Rear Cross Member on FB

79X19 said:

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Hmm, interesting. As the proud owner of a Midwestern X with 120,000+ miles on it, I'm unsurprisingly in the "over 50%" with a rusty crossmember. Do these need to be welded in place? ("cut clean at frame rails") Or is there any way to unbolt/bolt just the crossmember in place?
 
The stock one was welded in at the factory. I suppose you could engineer a "bolt-in" version. But I think the crossmember would have to be VERY rusted to warrant replacement. And I'm not talking about the typical surface rust, but heavy cancer rust. However I've never lived in an area where vehicles completely disintegrate from rust so maybe this happens on the X crossmember more than I realize.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
The stock one was welded in at the factory. I suppose you could engineer a "bolt-in" version. But I think the crossmember would have to be VERY rusted to warrant replacement. And I'm not talking about the typical surface rust, but heavy cancer rust. However I've never lived in an area where vehicles completely disintegrate from rust so maybe this happens on the X crossmember more than I realize.
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like this?
rust1.jpgrust2.jpgrust2.jpg

Odie
 
autox19 said:
like this?
View attachment 46075View attachment 46076View attachment 46076

Odie
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But even that appears to be repairable without having to remove and replace the entire structure? Most of it looks pretty solid in the pic, just a lot of surface rust. To me it seems the mounting points for the rear suspension arms are the most critical aspect of it. They are high stress yet smaller (less metal) than the member itself or the portions that secure the member to the chassis, so more prone to failure.

Surface rust is very common on this crossmember. I assume it is the same as the rear trunk floor, etc...exhaust heat destroys the paint, then water does it's thing.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
But even that appears to be repairable without having to remove and replace the entire structure? Most of it looks pretty solid in the pic, just a lot of surface rust. To me it seems the mounting points for the rear suspension arms are the most critical aspect of it. They are high stress yet smaller (less metal) than the member itself or the portions that secure the member to the chassis, so more prone to failure.

Surface rust is very common on this crossmember. I assume it is the same as the rear trunk floor, etc...exhaust heat destroys the paint, then water does it's thing.
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the part you dont see is the 2 pieces that go side to side are steel plates the PO welded on. the actual bottom was paper thin with the suspension mount point being the only solid part. But I see your point, anything can be repaired. but if I had access to this part when I was working on mine, I would have went that route rather than build my own replacement.

Odie
 
Ya, it looked better than it was.

I've considered making a custom crossmember from scratch in order to change the suspension design. But it would not be too difficult to make a stock replacement as well, if needed.
 
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