welding advice

[roddy]

Me again.

After finding my engine bars had a cracked mounting (see my other thread "rattle @ 3500rpm"), could somebody advise on the possiblity of the crack being welded up ?, I know nothing about the strength or abilitys of welds



would this work ? or would it always be a weak point so there not much point in doing it ?

any advice would be appreciated.
cheers

 

[PeterJB]

Just dropped mine off for welding this morning! The front bracket on the right hand side snapped about a year ago and had it welded then, no problem since. Like you, had a rattle and found the same bracket on the left hand side snapped! As originally welded near break, I dont think it is a problem to fix it again.

 

[dragonrider]

difficult to see but i think TIG welding is the way to go and as far as strength it will be if not stronger at least as strong as original...it shouldn't cost that much either. look for steel works or stainless fabricators around your area

 

[johnnybravo]

Is there anyone with an adventure who HASN'T had the engine bars crack??? Almost everyone I've spoken to has had the same thing happen. If I were clever enough I'd start a poll. I've had one go but the bike's out of warranty so I'll be looking for a welder too (oxford, chipping norton anyone?) however isn't it a more specialised job because the bars are aluminium? BWM must know about this and it would be good if they made a goodwill gesture to fix/replace them.

 

[Timolgra]

The first thing i did with my 'new' bike was swop the BMW bars for my 7 yr old H&B ones.
They look poor quality and stand out as that on the bike, my partner also noticed that and said they looked like cheap tent poles.

 

[dragonrider]

didnt know they were aluminium...can be welded but as johnnybravo says a bit more specialized ie too cold it wont work, too hot an it....
have heard of people using ali wire in a MIG welder with inert gas but not done it myself

 

[ciderman gs]

as long as the ali is cleaned before it is welded then you should be ok just get the guy who does it to put a full weld (all the way around) and to be sure afterwards smooth the ends to remove any notching/undercut otherwise the vibration will snap it again.

so it says in the book i read

 

[MikeP]

Is there anyone with an adventure who HASN'T had the engine bars crack???

If mine crack now, I know who to blame!

 

[roddy]

The first thing i did with my 'new' bike was swop the BMW bars for my 7 yr old H&B ones.
They look poor quality and stand out as that on the bike, my partner also noticed that and said they looked like cheap tent poles.

funnily enough I thought they looked quite a quality piece of kit, don't think that now mind you,

Tim where do the H&B bars fix to on a 1150GSA is it the same points as the BMW bars ?, when I fitted H&B bars to my old 1100GS I thought bolting to the gear box a bit of a design flaw for engine bars, but I like the points the current set up bolted too.

cheers

 

[2sledge]

WELDING

TAKE MY ADVICE AND TAKE IT TO A ALUMINIUM WELDING SHOP TELL THEM YOU WANT IT TIG WELDED THEY WILL GRIND THE OLD WELD OUT THEN THE CLEAN THE SURFACE WITH AN ACID TO GET RID OF THE IMPURITIES IN THE SURFACE METAL I/E OXIDISATION TELL THEM WHAT IT IS USED FOR AND THAT YOU WANT IT DOUBLE WELDED I/E ONE WELD THEN ANOUTHER WEAVED IN TOP
HOPE THIS HELPS

 

[PIGGLET]

Are you sure they're ally? Would of thought they'd be as much use as the proverbial chocolate fire guard if they were

 

[Loiq]

2 sledge is right and the post below

it's not aluminium it's some odd material and I'm guessing it's steel of some sort cos the crack is too clean. Could even be stainless with a coating like parkerised? anodised? or whatever

TIG welding is the way to have it done but you need to make sure they clean out the old joint first cos it'll just be full of crap and will fail in very few months later.

 

[Butler]

BE VERY CAREFUL
I've done it twice.
Once in 1990 and again in 96.
OK, this one has gone well and so far so good.
We don't argue and it's pretty good. Been together 15 years now.

Why you'd want wedding advice on a GS site is beyond me

 

[roddy]

cheers for the advice guys, I'll take them to a local engineering shop and see what they can do for me as I would like them to but a bit of webbing at 90' to the crack to give it a extra bit of strength, I was alos going to ask them to do the same for the other side as well.

this is where it would be handy to have a welding set up, for silly we jobs like this.

 

[johnnybravo]

I'll bow to anybody's superior knowledge but NOG told me that it would be difficult to weld them as they were aluminium. That's all I know!

Of the other bar types out there (H&B, SW Motech) does anyone have a recommendation?