plate on the frame and then drill new holes and mount new shock mounts on the truck. This is aggrevating.

 

Can't you buy a rear section of frame to replace that?

Or like you said just plate it.

 

Yes i could buy a complete rear section and replace it but it will be cheaper to just plate it and remount the shock mount, I just wont have a lot of time to do it with school going on and my clinical rotations starting in May.

 

Scary. Hope you get it fixed soon.

 

Thanks, the good thing is I drive my car at school so my truck just sits at home most of the time. Its not like i have to be in a rush to get it done.

 

I would just stop drill them and keep driving it for the time being.

Repair it later, or build a new frame with new axles front and rear.

 

Yeah, good idea. I could even just bolt a plate on the outside of the frame for now untill i get time to take the bed off, replace the mounts and weld a plate on.

 

You really need to stop drill the cracks before any repair. The plate should be welded with fish mouths and rosette welds.

 

Ok i have a few questions. I under stand what stop drilling is but what size drill bit do you recomend? I figured i would use 1/4" plate so you say i should "fish mouth" it as in grind the edges down like this I/ all the way around. I looked up what rosette welds were and from what i found was you drill through one of the plates and not the other and weld the hole up. Which plate should i drill through? How big of a hole should i drill and where should i dril them?

 

they're also known as plug welds... i would just do a few in an even spread, probably 1/4 inch if i were guessing... the smaller the hole, the more welds you want, but don't go too big, either

 

Frame thing $ucks man, I need to look at mine. The rear of a ranger, i.e spring hanger/shock mts take a beating.

I am not a welder so bear with me.

“Stop drilling Holes”, I guess I thought a hole at the end of the crack would stop it ?

“Fishmouth” I thought that was the end of a tube being attached to another tube; how does this apply to a frame and flat steel ?

Thkg out of the box, can you weld in plates on both the outside and the inside of the frame and a cross tube between them at the shock mounting locations and add new shock mounts, again just thkg ?

 

[QUOTE=Scrambler82;1944212]Frame thing $ucks man, I need to look at mine. The rear of a ranger, i.e spring hanger/shock mts take a beating.QUOTE]

Yeah it sure was nice of Ford to make both of them so that they hold dirt and water so they rust out faster.

 

I think your frame is defective to have cracked twice like that. It is not that rusty.

What have you been doing, sled pulling?

 

Haha no i havnt been sled pulling. I have painted the frame so thats why it doesnt look like its in bad shape. I did have to fix the gas tank crossmember too because it was rusted out. The truck just didnt have enough care given to it earlier in life. here is two pics of it before it was painted. I should have spent the money and put POR-15 on it.

 

Notching or fish mouth on tube is so they fit together, when you do it to plate it increases the amount of welded area to increase the strength of the new joint. So for this repair make patch then just make a nice curve in it from corner to corner, moch it up with cardboard. if it is pleasing to the eye it should be fine. So fish mouth and plug/rosette welds should be down to your patch, keep in mind the stick frame is about 1/8 so too much heat will screw it up. I would use 1/8 plate and try and wrap the top side and bottom of the frame with plate, if cutting and welding of multiple pieces needs to be done to make it happen that is ok. The idea is to strengthen the whole area. If there is nothing on the inside rail you can box that section too.

Stop drilling you just a drill bit larger than the crack and drilling a hole at the end of it. So the crack can not continue through the hole. After that you can weld up the crack grind it down a bit si the plate will sit flush. Since you have crossmember rivets there you may want to leave holes for them so you can remove it without removing the repair.


Also remove the rust under the patch and paint it with some weld through primer, now is a perfect time for a top coat of chassis paint.

 

Ok so "fish mouthing" is an arched line from one point to another thanks, more welding area, got it.

Put that in the welding file., fish mouth on flat steel.

 

Got another question, since i dont have time right now to take the bed off and fix it completly should i go ahead and stop drill the cracks so that they dont get bigger? or will it cause more problems without the reinforcement?

 

Just remember sharp corners concentrate stress, by rounding them you spread the stress over a larger area.

This picture shows kind of a inverted fish mouth style of patch plate. So either way will work it just depends on how you lay it out.

 

Looks like you just need a new truck.

 

Haha, thats not happening!

 

I would like to point something out.

Have any of you guys been around heavy machinery? (Cranes, large tractors, even bobcats)
Look at a lot of the plating. Some, if not most, of the plating have fish mouth weld on them.

Some of the plating has rosette (plug welds) as well, just to increase the overall strength.

Just wanted to post this. lol.

 

Now that you mention it yes, I remember seeing the fish mouth on our loader tractor, skid loader, and trencher. Makes sense.

 

The first time I was around a bobcat, I wondered why the plating was welded that way lol.

Then I learned about these different types of welds.

 

This is some good advice.

 

Yea, if i had a nickel every time i saw someone just plate over some crack in the metal thinking that'll stop it.
I'd have a nice fx4 by now.