Well the Rear sub frame on my 2002 broke again for the 2nd time. It broke in the traditional place (where the shock mounts on the passenger side)
Any one have a more permanent fix for this???
I suspect that when I added the Air shocks I have lots more travel and moment and I think this sped up the cracking
When I welded mine up, I added a flat 1" wide strip across the top bar about 3 inches past the shock area, and around the axle bar back, and under the straight bar to add more support. I also added triangle shaped gussets in the outside corners of the main straight bars to the rear axle bar, just about an hour of extra welding but a lot more support.
thanks for the reply would you happen to have a photo of your mod
Are you replacing the spacer on the bolt between the shock mount and the square strut tube? I drilled out 1/2 inch nuts and welded them in.
Yes I’m using the Spacer and the Threw bolt.
The Triangles and flat bar sound like a good Idea, as well as replacing the spacer with a Nut.
I will try to get a picture tonight after work, I left the spacer alone. After it was all welded up it was quite strong, no more flex. I have only put 40 miles on mine after the repair so no way to tell if it is going to last forever, but it’s better than before.
Ok I have a few pictures, Don’t make fun of my welding skills, they look like crap but have great penetration.
Yes I could have ground them down and made them pretty, but it’s under my car not yours.
Hey Thank you for the Pic’s I had your discription all wrong in my Head. I’m glad I saw what your were talking about. You gave me some great Ideas.
Frankly the stock sub frame on our year cars Is a design failure. Almost every sub Frame in our year car is cracked, and needs repair. The way they designed it at the factory was wrong.
Yes it is the weak link, but in all fairness my cart came from Stanton Island Ny. lot’s of salty air, the lady let her kids drive it all over hell and back. It was abused by many. It look’s like they used it for a ramp jumper.
Note: These suspension frames are supposed to flex. Don’t defeat the purpose with too much bracing. If they didn’t flex you could end up with a really rough ride.
I am going to weld my 2002 Gem rear axle frame but am not sure if I should unplug all of the electronics and charger from the harness before I weld so as not to damage anything?
Yes I would error on the side of caution I would disconnect your power and ground to the controller that’s what I have done in the past when welding on my’n
I removed the complete rear subframe from my car. I used a pice of rebar thru all 3 mounts and measured between each mounting point, used vice grips on the rebar to hold everything inline and spaced correctly before I welded it. when I was finished I painted it all before reinstall.