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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 12:45:32 :
In Reply to: Useable? posted by Desoto61 [138.162.0.45] on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 09:39:07 :
Almost looks like a shrinkage crack from when it was cast -- very wide gap but not very long, and doesn't look like a brittle failure. Unless the finished surfaces are out of alignment, I wonder if it came that way from the foundry. I would vee it out and braze it, building up the brazing in a bit of a bead. Brazing material is stronger than cast iron, and the process is less stressful to the metal than welding. After it's brazed, the whole piece should be red hot, at which point you can let it cool slowly -- ideal buried in vermiculite or dry sand or wrapped up in fiberglass insulation, but in this case, probably just setting it aside in still air would be fine. Or, if the machined parts are still square to each other, assume the crack is a casting defect that hasn't broken any further in 50 years, and just keep running it. Personally, I'd braze it simply because the part is already off the truck and you can set it up nice and level for the brazing, and I'm used to brazing things.
The thing is if it breaks, you're not dead in the water. You just save the pieces, take off the loose shock and limp home with a somewhat bouncy rear end. It's happened to me several times on my old chevy pickup with its cheesy stamped bracket that only attaches to one side of the shock so the bolt is always getting wobbled back and forth. With only one rear shock, the rear hops around a good bit on rough roads, but it's no big deal.