i'm all for safety, and i never do anything that would be obviously unsafe. that being said, there is a flip side to the idea of welding it.

that thing is aluminum. in order to weld it, you have to heat it up. being aluminum, the heat will not be as restricted to the area intended as if it were steel. that could easily lead to weakening the entire part, rather than a potential fracture point, and making the problem worse than leaving it alone.

from the looks of it, the groove is only about .020" deep. that's really not a lot, and given that the sleeve is going to be in there, and then a rubber bushing, which will mitigate a lot of the force that would be applied to that spot, it may well not be an issue.

this one is sort of a judgement call. i'm not sure which is worse. i'd have to do a lot more homework on the casting process, material composition, and then a stress analysis in order to tell, and you would spend more on that than a new control arm (but likely less than a week in the hospital from guessing wrong)

i agree though about not using jb weld. that would fill the gap, and if the part were rotating, it would help, but it will do nothing for strength.

tough call. a new control arm is obviously the best answer, but also the most expensive.

Not really, any decent welder will protect the unaffected area from heat propagation, they do this all the time, it's not rocket science.

Well to get it welded I'll have to find someone to do it. I've called 5 shops and none of them will do it.

Does anyone on this site weld? I will pay you lots of money.

that's going to be very hard to do that on this piece. there is just no way to get in there to isolate the heat. if there were, i'd say "go for it". i've got a really good guy, and i'm not sure even he could do it, without weakening the spot. remember that it undergoes both compression and stretching during operation. cast aluminum that has been superheated like that loses a lot of its strength when you do that. instead of a .020" weak spot, you could have one at least 10 times that deep. i just don't know if it can handle that over the long run. these arms are known to break under stress as it is, which is why race cars have to run charlie arms or something similar. i'm not sure i'd want to mess with it without a lot more information, and certainly some sort of guarantee from the guy doing the work that it wasn't going to be worse than leaving it alone.

as for finding somebody to do it, you'll have to poke around for a fabricator. try calling some machine shops and see who they use to weld engine blocks.

I've contacted every shop in town and no one will do it. I'm gonna go ahead and say **** it and install my new bushings. The cuts really aren't that bad and flash has scared me with his comments about how the heat from welding may weaken the aluminum even more.

If my control arms fail and I end up getting hurt or dying, feel free to say "I told you so."

if i were doing the job, based on what i think i see in the pics, on a street car, i wouldn't hesitate. this is in no way a warranty, but i just don't think it's that bad.

i don't mean to scare anybody about the welding. i am not a welder. i would consult one. i'm not qualified to make that call without a materials analysis, which is cost prohibitive.

i can't believe that none of the machine shops know a welder that does aluminum. that just seems crazy. i know at least 3 within a 5 mile radius here.

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