Welding a gas shock

Not on my landrover in this case, but it could be.

Ive had to take the rear shocks off my car. Unfortunately while doing
it both of the pins on the end snapped rather than undoing.
the shocks have a ring on the bottom and a pin on the top which is
threaded.

The actual shocks themselves seem to be working perfectly, and apart
from the broken bit at the top they would appear fine

I was wondering if i could weld a new threaded bit on to the top of
the snapped bit so that i can put em back on and save a few quid.

They are gas shocks and there is about an inch of the top pin left on.
I need to cut it down to about half an inch and put a longer bit back
on.

Would it be sensible to weld these using my MIG, or would i be very
stupid to attempt it?.

Im assuming (by the fact that they still work!) that the gas reservoir
should be well sealed, and welding an M8 bolt shouldnt take long and
shouldnt generate much heat. I would also assume that shocks are made
able to put up with a fair bit of heat (either through working hard or
being right next to an exhaust for many hours)

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Tom Woods wrote:

> Would it be sensible to weld these using my MIG, or would i be very
> stupid to attempt it?.

I'd worry about the metal temper, unless its mild steel, and I can't
think of an easy way to find out, but you could try this...

Try a stroke with a file, if the file cuts, you might get away with
welding it, after you weld it, see if the file still cuts.

If the weld fails (and I fixed one on the family renault yesterday) its
not likely to be mission critical is it ?

Steve

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:04:26 +0000, Steve Taylor
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Tom Woods wrote:
>
>> Would it be sensible to weld these using my MIG, or would i be very
>> stupid to attempt it?.
>
>I'd worry about the metal temper, unless its mild steel, and I can't
>think of an easy way to find out, but you could try this...
>
>Try a stroke with a file, if the file cuts, you might get away with
>welding it, after you weld it, see if the file still cuts.

I was more worried about the close proximity to that pressurised gas
than how well the weld would hold up

>If the weld fails (and I fixed one on the family renault yesterday) its
>not likely to be mission critical is it ?

No, its not very critical. If it breaks again it's not even going to
fall off or move much. It just wont work very well!, and I can drive
without a working shocker.