Tack Welding Press In Studs

[vanapplebomb]

A couple of studs in one of my drums have worked loose from use. I would hate to torque the nut and spin the stud in the drum...but I also don't want to subject the drum to to much heat and badly warp it. I have access to a MIG welder and can pop in a few tacks myself. Can I use that to tack weld the edges of studs to the brake drum, or do I need to find someone who can TIG?

[81pumagtc]

It's a big, heavy piece of steel...it would probably be O.K.

I had to make some lug bolts for the Pig of Plastic...which is harder that it seems. They use Porsche ball seat lug bolts that are not that long, and these are mighty expensive lug bolts in the large ball seats...good ones are about $20 to $50 each, and you have to cut each one.

I bought some large Porsche ball seat lug nuts that were nicely done, plated, and about $4 each. I purchased EMPI screw-in studs for under $2 each that were the perfect length. I then used Ardelite to epoxy them in place. I would have used JB Weld, but Ardelite is what I had, and is pretty pricy and I wanted to get rid of the last of it. I cleaned everything up, applied the epoxy all the way around, and screwed everything together. It worked perfectly, and I tried to break one. I used about a six-foot cheater bar and a half-inch wrench with a craftsman socket. Welded a bolt to some steel. and tried to break the stud loose from the bolt.

Broke the Craftsman socket.

Could not break the lug nut free.

Strong enough for me. You do have to have everything surgically clean and rust-free, and you have to have 360 degrees of epoxy so the stress on the joint is distributed over the whole joint, but it is easy, cheap, and hellishly strong.

Might work for you.


Dave Riedle

[Pikeman]

A Good parts store should be able to help you find if a slightly larger stud is available. I know the Dorman brand of wheel studs has a nice chart by size in their catalog.

[vanapplebomb]

I think I am maxed out on the knurl diameter. I popped one out and compared it to a set of BugPack studs I recently bought. The BugPack stud slides into the hole...clearance fit. They say they require a 37/64th drill bit to install them. I have not seen a Dorman M14x1.5 stud that has a larger knurl.

What do you think? Put a couple tacks on the head of the stud? Sounds like that is what people on TheSamba have been doing...but there is an aweful lot of air and vapor on those forums too. It would be nice to have some local experts school me

How nicely does cast Iron weld to steel? I have never welded cast Iron before.

[vanapplebomb]

Dec 2, 2013 21:06:39 GMT -5 81pumagtc said:

... I then used Ardelite to epoxy them in place.

... I cleaned everything up, applied the epoxy all the way around, and screwed everything together. It worked perfectly...

Strong enough for me. You do have to have everything surgically clean and rust-free, and you have to have 360 degrees of epoxy so the stress on the joint is distributed over the whole joint, but it is easy, cheap, and hellishly strong.

Might work for you.


Dave Riedle

So if I tap out the two wiggly studs, clean up the knurls and the hole in the drum, and apply some epoxy the the knurls and tap the studs back into the drum, that should do the trick to keep the wiggly studs from stripping when torqued?


Whoa...sorry about the run on sentence