2005 GMC Envoy SLT 4.2L Located in Boston area,
I was hearing some knocking and assumed it was the spare tire. Upon investigation I discovered the frame was severely rotted around the rear axle upper control arm brackets on the left and right sides. The spare tire was loose too!
An internet search on Ebay and Amazon came up with many ready made brackets of varying cost. I chose the least expensive.
Here it is. Nicely cut and fit up well, but it was painted and the paint was a pain to get a weld arc going.
I used 1/8 inch 6011 weld rods which penetrate the paint well. As can be seen, I am not a welder but every 5 years or so I weld something. The small bracket that holds the brake line did not come with the bracket kit so I made that myself. Use 1/8 x 1.00 inch steel bar and bend it in a vise around a piece of 1.00 inch bar stock to make the U shape. Drill a hole in the center .50 from the edge so the lip of the brake line fitting will rest on the edge and not rotate. You will need a 6mm retainer nut to complete the job (not shown).
Welding on the old nut was problematic as the thin retaining stock melted quicker than the weld to the bracket. Ugly but it holds. If I had to do this again I would pay a little more and get a bracket that was premade with a nut welded in place. That would save hours of work.
A small right angle grinder prepped the rotten frame. Luckily there was some metal still intact. Unfortunately, I sliced the steel brake line which made a mess and a ton of work to fix. As always, it is best to look at what you are doing and not act blindly.
The bracket welded in nicely. I used the upper control arm to hold the bracket in place while welding. The 6011 welds are ugly but strong. Only a few edges were accessible for welding. After cooling, I painted the bolt with never seize because if it were to seize to the nut, it would take a lot of torching to remove the control arm.
The weld that matters is on the rear edge as that is aligned with the control arm. There is no up or down reaction force because the control arm is pivoted on both ends. A little weld to avoid flexing is all that is required, but I welded as much as I could get access to, anyway.
15 hours total labor. about 5+ hours per side, and 5 hours to fix the cut brake line. Spread out over 3 days
$45 for the brackets,
$20 for a pack of 6mm retainer nuts and some 6mm x 40mm long stainless steel hex bolts.
$30 for 10 Lb. 6011 weld rods 2 lb. actually used
$20 for misc. brake line fittings.
$20 1 Quart brake line fluid
$135 total
I was hearing some knocking and assumed it was the spare tire. Upon investigation I discovered the frame was severely rotted around the rear axle upper control arm brackets on the left and right sides. The spare tire was loose too!
An internet search on Ebay and Amazon came up with many ready made brackets of varying cost. I chose the least expensive.
Here it is. Nicely cut and fit up well, but it was painted and the paint was a pain to get a weld arc going.
I used 1/8 inch 6011 weld rods which penetrate the paint well. As can be seen, I am not a welder but every 5 years or so I weld something. The small bracket that holds the brake line did not come with the bracket kit so I made that myself. Use 1/8 x 1.00 inch steel bar and bend it in a vise around a piece of 1.00 inch bar stock to make the U shape. Drill a hole in the center .50 from the edge so the lip of the brake line fitting will rest on the edge and not rotate. You will need a 6mm retainer nut to complete the job (not shown).
Welding on the old nut was problematic as the thin retaining stock melted quicker than the weld to the bracket. Ugly but it holds. If I had to do this again I would pay a little more and get a bracket that was premade with a nut welded in place. That would save hours of work.
A small right angle grinder prepped the rotten frame. Luckily there was some metal still intact. Unfortunately, I sliced the steel brake line which made a mess and a ton of work to fix. As always, it is best to look at what you are doing and not act blindly.
The bracket welded in nicely. I used the upper control arm to hold the bracket in place while welding. The 6011 welds are ugly but strong. Only a few edges were accessible for welding. After cooling, I painted the bolt with never seize because if it were to seize to the nut, it would take a lot of torching to remove the control arm.
The weld that matters is on the rear edge as that is aligned with the control arm. There is no up or down reaction force because the control arm is pivoted on both ends. A little weld to avoid flexing is all that is required, but I welded as much as I could get access to, anyway.
15 hours total labor. about 5+ hours per side, and 5 hours to fix the cut brake line. Spread out over 3 days
$45 for the brackets,
$20 for a pack of 6mm retainer nuts and some 6mm x 40mm long stainless steel hex bolts.
$30 for 10 Lb. 6011 weld rods 2 lb. actually used
$20 for misc. brake line fittings.
$20 1 Quart brake line fluid
$135 total
