Broken Frame Leg Fix Suggestions?

[John-NY]

I have an idea in my head but wanted to get input from those much smarter than me.

The vertical leg on this old Spirit is broken. You can see someone in the past tried something unsuccessfully.

I don’t necessarily need it to be seamless or visually perfect, just functional. I was thinking of trying to find a metal bracket to screw in and paint it.

Thanks for any input!

 

[LMichaels]

Either get a whole new piece of steel tubing and cut to match or get a piece large enough to use as a "sleeve", then have it welded or structural epoxied in place

 

[Bruce]

It looks like the previous owner used some JBWeld. Good stuff, but probably not good enough to fix something like that.

Unless you have access to a welder or know someone, I would consider buying a piece of steel tube stock....probably 1" OD, and stick it inside the broken tube, drill holes and secure it with a couple bolts, one above and one below.

But, before you do that, you should take apart the joint and see exactly what is broken. I assume the spot welds on the bracket inside the tube have broken. If so, you will need to pull that bracket out first. But if you can weld it or get it welded, it would be a simple 5 minute fix and you can just leave the bracket in there.

 

[Yair Halamish]

You can get a piece of smaller square profile that will fit inside, need about 8".
For that approach, you'll need to take the leg apart, fit the inner piece, and than use a few drilling screws or rivets to attach.

 

[TimA]

I would TIG weld it. But I have a TIG in the garage and lots of folks don’t.

Second would be just replace entirely

 

[HankBates]

You can get a piece of smaller square profile that will fit inside, need about 8".
For that approach, you'll need to take the leg apart, fit the inner piece, and than use a few drilling screws or rivets to attach.

Worked for me on a second generation Summit.
The 1”square tube used on cross tubes is close enough to fix 1-1/4” legs.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Get a length of slotted metal angle stock at h
Home Depot and 4 bolts with nuts. Two on each side of the break.

 

[LMichaels]

Bolting stuff like this is never really solid

 

[John G (Boston)]

I've only played with a couple of the newer (SWE) frames so I might not be remembering this correctly... But, you might find the leg is not broken at all. Those are two-piece legs. I see the lower cross bar at the left of the floor has come off, allowing the cabinet floor to pull away from the side. The floor is a structural part of the frame. Without the floor being solid the SWE legs are very flimsy and can bend at the joint - just like yours did.

Might be good to remove the lower leg assy entirely and see what's up with the lower cross bar (that probably has a broken weld or has rusted off). You might find the joint you have circled is actually fine and can be fixed by straightening the internal welded insert (what the bolt threads into).

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Bolting stuff like this is never really solid

True. But likely good enough.

 

[John-NY]

I've only played with a couple of the newer (SWE) frames so I might not be remembering this correctly... But, you might find the leg is not broken at all. Those are two-piece legs. I see the lower cross bar at the left of the floor has come off, allowing the cabinet floor to pull away from the side. The floor is a structural part of the frame. Without the floor being solid the SWE legs are very flimsy and can bend at the joint - just like yours did.

Might be good to remove the lower leg assy entirely and see what's up with the lower cross bar (that probably has a broken weld or has rusted off). You might find the joint you have circled is actually fine and can be fixed by straightening the internal welded insert (what the bolt threads into).

Thanks everyone, it looks like this might be the root cause here.

So in that case, is Welding my only option on this bottom cross bar? I’m hoping not since welding is not in the cards for me.

Thinking about it though, I guess many of these suggestions would still work as long as the end has enough integrity left to bolt the new stock to.

 

[Bruce]

Without seeing the problem area unobstructed it is hard to tell if that is really repairable or not. At this point, you might be much better off looking for a replacement frame or whole new grill.

 

[John G (Boston)]

If the steel is still fairly solid and didn't rust away too much you might be able to use some press-in inserts to make a repair on the lower cross member. You would need to drill a hole through the leg at the right place and use a long enough bolt to reach the insert (around a two inch long bolt). I got these inserts on Amazon. They were made for one inch square tubing and the thread size is 1/4-20. I'm going to guess your cross bar is probably one inch, like the earlier grills were - but you will need to verify the size.

If the cross bar is too far rusted you might need to make a new one. I think Home Depot sells the right size tubing. Bruce has a very nice video on Youtube showing how to replace a cookbox cross member and you could use this exact same principle to replace your leg cross bar.