Sub-frame damage

[SierraBronco]

Do a lot of welding in our shop. As soon as someone picks up the welder you can hear "Did you disconnect the battery". I've hear of others disconnecting the ECM have never done it myself. I did have one scenario similar to that though.

Had a customer at the battery shop, where I work part time, had a battery issue that never had one before. This happens more than you might think. First question. Did you leave something on?? Second question has been in the shop lately for an extended period of time??? Bingo!!! It was at a body shop. Bad answer. Not to knock body shop but it is the nature of the business. Door hangs wide open for hours at a time, leaving the dome light to burn away, and no one disconnects the battery cable. Anyway, we charged his battery, but he came back in a couple weeks with a dead battery.


What did they fix on the truck??? The rockers. Ok so inside the truck is different control modules. if they welded close to one of those, not good. So we set up and started pulling fuses to see if we could kill the draw. Sure enough, power window fuse. First suspect, body control module. Customer went back to the body shop, explained what we had told him. Sure enough BCM was on the back of the cab behind the rear seat. Got enough juice to fry it and cause a big draw on the battery. Body shop replaced the BCM. A month later the customer stopped by and said all was good, no problems since, and wanted to thank us for helping him. It's about not selling you a battery if you don't need one bud.


So it can happen. Keep that grounding clamp as close to work as possible. Check to see if a ground cable or control module is nearby. If it is, unplug it to be safe.

Dang. Good of the body shop to take responsibility though. Seems to be less and less common these days.

Just took it out for a test drive and everything seems to be working so I guess we’re good to go!

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[huey]

And installed. Not proud of these welds in any capacity. Doesn’t help that I don’t know shit about welding,

meh - the paint coves the welds up nicely

 

[mpeugeot]

And installed. Not proud of these welds in any capacity. Doesn’t help that I don’t know shit about welding, but to compound the badness whilst laying on my side the sunlight coming through the mask acted as a mirror, so while trying to see what I’m working on all I see is my stupid confused face staring back at me

Does anyone else get super worried about welding on these new rigs and disconnect both battery terminals plus all the ECU connections then keep the ground as close as possible to the work? Might be overkill but I just don’t want to fry something

Ya, but I didn't worry about anything except making 1000% sure that there was only one way for current to flow when plasma cutting on the frame.

Still, I don't like welding on vehicles or near gas tanks. If I am doing more involved upgrades, I tend to be more cautious and disconnect electronics. I think that I am a little cavalier about it since I have never been burned by just going for it. This doesn't mean that others should follow my bad example.

 

[SierraBronco]

Ya, but I didn't worry about anything except making 1000% sure that there was only one way for current to flow when plasma cutting on the frame.

Still, I don't like welding on vehicles or near gas tanks. If I am doing more involved upgrades, I tend to be more cautious and disconnect electronics. I think that I am a little cavalier about it since I have never been burned by just going for it. This doesn't mean that others should follow my bad example.

It’s one of those things that only takes a couple minutes to do (recognizing how important it is to be cautious when putting all ECU/module connections back together) and while it may be unnecessary, if something isn’t working after completing the work was the lack of disconnect to blame? Maybe not. But why not eliminate that to start. Just in case.

 

[mpeugeot]

It’s one of those things that only takes a couple minutes to do (recognizing how important it is to be cautious when putting all ECU/module connections back together) and while it may be unnecessary, if something isn’t working after completing the work was the lack of disconnect to blame? Maybe not. But why not eliminate that to start. Just in case.

Like I said, mostly because it has never been an issue for me. I am only 57, so I am sure that I will eventually pay the price... LOL.

I have done some really stupid stuff, but I have never managed to brick an ECU or module on a car, home computer component, or any of the avionics I worked on (although I was pretty careful when working on F-15's). I have let the smoke out of some CNC driver boards and other MOSFETs, but that was usually a manufacturer defect and not because of something I did wrong. I am sure that Karma is coming for me now.

 

[Sgt Badlands]

You better erase this thread and go trade that Bronco in for a new one.

 

[Dantastic]

That’s what mine looked like!

As someone who has the love hate relationship with this site, reads things, and then worries he too has the issue he read about .... where and how do we check for this?

 

[Beach_Bum]

As someone who has the love hate relationship with this site, reads things, and then worries he too has the issue he read about .... where and how do we check for this?

Seems pretty clear if you know what a lower control arm is and where it is bolted to the frame. Crawl under and you will see.

 

[huey]

Seems pretty clear if you know what a lower control arm is and where it is bolted to the frame. Crawl under and you will see.

or.........if you don't see it, there is no damage right?

 

[Baja Bronco]

So OP never posted pics? Would have liked to see the damage.

 

[Beach_Bum]

or.........if you don't see it, there is no damage right?

Well, you can still see the "ears" even with no damage. I presume Dan just want to see the mounts and perhaps look at the Barnes product to reinforce them.

 

[SierraBronco]

From my post-Rubicon inspection:

So OP never posted pics? Would have liked to see the damage.

Straight good. Bent ungood.

 

[Baja Bronco]

Straight good. Bent ungood.

Yeah, I know. I really wanted to see “fire road” damage

 

[SierraBronco]

Yeah, I know. I really wanted to see “fire road” damage

Haha! Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I was wondering how it wasn’t clear that the mounting tabs were jacked up

 

[userdude]

I am sure that Karma is coming for me now.

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