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Lower control arm ?!?!? This isn't a Crown Vic, Mustang or Tbird. It's a Bronco. That's the passenger side radius arm mount. The bushing itself looks a bit dinged but without a better photos I'd guess that the end of the radius arm snapped off since the radius arm itself should be running more-or-less parallel to the frame and NOT pointing up and into the wheel well like it is. It looks like there are several factory replacement type stickers on the axle & radius arm so I'd guess that the truck has been hit *hard* up front and repaired at least once in the past and if I had to take a wild-ass guess I'd say the repair was perhaps not quite up to the standards that most folks expect. What does the end of that radius arm look like ? From the two photos it doesn't look like there's TOO much damage and I'm *guessing* that a replacement radius arm will put you back in business, but to be honest more photos are needed. Post something more or shoot me a PM if you need some clarification on this.
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While you're certainly welcome to try I'll be right up-front and say that I honestly doubt that anything less than a new radius arm is going to fix the problem. As Shift alluded to, the simple act of welding *anything* with a grade rating is going to destroy the hardness of the thing. Once you've gone & annealed the parts you're welding they're going to be either very soft or very brittle and *neither* one of those is a quality you want in a radius arm tip. I can't imagine a junkyard arm costing much more than $35-$50 and considering the cost of materials & *prep time* that's got to be about even with trying to repair something that's pretty much unrepairable. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it can be fun to crank out a project like this just to *see* what will happen but in this case I really DO think it's a foregone conclusion, *but* sometimes guys just like to see this stuff for themelvs. I really wouldn't waste the time trying to fix it, get a new arm and be done with it. After that I'd take a good hard look at the front end to see just WHY it failed in that fashion, once again I think Shift may be onto to something with the poorly installed lift theory. More info about the truck & suspension would be helpfull but still, There are a lot of factory stickers on that hardware, it may well have been hit & poorly reconstructed. Wouldn't be the first time it's happened.
You're right, My bad. I should have specified that I was talking about Bronco/150 arms. I doubt the D50 arms will fit. I should have been more specific, that's what I get for typing without thinking
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I don't think anyone has any real concerns about treating the exposed metal, it's just that the heat of welding something as small as that is *bound* to destroy the temper of the part and while you may have *purchased* a Grade 8 bolt, I can absolutely guarantee that it stopped being Grade 8 as soon as you welded it to something else. Now it's just a piece of threaded rod attached to the end of a radius arm. How long it will last there is anyone's guess, might be that it goes a good 10yrs or more but maybe it fails 2 wks after you start driving it. These things are heat treated and once you weld them to something else the heating process resets the metal back to zero or somewhere in-between but it's *surely* not a Grade 8 anymore. Maybe it's strong enuf, maybe it isn't. The only way to really find out will be to drive it until it fails. If you're North of the Mason-Dixon then there shouldn't be any shortage of rusted out F150's & Broncos in the yards as good donor vehicles. All I know for *sure* is that welding on a bolt much smaller than 3" will destroy it's temper. A replacement radius arm shouldn't be that expensive.
