No problem, Andrew, only lifted them four inches off the ground!
I spent the entire afternoon welding heating and grinding. Welding is not my forte, and I'm slow at it. Particularly out of position stick welding with a buzz box. I used 6011, which in my hands, isn't pretty. But by the end of the day I think I got good penetration, kept the slag out, and ground back anything I didn't like, and then re-welded.
It was a hot day with plenty of deer flies buzzing around, and a bunch of wasps that had tried to start homes in various tractor nooks and didn't like all the noise and smoke. I have to say this kind of thing, though satisfying in the end, isn't my favorite kind of metal work! I wish I was a better welder.
I reheated the tie rods and bent them down to the gussets. Just before that I did run into a bit of a puzzle....I was flame cutting off the tie-rod tag ends -- flat bar from the Ford end, when I hit some kind of weld material in a clumpy repair that I couldn't cut with the torch. I'd noticed this stuff before -- kind of shiny, not a typical weld. I don't know what it was. Maybe some kind of stainless or nickel rod? I eventually had to cut it off with the grinder.
Finally the rods were bent down and welded in place, and I was done for the day. Well, had to do one more thing just to see it -- I shifted the bucket over by hand and shot the pivot pins in to see it all together. It looked good.
