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Welding on axle, pinion seal explodes out.

3K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  Plato2k5 
#1 ·
Have a small pin hole leak on the axle tube from when I cut off the old spring perch and welded on a new one to fix the pinion angle.

Went to weld it up and the pinion seal shot out violently causing oil to go everywhere.

I did not think gear oil was flamable ? I know you can take hot cherry red steel and use oil to quench.

Any idea wtf happend??
 
#10 ·
Never ever ever use brake clean before welding. Look through my topics I have posted, I put one up a year ago or so about it. Use acetone or denatured alcohol to clean something, it won't kill you or cause serious damage to your insides unlike brake clean. I know not all brake clean is dangerous but I find it best to just not use it.
 
#17 ·
Putting cherry hot steel into oil can cause it to flame up....but it's not explosive like brake clean can be....and yeah never use it when welding. Acetone is the stuff, evaporates fast and cleans every-damn-thing off steel pretty quickly usually.

It's typically good practice to weld on tubing that allows internal pressures to escape. Also a bad idea to weld on steel that has liquid on the inside. It's one thing to put a couple tack welds down....but when you start laying actual beads there is alot more things going on. Coatings on steel, oil films, crud, paint and whatever you spray are all stuff that could ignite at worst and will most likely burn in a matter that creates gas/air pressure pretty damn quick as you found out.

Good news is you learned NEVER to weld with brake clean and possibly DIE, your going to fix your breather tube that would have been a issue, and your axle is getting new seals and fresh gear lube.

:thumb:
 
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