James,
It's better to send the tube to a company that specializes in this type of
work. I had a company in Fremont bend new suspension links for the Europa.
It's worth spending the bucks to get the job done correctly. A suspension
failure can be very expensive, and dangerous.
Have a look in the yellow pages.
Barry Spencer.
At 12:13 PM 8/10/2001 -0400, Larrybsp@aol.com wrote:
>from:larrybsp@aol.com (Larry Stark)
>
> Jim,
> Several factors come into play when bending
>aluminum, alloy
>being the most important. Most of the commercial alloys are 6061 T6, the T6
>indicating it has been solution heat treated and aged. It has also been roll
>formed.
>This stuff is not easy to bend. I've had success by heating the outside of
>the bend with an acetylene torch while bending the material. Plenty of heat
>is needed because
>the aluminum carries the heat away quickly. You may still get some surface
>cracking. To prevent further problems grind/sand down the cracks to clean
>solid metal. This eliminates the places for a fatigue crack to initiate. It
>worked for me.
>
>
>Larry
>
>In a message dated 8/10/01 8:47:40 AM Pacific Daylight Time, billh@pa.dec.com
>writes:
>
><< Subj: Re: trouble bending aluminum sway bar arms, advice?
> Date: 8/10/01 8:47:40 AM Pacific Daylight Time
> From: billh@pa.dec.com (Bill Hamburgen 650-617-3329 FAX -3374)
> Sender: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
> To: black94pgt@pacbell.net
> CC: billh@pa.dec.com, ba-autox@autox.team.net
>
> > im trying to bend the speedway engineering sway bar arms i have. they are
> > about 1/2 thick and 1 inch across. i heated them to c. 550 F and quenched
> > to anneal them, but even then i could not bend it even 1 degree.
>
> James,
>
> Don't!!!! Aluminum has completely different properties than steel and if
> you don't know the alloy and how it's been treated, you're begging for
> crack initiation and eventual fatigue failure.
>
> Your heat/quench may have already damaged the bar. You might call Speedway
> and get their opinion - probably something like "Why'd ya do dat??". I
> sort
> of doubt they'll tell you much. If you care about sway bar failure, you
>might
> want to have it inspected for cracks after it's been in service a little
>while.
> I think fluorescent dye penetrant is how it's done.
>
>
> /Bill
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