jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

I believe the weld problem is a fundamental design issue,
not a weld quality issue per se. You have a "T" weld that
is in pretty much constant tension and occasional torsion
and impact. The weld root is a pretty small circle and it
has a lot of force put to it on cornering, bouncing and
especially wheel impacts. You would need a weld stronger
than the parent metal for this design to be "no worries".
That takes some mighty special circumstances, to get.
Not just the weld filler, but the adhesion to the two
parent pieces (esp. the sides which are subjected to a
normal pull-off force, while the crossmember-weld bead
interface is more in shear).

I notice other Ks that appear to have the main cross-
member a continuous tube rather than having the T-
welds bear the full load of keeping the front end together.
But on these I see other features that don't make me
any more confident in those, in the end.

I believe the BMR design could be "saved" by strategic
over-strapping of the weld to keep the original from so
much localized strain. This is what I want the various
peoples' fail-point pics for, to see where the prime points
for reinforcement are (common point of failure?). I want
to strap mine -before- something bad happens.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Adding gussets, straping and reinforcing (weight) kind of defeats the purpose of an aftermarket K, doesn't it?

I realize you want to salvage yours, but in hind sight and knowing what we all know now, it was kind of a wasted effort, wasn't it?

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

To my eye it looks like 2-3lb of flat stock to make it
a whole bunch stronger, vs the (35 lb?) weight saved
off the stock K-member & mounts.

If I had it to do over I would probably go and more
carefully inspect vendors' photos for designs that look
more rugged, and I would do the reinforcement that
looks sensible before putting it on the car, whichever
one I bought. But I would put a lighter K-member on
the car, again.

However I would have preferred to buy one even 5lb
heavier, if I thought the 5lb was applied to the right
areas and made it a truly street-abuse-capable
member. That was what I took the BMR to be per
their marketing material; at the time they said so
and no other mfr was so bold to claim theirs were up
to street beating. Which I'm pretty sure that judicious
rework can still achieve, building on these lightweight
base pieces. Just would've been a whole lot nicer,
good-to-go rather than rework on-car (or worse yet,
off and on again at shop rates).

sikws6

I helped install a BMR k-member with a friend of mine yesterday, the design has been totally changed,he took pictures for his web site I will try to get them up today or tommorow,checked their website and they still have pictures of the old design

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

While appreciated, its still unfortunate that there have to be these redesigns on safety-critical parts. One would hope that (at least when dropping almost $500) that some relevant R&D went into the first design. I would imagine that GM did so when designing the original K-member...

sikws6

That being said YOU MUST know how much R&D was done if not it's clearly just stating your speculation not facts, R&D doesn't gaurantee a perfect part that's why every year GM improves on last years models and yes even GM has recalls

TooSlow02

Good point. I'll be more specific and say I haven't broken any of my BMR stuff yet. But so far (with my new car at least) I fall into category 1 of Mitch's post (ran out of money for tires ). I do have this clunking noise coming from the rod ends on my PHB that seems to be getting louder, but so far that's it.