Frame repair

[Trailryder42]

Last weekend while riding Sargents Colorado with friends, I ripped my kickstand tab off for the 2nd time. The first time, damage to the frame wasn't too bad. Was able to weld the tab back on. This time however, it took a chunk of frame with it. The material in this area is pretty thin.

This is just a report on how I dealt with it, for those that might need to to the same thing some day.

After giving it a lot of thought, I figured the easiest way to cover the hole and create another stable platform for the tab to weld back to, without doing a lot of difficult fab work for the odd angles and shape of the frame in that area, was to shape the hole to accept the outside diameter of a piece of pipe/tubing on some kind.

I went by a local muffler shop and asked for a piece of scrap exhaust tubing. It was 2 1/2" O.D with an .080" wall thickness. Should be plenty heavy enough.

I laid the tubing into the hole and shaped the hole to fit around the pipe O.D. as best I could. Drew around it with a marker to leave a pattern on the tubing, then used an air die grinder with cut off wheel in it to cut out the pattern. Came out looking like a big leaf. I cut it oversize, leaving about 1/4" overlap to weld to. I'd clean up/grind off any excess after the welding. Weld was done with a Mig.

I thought it came out pretty good.

Before:

After:

[GU520]

Great work. Just curious, did you remove the electronics (cdi, R/R) from the bike before welding?

The material in that area is thin indeed, my bike is the same. I wonder if the frames are made that way, or if this area is rust prone.. anyone know?

[Trailryder42]

Great work. Just curious, did you remove the electronics (cdi, R/R) from the bike before welding?

The material in that area is thin indeed, my bike is the same. I wonder if the frames are made that way, or if this area is rust prone.. anyone know?

No, I just unplugged the cdi.

I definitely had some rust inside. I ran a rotary wire brush thru there before welding it shut. If I'd have thought about it, I'd have sprayed some of that Rustoleum rust converter in there before closing it up.

[xrh400]

loving these tips

[MarxMyth]

Did you attach a new kickstand?

[desertwalker62]

filling the void first will always make things infinitely strong, although thats a pretty giant hole!!!

previous owner did a crappy job of welding on passenger pegs to subframe... a couple drops and they snapped off leaving a similar 2"x3/4" hole... slid a piece of rebar inside extanding a couple inches each direction and built the weld back up, the whole thing solid and fat.... ground it smooth and uniform and attached a much better peg mount...

[Osadabwa]

It's pretty clear that frame rust around the sidestand is a major issue on XR 400s... related issues are discussed here, here and here. I put in the links in case somebody finds this post first.

Anyway, I wanted to say that OP has a brilliant solution to the problem. Very neat and clean. I've been meaning to post our solution from Tanzania which is similar (though not as pretty) but involved bending metal a bit.

Our plan was to make a patch that retained the shape of the original frame so we could reattach the kickstand without making alterations to it. First, I made a pattern out of card paper, cutting slices in it until the pieces could fold flat against the frame (it would end up being a 3D elbow piece with tabs that would come together as they were bent. The piece would be welded on over the top of the remaining frame, completely covering the hole.).

We used a grinder to cut the pattern out of steel (we used thick steel off of a shipping container... maybe 1/8"... not exactly sure).

This gives an idea of what it looked like (sorry, I lost the original template).

Then we used clamps to hold it in place, and welded it on (unplugged the CDI as well). I don't have a pic of the final-final product, but you get the idea. A guy with solid welding skills and some patience could make it look decent (we don't care about looks, really, mostly interested in strength).

The pic below shows the job half way done. Still need to fill in the gaps a bit and weld from beneath to get the side closest to the chain. Wasn't easy, but we managed.

This was months ago, and we still haven't reattached the sidestand. Will post a pic if and when.

Cheers,

[Trailryder42]

Did you attach a new kickstand?

 

Not a new one. I just cleaned up the old tab, and with the stand attached, a buddy and I laid the bike on its side. I held the tab/stand assembly up to the repair in the position it need to be in and he tacked with the MIG. Then he finished it up with a good bead and I painted it later.

[PaydayGabe]

I found a not so small crack at the tab/frame mating area. Want to nip this in the bud before it completely let's go. 

It's mild steel or chrome moly?  I'm guessing mild.  Thanks, G??.

[vicxr400]

This is good but try a piece  of cement sheet/ hardy board behind the welded area saves burning the swing arm and chain slider in the process 

give us a pic of the finished  product cheers ? 

[Trailryder42]

1 hour ago, PaydayGabe said:

I found a not so small crack at the tab/frame mating area. Want to nip this in the bud before it completely let's go. 

It's mild steel or chrome moly?  I'm guessing mild.  Thanks, G??.

 

I'd say it's mild steel. I know if you try to use an arc welder on it, you'll blow a hole right thru it.  The frame is very thin. You end up creating more damage and a bigger hole using an arc welder.

[PaydayGabe]

Returned today from the welder,
Guy did a nice job, but for $108.?? I'm in the wrong line of work. Should get some welding skills. I think I could do that w/a little practice. And the right equipment. ?[emoji108]

[vicxr400]

bump for the new side stand problems.

I don't know how to do a link for this.