rear swing arm question

[jameshamilton]

Morning

Just spotted a small rust hole in the offside rear swing arm. Does anyone know if this can be patched/welded, or am I looking at a new swing arm?

[what2do]

You need to see how bad it is where the bolt/bush are sited too. Could well be rotten throughout.

[jameshamilton]

Rest looks fine ... and no advisories on the MOT ... just that little hole

[what2do]

Jesus! Dud you give the tester a 'bung'? How could he not see that hole?

[CovKid]

Should be instant fail, lot of weight and stresses on that arm to say the least. Normal procedure is to remove arm, and get it blasted so you can actually see whats solid then go from there. Would NOT advise patching that hole in situ for two reasons:

1) By the book, you're not allowed to patch it.
2) Patching it won't reveal the extent of the damage which is why its frowned on.

Outside the book (and I'm musing here, not advising), with it properly blasted back to solid steel a competent welder could cut out the bad and replace with good and make it seamless but this is not by the book. It will be simpler and wiser to get another that isn't rotten and fit that. Some get them galvanized for that reason.

As an aside, I kept my old ones which I'll rebuild when I have the time. Don't feel despondent - we all end up tackling this one.

[silverbullet]

The last ones I had galvanized recently had a very localized pinhole/thin patch in that area, on the outside of the bend. No bigger than 8mm dia plug weld to get back to full gauge steel.
The corrosion was from the INSIDE and despite there being original VAG wax in there (where it remained it was covering the EP black paint)

PS when the bushes were pushed out I found that I had to replace the tube on that leg too because it had rotted out into the bore.

Scaffold tube is the ideal size

[jameshamilton]

Thanks for the advice all,

Spoke to my local/friendly VW garage and they concur -- sourcing a replacement for me as I type. I'll be sure to keep that one and explore restoration...

Loving this board. Haven't owned anything classic & tinkerable since I got rid of a BMW 2002 15 years ago. It's good to be back

James

[george2490]

Serial Kombi do refurbed arms at £150 a side.
Best I could find.

[what2do]

Serial Kombi do refurbed arms at £150 a side.
Best I could find.

Wow, that's a bargain considering there's always a few unwashed and unknown condition arms on eBay for the same money.

[silverbullet]

Always check availability at Serial Kombi, they list a lot that isn't actually on the shelf IME...