point of concern? 1989 RR County

[buzzkill]

Not sure if I should be concerned with the amount of rust here, but I am.
The same on the other side.
These are the brackets for the rear axle travel arms or swing arms.
Any suggestions?
Does it look critical to any more experienced eyes?
Thanks.
T.




http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/117/bracket1.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

[tbirdscott]

Pretty crusty but looks like cast so it should be okay for now. Give it a good going over with a stiff wire brush or better yet a de-scaler on an air chisel and hit it with a coat of rust paint. The metal it bolts to will probably rot off before the bracket.

If you are still concerned about it after giving it a cleaning see if you can get a local shop to have a quick look at it or someone near you might offer to check it out.

Scott

[buzzkill]

yeah I'm a little concerned that the whole bracket will just crap out, like fold in if I hit one big bump!
I'm going to ask around to see if anyone can weld up a new plate for a new bracket to be bolted to.
Seems like something the off road shops could do.
Seems reasonable?
I dunno?!

[Greg S]

Do you just have the one picture? Because in the picture you've posted, there is nothing showing wrong with it other than some missing paint. There is little surface rust showing and certainly nothing I can see in that picture that shows any structural depth to it. Steel degrades at at rate of 17 to one when it rusts so one sixteenth of an inch of steel rusting would produce a flakey rust product almost an inch thick.

Brush the surface rust and loose paint off it, spray it with one of the easily available "rust converters" and slap some new paint on it.

The rubber bushing might need replacing. When you have it apart to do that you can get better access to clean and paint it.

I'm referring to the bracket and chassis mounting. The rod end is cast and rust should take a century or more to effect that.

[buzzkill]

Greg, I've never heard that ratio before! Amazing! Yeah I was concerned about the bracket because to me it looked like a big lump of rust! I'll get in there with a wire brush when I can and hopefully clean everything up.
Thanks guys.