89 yj frame repair

[Collinoneil]

I’ve had my yj for ten years now and just always beat the shit out of it. This year I’ve decided to run through it and spend all my money. I took the skid plate off to drop the transmission, change the clutch, and clean everything to try and find where the oil oils been leaking from since I bought it. The frame where the skid plate bolts to is gone in the rear. The middle bolts rusted through the skid plate and the front ones snapped when I put a wrench on them. I know the best solution to this is to cut the frame and weld on the replacement parts you can buy from quadratech, but…. I’ve never welded anything before , and I don’t have a welder. No disrespect to welders, but I’ve watched some videos and it doesn’t seem that complicated. Any advice on what kind of welder or any other way around this would be great

 

[ytradio]

I’ve had my yj for ten years now and just always beat the shit out of it. This year I’ve decided to run through it and spend all my money. I took the skid plate off to drop the transmission, change the clutch, and clean everything to try and find where the oil oils been leaking from since I bought it. The frame where the skid plate bolts to is gone in the rear. The middle bolts rusted through the skid plate and the front ones snapped when I put a wrench on them. I know the best solution to this is to cut the frame and weld on the replacement parts you can buy from quadratech, but…. I’ve never welded anything before , and I don’t have a welder. No disrespect to welders, but I’ve watched some videos and it doesn’t seem that complicated. Any advice on what kind of welder or any other way around this would be great

I had to replace the frame on my 89 it was so bad. But yesterday I spent the day welding on a rear bumper that is a Motobuilt YJ wheel base extension bumper. The rear shackles are relocated to the bumper and you use XJ springs and end up with the axle sitting back 6” farther than stock. So you aren’t just welding on a bumper, it becomes part of the frame and suspension. My old big welder was too far away so I used my new Lincoln 140 mig and it worked great. I had to switch to the .035 flux core wire to get the heat that I needed and I hadn’t done much welding with the flux core, but it was ok. For a newbey a mig is the way to go.

 

[Flyer58]

I had rust in the same spots but it was only limited to the rivnuts around the bolt holes. The top and sides of the frame were still in good shape.

I cut out the bolt holes, treated and painted the inside of the frame and welded these channels to the frame. That was the only rust I found.