[Zeke]

I just finished welding Scott's shifter. It will mostly likely hold, but I can tell you the metal is not mild steel and doesn't weld easily. We were working at a bit of a disadvantage as the ball part was still in the housing. So, I only had one angle to get in there. Still, with the current as high as I could go on a 110v MIG, it just balled up. Any mild steel would have been blown open with that heat.

I don't know what that metal is, but the factory might have something with their epoxy. We just didn't find any down inside the joint. I'd say sand the shaft and the inside of the ball part, clean twice with a non residue solvent like lacquer thinner and swab with your better grade epoxy. I'm sure that would be good enough for many more miles.

Now, I'm going to take a spare I have down to my welding instructor and find out why it didn't behave as I expected. Scott and I were wondering if the metal alloy might have been on the stainless steel side of alloys. I'm pretty sure their are two different types of steel here between the shaft and the ball part that the shaft fits into.