Andrie

thanks for the response guys!

hondaf1

i drilled out the old spot weld and reweld them, then i also drill some additional holes for spot well. then i seam weld.

turbo8765

J's makes a bracket to prevent this. I'm sure it's probably not B stock legal, but may be useful for DE.

robrob

A bracket isn't needed, just seam weld the rear edge of the upper rear a-arm mount. It's caused by hard braking and the rear edge of the upper rear a-arm is the weak point.

PanteraKitty

Thanks, guys. I hope to get all of the brackets welded next week. It looks like I only tore six welds on one of the brackets, but we will weld all the brackets. It will be easier before they move.

turbo8765

How many spot welds are there?

robrob

I've never heard of anyone pulling any of the other brackets loose. You should only have to seam weld one bracket per front wheel--the rear edge of the upper rear bracket. Of course you'll need to drill out and re-weld the spot welds that tore loose.

When the front brakes are applied the suspension wants to turn in the same direction as the wheel. The lower a-arm has much more "leverage" because of the width of it's mounts. The upper a-arm is much narrower than the lower so it can be twisted off the frame. The upper a-arm's rear mount bears the brunt of the force (it's the leading edge of the twisting force) and the twisting torque causes the rear seam to pull away from the frame.

PanteraKitty

It looks like there are 10 spotwelds holding the bracket - 5 on each ear. I broke at least 6 of them, 3 on the front ear and 3 on the rear. It is a little hard to see because the nugget pulled out of the frame side of the welds. I may have broken 8 of the welds. The front bracket appears to have cracks starting at the bottom edge so the front brackets will also get welded.

robrob

Sorry about that, I was thinking preemptive welding, where only the rear bracket needs seam welding, but when the rear bracket pulls loose the front bracket can be damaged too.